The EU has ordered Apple to open up the iPad to alternative app stores and browser engines, just like it did the iPhone. These rule changes probably make a lot more sense for the iPad than the iPhone, regardless of where you live.

When the EU forced Apple to open up iOS to alternative app stores and allow non-Safari browsers on the device, many of us assumed this meant both the iPad and the iPhone, but no. Apple took this to mean just iOS, not iPadOS—precisely the sort of picky, spurious distinction that has characterized Apple’s bad-faith responses to European law. That has changed. This week, the European Commission made it explicit: the iPad must get the same fixes as the iPhone.

“I believe the iPad, with its larger screen and more powerful capabilities compared to the iPhone, will benefit tremendously from this increased flexibility. This could address a long-standing criticism of the iPad ecosystem: that it doesn’t fully utilize its hardware capabilities due to software limitations,” mobile software developer Cache Merrill told Lifewire via email.

Critics have described the iPad as a big iPhone from the start, and that’s both its strength and its weakness. It inherits the iPhone’s powerful hardware, rock-solid reliability and longevity, and a bevy of mobile apps. But it’s also hampered by Apple imposing the same restrictions on its tablet that it does on its phone.