Response to
by
James
Modern society has come to rely so heavily on mobile apps that any phone manufacturer must ensure that such a healthy ecosystem exists as table stakes for anyone to buy their phones.
I wasn't concerned when the iPhone first came out and third party apps could only be installed via the App Store. Unlike Android, having a single place to go to install apps is arguably a much better customer experience. Having the manufacturer manually approve each app that's installable on your phone seemed warranted as data was super expensive and you didn't want an app misbehaving on your 3G connection giving you surprise bills. This approval process provided some assurance this wouldn't happen.
However in the years since the AppStore's release, mobile phones have become central to modern society. Even in Japan, a country famous for holding on to fax machines and personal stamps, it's becoming harder to exist without one of their devices.
Because of the cellphone's new role as the interface for interacting with society, a closed AppStore and closed devices that only allow you to interact with society via a benevolent dictator's approved was feels increasing anti-democratic.
No matter how benevolent of a dictator they may be, they're still a dictator.
However in the years since the AppStore's release, mobile phones have become central to modern society. Even in Japan, a country famous for holding on to fax machines and personal stamps, it's becoming harder to exist without one of their devices.
Because of the cellphone's new role as the interface for interacting with society, a closed AppStore and closed devices that only allow you to interact with society via a benevolent dictator's approved was feels increasing anti-democratic.
No matter how benevolent of a dictator they may be, they're still a dictator.