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by bunderbunder
766 days ago
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I don't think you need to infer that Apple believes they own every device. You don't need to infer anything, really. You just need to observe that every corporation will engage in rent-seeking behavior whenever they're in a position to get away with it. Apple is far from the first mobile device maker to try to make it difficult or impossible to install software through alternative channels. That practice has been in place since before the invention of the smartphone. Google likely would have done the same thing with Android, had it not been far more profitable for them to take a different tactic. Heck, in the USA, back in the analog landline phone era, the Bell system famously did functionally the same thing until regulators stepped in. On that note, I'm annoyed that Apple does it, but I'm even more annoyed that, in the USA, we are absolutely toothless about regulation because we can't shake the pollyannaish belief that we should be able to expect corporations to play nice purely out of the goodness of their nonexistent hearts. |
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I don't think that's fair. You have to consider the culture at Google and pre-Google Android. It might be the case, but at the time it felt like a very natural way for them to go.
> On that note, I'm annoyed that Apple does it, but I'm even more annoyed that, in the USA, we are absolutely toothless about regulation because we can't shake the pollyannaish belief that we should be able to expect corporations to play nice purely out of the goodness of their nonexistent hearts.
Agreed, though I think this is a cultural problem more than a regulatory problem. We humans are suckers for good marketing, as Apple has masterfully demonstrated over the years. Some of their real life PR/marketing lines are indistinguishable from parody, yet people's faith and trust in Apple is at or near a religious level of devotion. They love the products and they desperately want to believe in the goodness of the creator.
Unless/until we figure out how to pull the curtain back so people see through the spin, they will stay powerful. Once we do that, the regulation will follow naturally.