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0 pointsBarrin925y ago0 comments

On Apple's own store, sure. In fact in an open-API world Apple could make their store as secure, as walled, and as privacy respecting as they wanted and we would never need to even debate if Apple abuses their market position. I'd also be perfectly fine with letting Apple demand that phones ship in a factory default state or alternatively outlaw pre-installed apps because you're right that most of it is trash.

However once the phone has reached the user I do not see at all how open protocols reduce Apple's appeal to people who want to exclusively use Apple software. You can simply do just that.

Would Microsoft be more valuable if we all could only install software through the windows store and the OS was locked down? Nobody would claim that. Third party apps are what adds marginal value to the phone. This is precisely why Apple let's third party developers put apps on their phone, something that Jobs for example initially opposed. He wanted to build everything in-house.

I think Apple is valuable for a lot of reasons. They have a great sense of aesthetic, user friendliness, UX, great hardware, but I do not believe at all that a lack of software raises the value of the phone. If you had a universal chat app that interfaces with all other proprietary protocols on your phone right now, your phone would be worth more.

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random56345y ago

I think you vastly overestimate power individual users have to force change on people like facebook.

What you propose means that if facebook doesn't like the anti-tracking rules, they can go around them. If your cable company doesn't like the anti-location awareness features to target ads to you if you stream their show, they can go around that. If a biller doesn't like that users can ask for a 30 day heads up on subscription renewals, they can do their own app store.

It is only because Apple (as a whole) as enough market power that - my subscription show notifications prior to renewal. That all of a sudden I can sign in to a bunch of apps with an apple sign in THAT DOES NOT RELEASE MY EMAIL. That all of a sudden privacy labels are appearing next to apps. And the list goes on. NONE of this would happen if these other folks were in charge, there is much more money in exploiting users.

So yes, apple is using its market power to push back on behavior they don't believe makes sense for their average user base. You are a power user, able to navigate all options - jump on andorid, root it, and do what you want.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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1 comments · 1 top-level

random56345y ago

I think you vastly overestimate power individual users have to force change on people like facebook.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse