People also appreciate the steam store.

Honestly the apple app store has been hot garbage since it took off. I remember when it crossed 100,000 apps. And discoverability really didn't happen and really it hasn't improved. It's a shame, really. All the developers just had to put up with what they got - which was mostly luck based.

So what you've gotten is an app store with compliant developers mostly afraid of pissing off apple.

What you don't have is competition and all the benefits it brings both developers and consumers.

Maybe look at it this way - apple makes hardware and apart from the confusion of charging 30% they really want the price of software to be zero so phone sales stay high.

the complement of hardware is software: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/

There is competence, and then there is tyranny. Apple was quite high on the competence slider, but the tyranny dial has been slowly ramping up. It’s nice to have security features until it’s not.

> It’s nice to have security features until it’s not.

It’s nice to have security features until you can’t turn them off any more.

Apps are sandboxed already. The security of your OS and other apps is still protected even while sideloading. The only possible benefit is preventing sideloaded apps from using dodgy payment processors but thats hardly more of a risk than apps telling you to pay via their website which they currently do.

Sure, but a lot of them do not understand vendor lock and having to fear the whims of Apple. When Apple decided that an app simply can't reside on their platform, then that's basically how it is.

When I buy a phone, I actually want to buy it and not just rent and have someone else setting the rules for me.

Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPhone.

The iPhone is not the only phone on the market.

When all your friends are locked in on iMessage, you can't just not buy an iPhone. Apple is using lock-in so that you can't simply move to Android.

I've been using an Android for my entire life And I've never felt the need to switch because my friends use iMessage, despite almost all of my friends and family using iPhones (which I recommend to them, because most of them aren't very tech savvy).

Honestly, I don't even know how that would be an argument for locking you into an ecosystem. It's not like text messages are an ancient technology that modern iPhones will not support.

You have better friends.

https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-102...

Yeah, I don't know anyone like that and I am skeptical that a significant amount of people exist who do. This article is pretty lacking in substance. I certainly know people who strongly prefer iOS personally and frequently remind everyone of said preferences, but you could say that about video game consoles.

I know multiple people who refuse to communicate unless it's on an app like Signal or Telegram, but I don't know anyone over the age of 17 who cares that my bubbles are green instead of blue. And even if I did happen to know people like that, I still don't see "well some people will find literally any excuse to be exclusionary" as a good argument for iMessage locking users into their ecosystem.

Of course they understand vendor lock-in. Whenever the subject of switching from/to iPhone from/to Android, the issue of "but this app doesn't exist on <target>" comes up.

Then don’t buy an iPhone?

What am I left with if I don't like how Android handles things ?

Or buy an unlocked one and install whatever you like.

But actually I am with you on this - we should have the right to install any OS we like.

But shouldn’t have the right to force others to build it for us.

Linux phone

They don’t care!

When you run your own code, compiled on your own computer with your own copy of XCode for nobody but yourself, the only applicable measure of software quality is whatever is good enough for you.

Even if you choose to run flaky code, there are very little security benefits and no stability implications from restricting an app to run for only 7 days. The 7 day rule is obviously meant to interfere with homebrewing and make hobby developers with no App store aspirations pay $99.

Sorry to be so patronising, but your perspective obviously lacks understanding. The vast majority of iOS users never even tried making something themselves, they just want to be safe while looking up the solution. That's okay, but off-topic.

>The vast majority of iOS users appreciate the security, safety, and stability provided by Apple’s restrictions.

How does restricting app installs to one store provide extra security, safety, and stability?

Surely the OS will enforce the same security (e.g. sandbox) on apps regardless of provenance.