Why do you think regulation (forcing Apple to compromise their editorial decisions) the answer?
Nobody is forced into buying an iPhone.
Customers willingly opt-in to these platforms.
Nobody is forced into buying an iPhone.
Customers willingly opt-in to these platforms.
Why should trillion-dollar megacorps that run our lives with little competition or escape be allowed such freedom?
Allowing over a billion users the freedom to install and use software on their smartphone (a critical computing device and the only one for many) without corporate approval can indeed control externalities, protect the dispossessed and even save lives.
If people don't like the phones, they don't have to engage with the ecosystem at all. Many diehard anti-Apple (or anti-smartphone-in-general) people do just this today.
You also have this freedom if you don't like Apple products.
I, for example, have just purchased my last iPhone.
Plenty of corporations and corporate actions are regulated even when the consumer has choice. Because choice alone is not the issue, and that's usually with options that have far more than 2 ecosystems.
Regulation is necessary.
I don't understand why some are wary of government regulations, but have no qualms about being controlled by major corporations where you don't even have a vote.
Today, I never use iMessage. I'm not logged in to it on any devices. A big part of this was Apple backdooring the end-to-end cryptography (with full plaintext message history and key escrow via iCloud Backup, which is not e2e encrypted, and on by default for all users) which makes it way less secure.
Turns out that iMessage is optional. All of the other forms of communication that existed before and after it are still available to you as options. There's no law or any requirement anywhere that you use it.
"Lock-in" is colloquial: you're free to leave at any time. I was, and I did. Anyone can.