- You agree to the letter of the ToS when you click "I Agree" when you set up the iPhone,
- You also already agree to the spirit of the App Store when you buy it. After all, it's not some big secret
- You can get by with webapps for the most part anyway
- You can buy an Android, a flip phone, or pull a power move and have no phone
Buying an iPhone and then demanding that it has to work differently is acting in bad faith IMO.
Buying something used to mean something. If you're still beholden by company rules of a product you _bought_, you have been leasing/renting it.
If I buy a house from a builder, and it came with a requirement that you can only use Amazon Ring cameras, or builder-approved groceries - you'd be pretty pissed.
But you're right, maybe we should invent a new word for a purchase that is encumbered by legal agreements or subscriptions.
Furthermore, in the US (and some other countries), you don’t _actually_ own a house or it’s land. you own the rights to that house (a deed) as long as you continue paying your property taxes. see what happens when you stop paying uncle sam… it’s kind of like a subscription lol.
I reject that argument.
For start ToS may have unenforceable claims (if someone puts that I agree to give all things I own to them into ToS it has zero effect).
Also, at this point I dispute that ToS clickery should be treated as agreeing to them. "I have read and agree with ToS" is a blatant lie in at least in the first half.
As a developer, there is no choice. Apple should not be able to abuse their dominant position.
These companies have been dominating the landscape for decades now, most likely for longer than most app developers have been app developers. As a developer, there's definitely a choice: don't make an iPhone app; don't make an app at all. Make something else.
If you say you want access to the walled garden because that's where the people are, then consider that they are in there because they like the walls. From this point of view, you don't have a right to demand that the walled garden have free entrance.
