Smallerik
Inside the line · Outside the line

Five jurisdictions, twenty-eight pieces. One handset that behaves differently on each side of the border.

Smallerik covers who sets the rules on a phone, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and what the numbers show.

Section 4 of five

A store is a distribution channel before it is a shopfront

App Store and Google Play review guidelines as published policy, Epic's Swedish store, F-Droid, Samsung Galaxy Store, Huawei AppGallery after 2019, and Amazon Appstore's 2025 closure.

5 piecesThe Stores

BrusselsThe CourtsThe NumbersThe StoresThe Apps
A rack of Android test devices on a laboratory bench, screens lit, photographed from slightly above to show the row of displays

Everything in The Stores

5 pieces
  • Warriors wielding a katana and firearm stand before demonic creatures in a fantasy battle scenePhoto: store.epicgames.com

    The Stores · piece 1

    Epic's Swedish Store

    The Epic Games Store's EU mobile launch — which titles it opened with, the commission structure Epic published, and what its first months showed about alternative marketplace uptake under the DMA.

    Sources: Epic's published store terms and AltStore/Epic launch announcements.
  • Smartphone home screen showing app icons for Facebook, Play Store, Chrome, and MessengerPhoto: Nothing Ahead / Pexels

    The Stores · piece 2

    F-Droid and the Sideload Question

    F-Droid as the longest-running alternative Android distribution channel — what it is, how APK sideloading works as a matter of published Android policy, and what the DMA's sideloading provisions add or change.

    Described as policy, not as instruction.
  • Huawei smartphone displaying app icons on its home screen, resting on a laptop keyboardPhoto: Johnny Mckane / Pexels

    The Stores · piece 3

    AppGallery After the Entity List

    Huawei AppGallery's position after the 2019 US Entity List designation cut it off from Google Mobile Services — how it grew its catalogue, its published developer terms, and where it sits in the global store landscape as of the figures available.

    Sources: Huawei's published AppGallery statistics and the Entity List Federal Register entry.
  • Close-up of a smartphone screen showing the Amazon Shop app icon among other appsPhoto: Sagar Soneji / Pexels

    The Stores · piece 4

    Amazon Appstore Closed in 2025

    Amazon's decision to shut the Appstore in 2025 — the announcement, the wind-down timeline, and what it says about the difficulty of competing with Google Play on Android.

    Sources: Amazon's published closure notice.
  • Smartphone screen showing WhatsApp's terms and privacy policy update notice with agree buttonPhoto: Rahul Shah / Pexels

    The Stores · piece 5

    The Guidelines as a Legal Document

    A comparative reading of the App Store Review Guidelines and Google Play's Developer Policy Center as published documents — where they agree, where they diverge, and which provisions have been the subject of regulatory challenge or litigation.

    Treated as policy text, not as developer instruction.