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Because it is essentially a duopoly, and switching platforms is not as easy as just not buying an iPhone. For example, I recently broke the screen on my iPhone
by zeusk 6y ago
Because it is essentially a duopoly, and switching platforms is not as easy as just not buying an iPhone.
For example, I recently broke the screen on my iPhone 7 and for this exact reason (not being able to run some Apple unapproved applications on my device) wanted to switch to an Android, but when I tried one out for a couple days
* My BMW would not show music cover art because only Apple had a deal with them in early 2010s
* iMessage no longer worked and I had to maintain an iPad for communicating to friends who only use iMessage and Facetime
* Macbook was suddenly a lot less interoperable with the phone - the easiest way to transfer photos was to push them to Google photos and download them on the mac
* Homepod speaker would no longer be controllable from my phone
* Apple obviously won't publish AppleTV(Remote) or HomeKit apps for android
- wil421 6y agoBMW not supporting Android is not Apple’s problem. iMessage is for Apple devices. You are free to choose from SMS, What’s app, and all the others. You should be able to transfer files by plugging in your Android to the MacBook via USB. Something that you can’t do with an iPhone in the same way. The rest are all Apple products in Apple’s ecosystem. I pay to use Apple because the ecosystem is closed.
- zeusk 6y agoNor am I saying it is, I'm telling you why switching is not an option for me which is what the parent comment asked. I'm slowly reducing my reliance on Apple and have already abstained from getting the new watch or adding homepod minis to my current apple tv and homepod setup. And hopefully, as these devices weather out I will definitely make it a priority to not buy into a closed system like this again.
- zepto 6y agoThis seems wise. I made the same move away from Google about 5 years ago. It took me a year or so, mostly because it took a while to unthread Gmail from everything. That we can do this means we do in fact have a choice.
- zeusk 6y agoYes, but that choice is getting harder with time. What happens when home automation and car automation is also controlled by these tech giants? What if some day your account was banned because you said something against the "community guidelines" of Apple? Will your car, phone, TV still work? Will Apple buy them back?
- zepto 6y ago“What if some day your account was banned because you said something against the "community guidelines" of Apple?“ That is a fictional what if. More importantly, it would be a field day for lawyers.
- zeusk 6y agoThat's already happening with facebook (oculus) and google as well (what happens to your android device? what about the photos you had stored on the cloud? what about all the sign-in with google?) Don't see any lawyer field day yet.
- zepto 6y agoOculus is an extremely niche product, barely out of the experimental stage. Can you point to cases where people have been locked out of their Android phones? If so, I’m surprised lawyers aren’t involved. It’s not clear though, what this has to do with app stores. If we think companies shouldn’t be able to lock us out of their products for speech violations, that seems like an important consumer protection that should apply to all companies.
- wil421 6y agoHomebridge will allow you to add almost any device to Apple Home. If they don’t have a plug-in you can build one yourself.
- swiley 6y ago> You are free to choose from SMS, What’s app, and all the others. But none of the others are allowed to integrate into the phone the way imessage does. This "choice" is such a complete lie and I've heard it repeated so many times it's actually starting to make me angry.
- zepto 6y agoWhat integration does iMessage have that the others do not?
- swiley 6y ago- iMessage is built into the sms/MMS GUI and opportunistically "upgrades" sms chats to iMessage chats. This alone is a huge deal and makes me wonder why you would even ask this question. - Everyone with an iPhone will have an account (the phone is practically unusable without one.) - The app is built into the OS, when combined with the previous 2 integrations that makes it the only thing most iphone users are willing to use unless they have a very very good reason not to. - I think the sharing UI has some special imessage-only shortcuts
- zepto 6y agoThe first three are all the same as saying ‘it’s pre-installed’ The fourth hasn’t been true for a long time.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- chrischen 6y agoBased on your tone you are implying that for these reasons, and possibly more, Android is basically an unusable alternative.
- JxLS-cpgbe0 6y agoAt least your USB-C Apple Macbook charger could charge the Android. (Not your Apple iPhone I'm afraid.)
- Bud 6y agoIn other words, you love and love paying for literally everything about Apple's platform, but you still haven't figured out what you are paying for, and you think you should get all the benefits of that platform (including the benefits accrued by it being a walled interoperable garden that doesn't suck), magically, even if you want to use other hardware and other platforms. Sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.
- zeusk 6y agoThat's exactly my point, I don't love and love everything about Apple's platform and I want to move away but they won't let my Android device interop with Homepod or Homekit or Apple TV. I just realized too late, what exactly I paid them for - it wasn't the device - it was the "experience" and I regret spending every penny on this experience because it is essentially a sunk cost now.