In some ways it makes me question if it's impossible to have one without the other - can you have a company that is as obsessive about quality as Apple at the same time as one that won't attempt to exert monopolistic control over its whole ecosystem? Are these two sides of the same coin?
I'd like to embrace something like the Vision Pro. But as long as it's an iPad strapped to your face fully locked to this controlled ecosystem that I fundamentally disagree with, I can't stomach it. There's something visceral about giving a company that exerts this obnoxious level of control complete control of every photon entering your eyeballs.
So Apple, in case you ever care, you are at -1 Vision Pro users.
An obsession over quality would have Apple open the door to better audio services like Spotify to integrate with the phone's audio database for instance. Or have Kindle like apps let their user have the better purchasing experience. Or better browsers to have deeper system integration. Better messaging platforms interoperate with iMessage. A 3.5mm jack to have the best latency and highest potential audio quality. The list goes on and on.
Apple values quality, but not above everything else. This is obvious and totally normal for a company, it's just weird it bears repeating so much.
Yeah it's a great point. In some ways here we are seeing the exact illustration of that point. If they only cared about user experience and quality they wouldn't sacrifice their user's interests by forcing them through convoluted processes to buy content outside their own store. That's far from a high quality experience. So they value quality highly but it's a distant second to their own desire for control. They still present a very thin veil of pretending this is in their user's interests, but they are barely trying any more.
Apple views every instruction executing on iPhone as something they own, control, and tax.
It'd be cute if iPhone was a toy used by a million people. However, mobile computing has become a cornerstone of modern communications and societal function. You use these devices to book flights, buy goods, order food (at restaurants), date, do banking, send texts, emails, -- literally everything.
And Apple controls and taxes all of it. All the innovation. All the connections. Everything.
And they control how you write and deploy that software. It's a game of constantly jumping through hoops and stressing out over release trains.
With a press of a button, a change in policy, Apple can nuke your product from orbit. And there's not a thing you can do.
And Google, even with their "unlocked APK installs", isn't really any different.
This is a new kind of monopoly. A solid chunk of the connective tissue of our planet and species is controlled, taxed, and ruled over by two overlord companies.
I am so glad the Internet itself isn't like this. Except, these devices practically are the internet for many or most folks. So these to, in a way, do control and tax the internet.
Quality and openness are not in tension at all. I can buy cheap third party brake pads for a BMW, it doesn't make the OEM any less "obsessive" about quality.
I'd like to embrace something like the Vision Pro. But as long as it's an iPad strapped to your face fully locked to this controlled ecosystem that I fundamentally disagree with, I can't stomach it. There's something visceral about giving a company that exerts this obnoxious level of control complete control of every photon entering your eyeballs.
So Apple, in case you ever care, you are at -1 Vision Pro users.