In my opinion, Apple's original sin with iOS was banning side-loading. Many of the specific things they've done that I would call evil, for example:
- squashing alternatives to built-in iOS apps
- the attempt to ban iOS development in non-Apple-approved languages
- the in-app purchase nonsense [apparently designed to prop up iBooks, among other things])
are only possible in the first place because of the side-loading ban. Making that one change (without changing the APIs, the App Store, approval policies, etc.) would go a long way towards fixing the aspects of the iOS platform that are problematic from the perspective of user freedom.
- squashing alternatives to built-in iOS apps
- the attempt to ban iOS development in non-Apple-approved languages
- the in-app purchase nonsense [apparently designed to prop up iBooks, among other things])
are only possible in the first place because of the side-loading ban. Making that one change (without changing the APIs, the App Store, approval policies, etc.) would go a long way towards fixing the aspects of the iOS platform that are problematic from the perspective of user freedom.