I would add "not everyone 'needs' an iPhone" to this.
iOS is not the only major OS in the phone market. And like Macs, a significant chunk of people (including normals) choose iOS, knowing that they're participating in Apple's walled garden.
I'm not a huge fan of Apple's rent-seeking behaviour (which is why I left Apple), but because Android exists and is flourishing, I don't think you can necessarily call Apple a monopoly. They only have a monopoly on their own customers, which isn't very different from a lot of businesses who have created their own platform.
What we need is laws for ownership of the hardware, I should be able to ask Apple or Sony to unlock my hardware because it is mine, the warranty is debatable but ownership should not be debatable.
Edit: I'll add to this point. A couple of nights ago my son accidentally (? i dunno how) a crapload of text messages from his iphone. There's no "eco-friendly" way to get them back. This is a disasterous situation for a teenage boy who struggles socially. They are still on his phone, but he can't get to them because Apple won't let me get to them. There are some sketchy third-party apps that claim for a king's ransom to be able to do it (they showed him a preview then asked him to pay up- that's how he knows they were still there). But I can't get to it at all from linux. Apple deliberately blocks me from accessing my own file system.
That's just mean.
If the messages are deleted and still accessible, that’s an even bigger problem. I would hope if I delete s message there would be no way for anyone to retrieve them.
The point is about freedom to do what you want with your hardware, give the people a way to remove the restrictions, put a huge warning but let me do what I want with a physical object I own.
"Delete" has always been separate from "purge" since the beginning of PCs.
What makes you think this is true? iOS clears up space on your disk when you delete messages, so presumably it’s actually clearing them out?
Mostly, clearing space simply amounts to setting a flag that space is available and it doesn't actually clear stuff. That's what 'shredders' do (as well as overwrite, etc.).
Though DRM and IntelME is a major step backwards.
Even worse is Android. Google releases a new OS and may see low double digit adoption after a year. OEMs have no incentive to push upgrades to their users. iOS’d ArKit can only work as well it does (not saying much bet still better than what Google could muster) because of tight integration between a known subset of hardware and software.
This isn’t even to mention all of the bespoke custom interfaces on Android and all of the adware on consumer PCs and Android Phones.
I do not use a smartphone (my last one broke and the RMA process was too much trouble on top of moving and doing my job, and now I'm used to not having it), and while it seems that some people assume you have one, you can generally get by without one just fine.
Now, I will say: given that Microsoft was charged for bundling IE with Windows in a highly integrated way which competing browsers could not replicate; it seems that some case can be made. Granted, I'd sooner make the case that Paypal is enforcing the anti-competitive desires of their neighbours against those neighbours' competitors.
The issue is the App Store, not the phone. And it's a lot harder to argue that the App Store is public infrastructure, in part because of the open access to the Internet that comes with every iPhone.
Reminder that Apple launched the iPhone with an app concept based only on open Internet access (web apps, no approval needed). They only added an app SDK and the App Store because of public outcry demanding it. Now we want to be mad at them for doing it?
Phones have become more than just an electronic device, just like the internet, water, power, in a way. Now I'm not saying you can't live without a phone, just that it's difficult and the general feel is that you must have a cell phone to function in society. So with that mindset not being able to install any app does have some merit.
Everyone "needs" a phone, not everyone "needs" an xbox.
Taking my comment with a grain of salt though, I think that's a generalization but I think that might be why people want iPhones more open over xbox's.