[Discombulator]

But when you bought it, you knew of those restrictions, right?

A fully unrestricted phone might have cost more (because it is not cross subsidized by App Store profit), so it is unfair to demand full functionality at the subsidized price.

[toyg]

How can you seriously argue that iPhones are "subsidized by AppStore profit", when one division pulls in 40%+ of Apple profits and the other barely 15% (and not even alone - appstore profits get added with iCloud and others under "Services" in Apple reports; realistically, it's probably 10% at best)...?

It's iPhones that subsidize everything else, including the AppStore. For all their talk of "going services", Apple is still first and foremost a hardware company.

[Discombulator]

I’m not doubting the facts you mention and the amount of the hypothetical subsidy might be on average in the low two digit dollar range. The overall point is however that the App Store restriction was known at the time of purchase, so demanding to remove it without compensation is unfair.

(What would you say if your employer or client demands to pay a bit less after signing a contract with you?)

[toyg]

> I’m not doubting the facts you mention

That's because they are facts. I mean, look up Apple reports, they are very readable.

> and the amount of the hypothetical subsidy

There is no such subsidy! Why would you "subsidize" something that makes 3-4 times as much money as you do...? The AppStore didn't even exist and the iPhone was already making money!

> The overall point is however that the App Store restriction was known at the time of purchase

Key point being was. One can just demand that new phones be sold without this restriction, if you really want to stick to the old rules.

> What would you say if your employer or client demands to pay a bit less

The government can mandate that your employer should pay you less from today, or even that it should pay you more for stuff done in the past (although retroactivity in law is pretty bad, it is still occasionally applied). Laws change every day, all over the world. Stuff that was legal yesterday might not be tomorrow, that's just a fact of life. And let's not even get into clients: cutting prices, credit notes, and discounts, are just the price of doing business and happen every minute of every day.

[lostmyoldone]

Not op, but no. However I'm not talking about the phones, not directly.

I write code for a living, and has had a MBP as my work machine for more than s decade, but each version is a worse experience for me.

Some hyperbole follows, but you know, I'm so, so, so fed up with this crap.

More code signing, triple click and spin around the Christmas tree to install an application, notarization, more things that you have turn off to be able to get things done, all of which essentially leaves me with a less secure computer since more and more of the security is based on the same things that makes using this +2000$ tool worse each iteration. The amazing time machine they were so proud of, isn't available for sale. The revolutionary magsafe, which I love, and as a contractor has saved my computer more than once, isn't en vogue any more. Keyboards that doesn't work.

One can't even just use the old version, as you are essentially forced to update the os/software, because things just stop working if you don't, and the nag screens never stop

However, changing platforms is not easy, or cheap. This wasn't anything that was easy to predict +10 years ago.

But then the iPhone, other mobile devices, and the app store started to pull in all the money. Since a few years, each release is a downgrade, but where to go?

People lauded Windows 10 for being so slick, but you essentially can't get the thing to not show random popups, nag you about "wrong live password", and just randomly reboot because it's decided you're not allowed to work right now, because this update has to run. Administration tools spread over 10 different apps and screens of various kinds.

Linux gives me heartache, most is not much different from when I ran Gentoo +10 years ago. Pseudo gui apps abounds, clipboard almost works, but there are 27 window managers, 97 different docks, oh, yes, seven different package managers that all really wants to be the only true package manager. Getting fonts to render readably in the majority of apps on a 4k screen was probably not more then a few days work. So many terrible apps. The kernel is of course rock solid, but no, still no drivers for many graphics cards, ati is quite good I heard, but exactly which card to buy? Touchpad support is also wonky, but it's like three guys mostly in their spare time, so that's not strange.

But no, I really didn't think the company that had been obsessed with user centricity and hci would stop caring about anything but the bank account, and which new fancy toy to try to entice people to buy. Making phones that are practically made to be easy to drop due to non-existent tactile feedback.

This year was the first year you could buy a non Apple machine with a touchpad that actually works. Embarrassing is what it is.

But no it's not a monopoly in one way, it's three different options that each are terrible in its own way.

Clearly, the market is not working. As everyone only tries to build walls around their piece of the cake instead of actually competing. While not a monopoly in name, the platforms are monopolies in anything but, because the cost, in time, skill, and money of changing platform is so high.