And this is the issue as I see it. Apple have made a device they know will be used a certain way, a general purpose computing device, but they are the only ones who can decide what software is allowed on it. I believe this should be illegal, either you've made a purpose-specific device and can impose a lot of restrictions on usage, or you've made a general purpose computing device, and once you've done that I believe there needs to be laws that say an owner of such a device must be allowed to personally decide what software runs on it. That means:
- Ability to unlock bootloader if I want to
- Ability to load software on the device unrestricted
Computers always worked like this, so we never had to regulate it, but now that corporations have discovered the loophole we really need to impose regulations. If we don't then markets like the App Store will never be fair.
I think governments are slowly addressing "platforms". Not just computing platforms, but platforms in general. E.g. shopping platforms, gig-platforms. Platforms are like an economy inside an economy, with the platform-company being the regulator, and this can be a bad thing (much worse than if the government was the regulator).
Exactly, the best example with regards to the App Store is Apples own participation in large swaths of it with both iCloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc), Apple TV+ (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, etc), or Apple Music (Spotify, Tidal, whatever Google has called their service for 2022, etc).
In each of these categories Apple are competing unfairly by demanding their competitors pay them 30% for the privilege of reaching over half the population of every first world country.
- Ability to unlock bootloader if I want to
- Ability to load software on the device unrestricted
Computers always worked like this, so we never had to regulate it, but now that corporations have discovered the loophole we really need to impose regulations. If we don't then markets like the App Store will never be fair.