Did they? Or did the industry quickly lock hardware devices into little gadgets for generating income?
I don't think most people know what they want. They've never understood the trade-off. Instead they just go to their local electronics supplier and take something off the shelf.
That's plain insulting to the people even on here that use iOS. Some of us have owned competing devices. Some of us ran, and still run, Linux on our main PCs.
What is your suggested alternative: Android? Functionally speaking, how is Android different? That's all consumers care, and should care, about: How does the difference affect my life. They don't care about your grand philosophical argument. If Apple's walled garden actually affected people's lives, they would care. It doesn't. They don't.
I know I did. And I'm a techie. I just don't like fiddling with my hardware.
>Or did the industry quickly lock hardware devices into little gadgets for generating income?
Well, considering that Linux as a Desktop OS is totally open but it's still at very low single digits for desktop use, and that all the "comes with Linux pre-installed" ventures failed to gain any traction, I'd say lots of people don't care for that kind of openness at all over use of use, practicality, polish, etc.
Not to mention that mobile devices are now far less locked than they used to be for the average user. For the first 10 years of mobile phones, they came just with the apps that the vendor offered and no APIs, or very limited crapware (e.g. in mobile Java) -- now there are 1.5 million apps to chose from, many of incredible quality.
For the first 10 years of mobile phones, they came just with the apps that the vendor offered and no APIs, or very limited crapware (e.g. in mobile Java)
The first ten years were 1983 (release of the DynaTAC 8000x) to 1993. I don't think they came with any apps at all.
If you mean pre-iPhone, then it's not true; I was running my own Python scripts (which could use the GPS, camera, etc) on my S60 before that, using an interpreter provided by Nokia itself.
As Nokia owner from several feature phones and having had J2ME dev experience, I did had quite a few useful J2ME applications here in Germany and Switzerland.
One of those mobile crapware Java applications was Google Maps actually.
There is no trade-off for most of the users. Time to drop that notion that the whole world consists of wannabe developers. Peope have other activities they want to spend time on instead of tinkering with their devices.
People buy cars that they are free to repair or modify. We've even guaranteed some of those freedoms in law[1], such as 15 USC § 2302(c) which prohibits[1] warranty conditions that forbid using 3rd party parts or independent repair services. (the FTC even clarified[2] a couple years ago that deceptively implying that such a condition exists is also forbidden).
Having the freedom to repair or modify your car does not mean you are a "wannabe mechanic". It may mean that in rare situations, but most people utilize that freedom when they take their car to for maintenance or repair at an independent mechanic. Locking down a device isn't necessary to provide a curated market. Apple could achieve a similar limited-market by including some kind of warranty with apps purchased through their curated store to increase confidence that their curation guarantees a minimum level of quality/security)
This isn't about people wanting to be developers (or mechanics); it's about property rights. Are you buying your phone, or are you leasing it? Apple says[3] "buy" in the page title (and the URL!). The software industry - and recently John Deere - like to pretend that copyright law and carefully worded contracts of adhesion give them de facto ownership over anything by adding software. This misuse of copyright[4] is an attack on property rights. There are many ways to provide convenience, security. Guaranteeing some amount of quality in products or services does not require giving up your ability to own modern goods.
All economic exchange is some form of trade. The parent was assuming the buyer was making an informed trade. I disagree.
You don't have to be a lawyer to know that if a person enters a contract that's cheating them? They probably wouldn't do it if they knew. You don't have to want the world to all be lawyers. All that's happening here is that one person is saying folks are happy with a trade and another person is saying most folks don't understand the trade. Professions, skillsets, or how I'd like the world to be have nothing to do with it.
Absolutely right. There is an implied trade where the user trades control, configurability, etc to get reliability, simplicity, ease of use. The trade is really one-sided though, since most people don't value the former qualities. Consumers frequently trade away anything that isn't part of "consumption". Things that change the ability to spend, acquire, use, and rely on matter a lot, so when they trade money to get those things most consumers take it as a benefit that it won't be self-service. We've practically all made this choice with cars, bikes (lots of custom tools that keep the cycle shops in business), etc.
I'd agree there is a trade, I disagree that it is uninformed. My experience with consumers says that they just do not value the loss of control within the same order of magnitude as they value convenience and reliability.
What I observe is that in the business if platform vendorship, you either get big players to port or fail. If one of Jolla, Ubuntu Phone or Firefox OS had at least WhatsApp, that would have gained some traction.
This is a chicken and egg problem, though. The big app makers want some guarantees of numbers before they port, but you'll only have those numbers once they've ported.
I don't think most people know what they want. They've never understood the trade-off. Instead they just go to their local electronics supplier and take something off the shelf.