[mingus88]

Also phones are network devices on a carrier network. A long time ago, people didn’t even own their own phones. Their landlines were property of the phone company.

Apple achieved what was nearly impossible by getting iPhone capabilities on a carrier’s network. (They did another impossible feat with the iTunes Store and selling tracks for 0.99)

iPhone capabilities caught up to most people’s computing needs but at the core these are still devices that need to be approved to run on a carrier’s network with basic service contracts. So they are locked down.

Phone networks have always been crusty legacy things when you look at it from a modern computing lens

[20after4]

You can buy a cellular data plan for your laptop. Just plug in a 5g radio to your usb port or in some laptops you can even install it internally in a dedicated pcie slot.

Carrier approval is not the reason phones are locked down. If it were then rooting android devices wouldn’t be possible.