Apple Changes Its Mind and Approves Virtual Machine App UTM SE for the App Store, But with Subpar Experience

UTM is a well-known cross-platform open-source virtual machine application. After Apple approved retro game emulators for the App Store, the UTM team developed a version for iOS, UTM SE, hoping to release it on the App Store.

However, after two months of communication, Apple initially refused to allow UTM SE onto the App Store and also rejected the application's launch in the European Union market on third-party app stores like AltStore PAL version.

After another month of discussions, Apple finally approved the UTM SE version for release. The new version is now available on the App Store and AltStore PAL store, and interested users can download it to try out.

UTM SE can be used to simulate running virtual machines, such as the Windows XP system. However, due to copyright reasons, the application does not come with any pre-installed virtual machines. Users need to download the operating system images themselves and install them on iOS.

This specific SE version is considered a lightweight version, meaning it's more for casual use, and overall performance is relatively poor. Installing and using the Windows system, for example, is expected to be very laggy.

Since iOS cannot run the JIT engine, UTM SE has disabled the JIT engine. Without the JIT engine, whether using Windows or Linux, the performance will be relatively poor. If users are capable, it is better to use the full version of UTM and perform self-signing or sideload installation, as the full version of UTM offers better performance.