Am a bit confused here - does this mean it is not possible to distribute iOS apps outside Apple's market? Some people have said yes, others have said no.
It's complicated, but in short, NO. There is no way to run any code on an iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) without Apple's approval. As far as I know, there are three ways to install software on the device: a) install an application through the Apple App Store, which has been explicitly approved by Apple, or b) pay $100 per year for an Apple developer license, which lets you compile and run your own code, or c) each developer may nominate up to 100 devices for "ad hoc" installation, which means those 100 people can install your software without Apple's approval. So option (c) lets you distribute software without Apple's approval, but it obviously doesn't work for wide-scale distribution. The other option is jailbreaking, which basically means someone has found a security exploit in the device allowing the installation of non-approved software. Third-party app stores such as Cydia run on jailbroken Apple hardware and allow the installation of third-party software (much like adding Debian repositories). But these are not supported by Apple, they typically break when Apple issues an update, they may void the warranty, and they may not be legal in some countries (though I believe they were recently ruled legal in the United States). Essentially, I do not buy the excuse Apple fans have often tried to give me, that "it's an open device because it allows jailbreaking." I don't consider jailbreaking to compensate for the lack of control the devices normally give their "owners". My assessment is that iOS is completely incompatible with free software. My close (non-lawyer) reading of the (L)GPL v2 and 3 finds that it would be a violation of the GPL to distribute software via the App Store. Regardless of the technical compatibility with licenses, these devices are clearly against the spirit of free software, forcing all software developers to grant none of the four freedoms set out by Richard Stallman.