You don’t lay any of the blame on Google’s inability you convince people that their phones are worth buying when you can afford to do otherwise?
How is any of that Google's fault? That's Apple entrenching their platform lock-in in a way that ultimately harms customers.
What you said can be applied to any other situation where a de-jure choice exists even when a de-facto choice does not:
> You don’t lay any of the blame on Netscape's inability to convince people that their Navigator browser is worth buying when you can afford to do otherwise?
What you said can be applied to any other situation where a de-jure choice exists even when a de-facto choice does not:
Google in fact was able to overtake IE on Windows so thoroughly that MS gave up and is now using Google’s engine.
Google Maps is quite popular on iOS devices.
There are dozens of other messaging clients on iPhones. Outside of the US, most people don’t even use iMessage. Now people are complaining that they can’t convince their friend circle to use alternate messaging apps.
This is again partially due to Google’s incompetence. They can’t even convince Android users to use their messaging apps.
If Apple made-good on Steve Jobs’ promise to make FaceTime an open standard and I could use it from Android devices and and PC then your argument would be stronger.
Apple put us in an unfortunate position where the strength of the iOS ecosystem means that many of us don’t have a choice in phone platform to buy into - which in turn opens us up to being exploited by their App Store practices.
Point is - I feel like I’m being dicked-over by Apple and the alternatives are just not feasible. Responses like “Just buy two phones lol” or “you still have a choice to use Android and not talk with your family at all” aren’t helpful or productive.
I’m sure the same arguments would have been made with Standard Oil when anti-trust law wasn’t on the books yet: arguably consumers and companies still had a choice to not use oil: they could use coal or natural-gas. People have a choice to drive a car or they could walk or ride a horse or take a train... hopefully you see why your argument is seen as being made in bad faith. We have a choice, yes - but it isn’t a free choice. We are being coerced into making a choice by our circumstances and Apple is taking an unreasonably unfair advantage of that.