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Comment by judge2020 | Hacker News Reader

judge2020

Is it fair to say that these people can buy a different product? Otherwise it sounds like you want iOS, and want Apple to put in the effort to make a product for you regardless of how that affects their margins, scope, public image, security, etc. If enough people are on your side, Apple will sell fewer iPhones, and the competitor that has these desired features will come out on top.

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"You can't complain about anything a company does because the free market will take care of it" is a very tired argument, and basically never true. Free market economics disproportionately helps large corporations over the end consumer.

And specifically in the smartphone market, Google is always close behind in following the precedent set by Apple in implementing software restrictions. How does one protest then?

>How does one protest then?

Android is open source. You don't have to be a large player to make a phone with a custom OS. The hardest part will not having access to Google's Play ecosystem if you modify the OS too much.

Competition only works in well-defined markets. There is basically no competition in the mobile OS department, as it’s a winner(s) takes it all category, not even Microsoft could enter it, and not for lack of money/trying. 2 is a magic number, it is simply not gonna happen that devs will develop for more than 2 platforms.

So yes, I want ios to put in the effort and I want to force them by the government. I don’t see how is it bad, should I feel bad for a private entity for benefitting a huge number of its customers?

This assumes that 100% of iPhone and iPad customers understand the totality of the consequences of buying Apple's hardware.

Most people do not understand the intricacies of the iOS and App Store app distribution model, and most people do not buy Apple hardware because of it.

All users, including those users, deserve the freedom to own the hardware they buy and run what they want on it.

Do most of the android users / Windows users / Cloud users / Linux users understand the totality of consequences of their choices? I highly doubt that.

It may come as surprise but to lot of people/institutions getting something done is far more valuable than totally owning something.

> Do most of the android users / Windows users / Cloud users / Linux users understand the totality of consequences of their choices? I highly doubt that.

No, and I never suggested they did.

> It may come as surprise but to lot of people/institutions getting something done is far more valuable than totally owning something.

Doing what you want with the stuff you bought is not orthogonal to "getting something done".

I agree all users should be able to own the hardware and do what you want to it but most people do not care. They’ve been conditioned.

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