[GoofballJones]

Yeah, I never understood this whole "you're locked in, you can't get out of their ecosystem."

This has always been BS. I've switched from Apple to PC to Linux back to PC to Apple back to PC and then Android etc etc. It's actually quite simple. At the moment I'm using Apple stuff, but there's nothing holding me here other than just me being here.

[beeboobaa3]

Where is the button to copy your photos from apple to google? Until something like that exists normal people are 100% locked in.

They may not even own a laptop with sufficient storage to download all their photos to. If all they have is one, maybe two, phones with limited storage they're totally fucked. Just like Google & Apple designed it.

And it's not like these services make it easy to bulk download/upload your photos, either.

[AnthonyMouse]

This is missing the point.

Suppose Walmart has a monopoly in California and Target has a monopoly in Florida. Anybody in California can shop at Target, they just have to go to Florida. "I've switched from California to Florida and then back, it's actually quite simple."

But if you're in California and you need some batteries, even if flying to Florida to buy them from Target is possible, even if you used to live in Florida and might move back there next year, even if you have the money to buy the $300 plane ticket, it's still prohibitively expensive to do it solely to avoid a $5 markup on batteries. Then the two stores don't really have to compete, and you get stuck paying the monopoly price for everything. That's what it means to be locked in.

[cjk2]

This is a crap analogy.

You buy different stuff, copy your data across and sell the original stuff.

That’s not lock in. It is if there is no other stuff to buy.

[AnthonyMouse]

> You buy different stuff, copy your data across and sell the original stuff.

You buy a different house, move your stuff across and sell the original house. How is it a crappy analogy?

The issue is that the cost of moving removes your choice from individual decisions because they all have to be made together. If you want iMessage then you have to sell your Android and get an iPhone. If you want F-Droid then you have to sell your iPhone and get an Android. What if you want both? This isn't because the free software community would be unwilling to set up a store/repository for iOS, it isn't because no Android messaging app would be willing to interoperate with iMessage, it's because you're locked in to one platform or the other at any given time and have to make all your choices together.

Someone who wants to provide an app store that charges lower fees would have to convince everyone to switch to their platform instead of only convincing people to switch to their store.

The reason they make it that way instead of being able to choose what you run on your device independent of the kind of device is in order to lock you in.