This one is confusing. Walled Gardens have certain negative traits. At the same time, it’s difficult to say Apple doesn’t have the right to run their ecosystem they way they have currently designed it.
If you want control over your own vision, you don't build for Apple iThings. You build for open platforms. Walled gardens are not for people with a vision that conflicts with the walled garden owner's.
Apple? Fuck them. Their "Eden" is a place without knowledge of sex, without knowledge of freedom, etc. And if you eat the forbidden fruit (jailbreak your device), then beware the consequences.
In terms of Apple, I consider it a bad thing, full stop. Although that doesn't mean there are some benefits to it, but overall, awful. Real walled gardens are a totally cool option. I vastly prefer natural forests and meadows, but I'm cool with people having what they want. Because they have a choice. I can't have Apple software anywhere but their walled garden, which sucks.
I'll take the wild, chaotic natural environment over a walled garden any day of the week. So much more interesting, even though there is danger.
Disclosure: Heavy invested Apple user. A walled garden can indeed be a good thing, as long as it is tendered properly. Do we want the gardener always deciding which plants etc are allowed in? I'm in favour of curated experiences and strong security, but Apple has gone too far. 'Our' garden now has no gates and barbed wire on the walls :(
I'm not surprised they don't want to "un-wall" their garden to satisfy a truely tiny amount of people. The "walled garden" is an argument that goes in circles, what if we all like our walled garden? Apple too, for example. If there were more competitors outside of the wall that would be a lot more beneficial, than trying to attack the wall because users are so happy they don't want to leave it.
The issue is the monopolistic price gouging Apple charges for access to the walled garden.
If you took the "policing for developer's short circuiting the 30% cut" out of Apple's approval process, everything in their ecosystem works out fairly nicely.
The core issue is, simply, that Apple price gouges enormously.
Apple is so in love with walled gardens. I can't imagine them ever making truly open hardware. Perhaps they are uniquely qualified to make something open because of the amount of effort they have put into making things that are closed.
It's perfectly reasonable to create even more walled gardens than the Apple walled garden, once you open up for different markets. That's the beauty of choice.
I guess we could fairly call it a undocumented or obscure garden? But there's no real designed wall there.
Apple aren't preventing anything, they're just not helping us out either. Agree it would be nice for them to help out a little, but it's really not the same thing.
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