To me the closed ecosystem is just a nice user experience. Explaining to my mom how to download Whatsapp is simple with just one way to do it. All apps are downloaded the same way. There’s one login. One payment method. Everything kinda “just works” and Apple does its best to keep apps sandboxed and secure. To the typical end user, a more open environment is just more choice and more headache.

Having more choice means that in case you need them you can use these other choices, it doesn't mean you will have to explain to someone about all these different choices and how they work, your current explanation of how to download apps will still be valid. Also, these new choices will not impact the sandbox implementation of core iOS.

> Having more choice means that in case you need them you can use these other choices, it doesn't mean you will have to explain to someone about all these different choices and how they work,

So you want to hide them from the user? Are they really choices then anymore? Or how would the user know that these are choices they can, if they want, ignore?

"Hey mom, yeah, don't worry, just scroll past most of the 27 choices and pick the 16th one. That one turned out to be the one everyone uses, it's easiest to explain. Yes, the one between choice X and choice Y. Oh, wait that's Z for you? Hm, you must be on version C still. In version F it's the 16th one. Just tell me the last dozen ones. Hm, no. Oh, yeah, I guess that choice has not been added yet. I think it was part of update D that brought the other 3 choices. Yeah, sorry, guess you can't do it like everyone else then."

Edit: I tried to over-dramatize this but it feels like a conversation about Android I had the other day now that I read it myself ...

Yes, that's perfectly reasonable.

Or does Windows show a choice screen for you to choose your Web browser of choice? Surely not, they want you to use Edge. Still, one can use another browser easily.

> Or does Windows show a choice screen for you to choose your Web browser of choice?

It's funny you bring this as an argument as I constantly get asked about "the weird dialogue" when you install a third party browser. "What do I do? I don't understand." ... A great counter example to good choice actually.

Funnily the EU mandated that Microsoft shows a dialog with browser choice for many years: https://readwrite.com/ec-imposes-731-million-fine-for-micros...

Until everyone moved out of Apples store due to the Apple tax and you have to go explain to non-techies how to avoid spam and malware.

Google Play charges the same 30% and Android is already an open platform, yet this scenario hasn't happened. What makes you think this would be any different?

Maybe it won’t, but the larger point is that some are demanding freedom by coercing others to do their bidding. Let free men make free choices.

Coercion is the way the world works. Right now we're being coerced by Apple, a megacorp with vastly more power than any of us individuals. The only way to fight it is by banding together and counter-coercing through our elected representatives.

Someone offering a product they’re free to make and you’re free to buy is not coercion. Forcing a man to make the product you want is.

It's not "a man", it's a billion dollar corporation and of course it coerces you through its market power.

Men work there, they have families and lives. You want to force them to offer “my sideloading”. That’s absolutely entitled thinking. Let free men make free choices and stop this authoritarian crusade.

The men working there are already under the authoritarian command of their CEO and board. They might be forced by them not to offer side loading, in fact.

You keep talking about coercion, but completely ignore the coercive nature of capitalism. It makes your points ring hollow and insencere.

Maybe it has to do with the relative willingness of users to spend money on apps. Despite being a much smaller market, iPhone users as a group spend a lot more money than Android users. It just isn’t worth going to all that trouble to avoid the Play store.

So does Steam but Apple is the only one getting any flak for it. Turns out that running a global distribution network shipping billions of apps/updates daily, testing them, providing payment processing etc costs quite a bit of money.

On Windows you can purchase games skipping a fee-incurring store altogether.

Apple is the one one getting flak for it because there's no other choice. You are forced to use their store.

No you’re not. No one forced you to buy a Mac.

People that have bought into the "iPhones let you join a super special secret club with superior products" rhetoric.

Only good things can come from this, if people want a vanilla Apple experience then just don't install alternatives to Apple's stuff, pretty simple. All they're worried about is their special locked down "what's a computer?" being "ruined".

Or... They recommended a device to their family, friends - those who need support from them - that is closed intentionally?

For many people this will be a support nightmare, and opens new avenues to problems (little cousin installing spyware on mums phone because he wanted free gbux, vulnerable older family member told by scammer to install alt store rootkit, etc).

Your comment is pretty closed minded and fairly rudely toned. You should probably read things back before you post them.