UTM SE becomes first PC emulator for iPhone and iPad on the App Store

Apple on Sunday approved UTM Slow Edition (SE) on the App Store, making it the first PC emulator to list on its app marketplace. The decision comes a month after the Cupertino-based tech giant rejected the PC emulator’s application, citing its existing policies. Notably, the company said it would only allow emulators for retro games and not those that emulate PC systems while explaining the rejection. The iPhone maker has yet to disclose the reasoning behind the revised decision.

UTM SE Launches as First PC Emulator on App Store

Announcement of the new development in a after on X (formerly known as Twitter), the official name of UTM, said: “We are happy to announce that UTM SE (free) is available on the iOS and visionOS App Store.” The emulator company also highlighted that UTM SE will soon be launched on AltStore PAL, a third-party app marketplace for iOS users in the EU.

According to the description on the App Store, UTM SE allows users to run old-school PC games and software. It supports VGA mode for both graphics and on-terminal mode for text-only operating systems. The app can emulate architectures such as X86, PPC, and RISC-V. The app claims that it allows users to run both pre-built machines and configure machines from scratch. The app is built on the Quick Emulator (QEMU) machine emulator.

In April, Apple revised its policy to finally allow emulators to be listed on its app marketplace for iPhone and iPad. However, at the time, the company specified that it would only allow retro game console emulators. Last month, it rejected UTM’s application to be listed on the App Store, arguing that it was ineligible for the platform because it was not a game emulator.

“We will stand by Apple’s content and policy decision as we believe UTM SE (which does not have JIT) is a substandard experience and not worth fighting for. We do not want to invest additional time or effort to get UTM SE on the App Store or third-party stores unless Apple changes its stance,” the company said. said after the rejection.

The approval now points to further policy changes by the tech giant. Whether this was an exception, as UTM SE does not use the Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler (iOS does not allow JIT-based apps), or whether Apple will allow more PC and software emulators, is not known at this time.