As a developer I routinely compile projects that Apple has never seen and run them on my iOS devices. It’s not locked down in the sense that it’s impossible, but that the barrier is too high for normal users (who also don’t have a developer program membership).
Im Europe we have alternative app stores on iOS too.
But at the end of the day, even as a technically adept person, I don’t care that much about what my phone can do beyond the actual phone things, and just want it to be a reasonable smartphone that doesn’t need me to be technically adept just to be useable.
I think that one thing to keep in mind is that for a lot of younger users in particular, there is no PC. This is their only computing device; the smartphone has displaced the PC, not augmented it. So for many, it’s not merely whether their phone can do phone things. If the phone is restricted, so is their computing experience as a whole.
This seems to be a common position, and I share much of it. I usually don’t want to do anything all that fancy on my phone, but once in a while, some edge case comes up where what I want and what the manufacturer or OS vendor has decided to approve differ.
In those situations, I insist on having the last word.
As a developer I routinely compile projects that Apple has never seen and run them on my iOS devices. It’s not locked down in the sense that it’s impossible, but that the barrier is too high for normal users (who also don’t have a developer program membership).
Im Europe we have alternative app stores on iOS too.
But at the end of the day, even as a technically adept person, I don’t care that much about what my phone can do beyond the actual phone things, and just want it to be a reasonable smartphone that doesn’t need me to be technically adept just to be useable.
I think that one thing to keep in mind is that for a lot of younger users in particular, there is no PC. This is their only computing device; the smartphone has displaced the PC, not augmented it. So for many, it’s not merely whether their phone can do phone things. If the phone is restricted, so is their computing experience as a whole.
This seems to be a common position, and I share much of it. I usually don’t want to do anything all that fancy on my phone, but once in a while, some edge case comes up where what I want and what the manufacturer or OS vendor has decided to approve differ.
In those situations, I insist on having the last word.