At the risk of being labelled an Apple 'fanboi', let me play devil's advocate here. What if I created an SDK for developers that had a sign-up system linking to

At the risk of being labelled an Apple 'fanboi', let me play devil's advocate here. What if I created an SDK for developers that had a sign-up system linking to a new storage solution I had created called Dropboxplus.ru. In any app using this SDK it has a link that regular Joe can click where he is redirected to the Dropboxplus.ru website and offered an account upgrade option where the user just needs to put in their credit card details to 'unlock' new features etc. Now most people here will know that most consumers are utterly ignorant of what an API or SDK are, and barely even understand the concept of an 'App' (some of the reviews on the App Store I have seen critize Apple themselves for making such an app, they don't even understand there are third party developers who make the apps). My point is I don't think the walled garden is just for the sake of greed, I also think it is for the sake of consumers who unlike HN folk need a walled garden to keep them from doing dumb things. I think Apple want to ensure they can control where the user is enticed to part with money to keep them in their safety net. Do they do this in a fully transparent and open way? No, and maybe this is one area they can improve on to become less opaque, but if you play in their space you need to respect their TOS and this was a clear violation.