I can't give you a black and white response because I don't think the issue is as black and white as most seem to.
I think the app store is a tool and I think it is a powerful and useful tool. Can the tool be used for good? of course. Can it also be used for bad? most definitely. Can it be wielded poorly? yes.
I've used windows, linux, apple, and android, and I like Apple's environment the best. That environment is a consequence of apples choices. Apple limits my choices and I like that. I like having less choices. I don't want to have to think about software security, I want to think about how to spend time with my friends, and apple is a an environment that lets me think about how best to spend time with friends instead of thinking about software security.
Apple's restriction of my choices benefits me. I want apple to restrict my choices. I want there to be only one way to get apps on my device. That simplifies my life. I will pay more to have a more simple life. I will pay someone else to make better choices than I can make with my limited time. I want to do that.
If you don't like that, then don't use Apple. There is a perfectly working alternative to apple that you can use if you want to experience other choices. Apple has a monopoly on apple devices, but apple by no means has a monopoly on smart phones. I'm not sure there are even any major apps exclusive to apple. Apple is better because apple has more money to spend.
> Microsoft is able to do the same thing with Windows Defender without using the App Store model at all.
If apple scanned the apps I side-loaded and reported information about them to their servers that would upset me, that feels like a privacy violation.
Apple's bullying of companies with monopoly power to force privacy labels won me over greatly. They have a lot of good will for that. If apple continues to do things like that, I will continue to support an app store monopoly.
> Apple limits my choices and I like that. I like having less choices. I don't want to have to think about software security
How does this conflict with other users having a developer mode? Because you want Apple to have more unilateral authority over what other businesses are and aren't allowed to do?
It sounds like you have left the domain of "what's right for the market" and headed into the realm of "what I prefer". That's fine and decent anecdata, but completely useless to regulators who's job is to save the market. If Apple is stifling innovation or competition, even for a good cause, then we must codify the goodness and end the monopoly. That's progress, arbitrary corporate grudges are not.
It's an absurd argument. If you want to only install app store apps, then only install apps from the store. That's still possible you know, even if other people aren't forced to. That's why these arguments always boil down to bullshit about how you will be "forced" to use Facebook from outside the store and that would be terrible because being on Facebook on an iPhone is a human right or something.
If you like Apple telling you what to do, fine. Choose only from their menu.
I think the app store is a tool and I think it is a powerful and useful tool. Can the tool be used for good? of course. Can it also be used for bad? most definitely. Can it be wielded poorly? yes.
I've used windows, linux, apple, and android, and I like Apple's environment the best. That environment is a consequence of apples choices. Apple limits my choices and I like that. I like having less choices. I don't want to have to think about software security, I want to think about how to spend time with my friends, and apple is a an environment that lets me think about how best to spend time with friends instead of thinking about software security.
Apple's restriction of my choices benefits me. I want apple to restrict my choices. I want there to be only one way to get apps on my device. That simplifies my life. I will pay more to have a more simple life. I will pay someone else to make better choices than I can make with my limited time. I want to do that.
If you don't like that, then don't use Apple. There is a perfectly working alternative to apple that you can use if you want to experience other choices. Apple has a monopoly on apple devices, but apple by no means has a monopoly on smart phones. I'm not sure there are even any major apps exclusive to apple. Apple is better because apple has more money to spend.
> Microsoft is able to do the same thing with Windows Defender without using the App Store model at all.
If apple scanned the apps I side-loaded and reported information about them to their servers that would upset me, that feels like a privacy violation.
Apple's bullying of companies with monopoly power to force privacy labels won me over greatly. They have a lot of good will for that. If apple continues to do things like that, I will continue to support an app store monopoly.