Yes, in a notional sense it will be "optional", in the sense you can choose to just not use google or facebook, but in the real world people need those things i

Yes, in a notional sense it will be "optional", in the sense you can choose to just not use google or facebook, but in the real world people need those things if they want to maintain their social networks/etc Also in the real world a lot of people "need" to use iMessage or FaceTime, so they have to use iOS whether or not they want the walled garden. Let Apple open up those protocols, and then we can talk about having a real choice. Nobody is arguing you shouldn't be able to buy an android Apple was arguing exactly that for many years. they want that choice to be eliminated and walled gardens to cease to exist entirely I'll almost bite that bullet. Walled gardens are terrible for freedom and innovation, as we've seen just recently when Apple crippled AirDrop under orders from the Chinese government. I wouldn't say that they shouldn't exist at all, but it should be something that you very explicitly opt in to rather than the default. what do you think happens when iOS Safari gets killed off? Alternatively, allowing competition might force Apple to spend some effort making Safari not suck so that doesn't happen.