Apple is obviously the vendor for people who like to have their hands held. If you don't like that, make your decision earlier, just don't buy Apple. Worked for me the last decade.

I'm happy for them to hold my hand on commodity electronics. I don't ever want to have to think about how my phone and headphones work. I like to fiddle with computers, but not the stuff I need to run my day to day life.

'If you don't like our business practices, don't buy from Standard Oil' type argument

Apple has a monopoly on mobile devices?

They have dominant market position on mobile phones in the US which allows them to act anti-competitively, yes

> As a customer I would like to be able to make that decision.

You can. There are dozens (hundreds?) of phones you can buy that aren’t an iPhone. It’s been well known for nearly 20 years at this point that iPhones are more closed than the competition (of which, again, there is a lot). They are successful because of this, not in spite of it, contrary to internet belief.

I know.

However, apple devices have been just more reliable for me and retain better resale.

Why do you think they are more reliable and have better resale value?

Surely because they can’t be paired with a Pebble