“While Apple’s products have many virtues, they are marred by an ugly set of restrictions on what users and programmers can do with them. This is most especially true of iOS, though other Apple products sometimes suffer in the same way,” Micah Lee and Peter Eckersley write for The Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“In this article we will delve into the kinds of restrictions that Apple, phone companies, and Microsoft have been imposing on mobile computers; the excuses these companies make when they impose these restrictions; the dangers this is creating for open innovation; why Apple in particular should lead the way in fixing this mess,” Lee and Eckersley write. “We also propose a bill of rights that need to be secured for people who are purchasing smartphones and other pocket computers.”
Lee and Eckersley write, “Apple’s recent products, especially their mobile iOS devices, are like beautiful crystal prisons, with a wide range of restrictions imposed by the OS, the hardware, and Apple’s contracts with carriers as well as contracts with developers. Only users who can hack or ‘jailbreak’ their devices can escape these limitations… Unfortunately, Apple is building more of the restrictions that it pioneered with iOS into Mac OS X for laptops and desktops. Apple started running the Mac App Store in early 2011 to sell Mac software. Like the iOS App Store, Apple takes a 30% cut of all software sold.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Certain people need to realize that Apple doesn’t just “take a 30% cut” for nothing. They provide very valuable services to software developers (distribution, visibility, increased unit sales which means increased profits, etc.) Most savvy developers understand this. For users, Apple’s curated App Stores provide, among others things, convenience, peace of mind and lower prices as developers who move multiple times more copies than they could on their own are able to lower prices due to markedly increased volume.
Sometimes “freedom fighters” looking from the outside in don’t quite grasp that Apple gives much more than it takes.
Hey, if they don’t like the “crystal prisons” then there are other options. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass!
Yeah! Rim is another fine example of vert oh wait! Nevermind, for now.
What prison is there if I may leave at anytime I wish? Some look at fortification and see a prison. I see sanctuary. I see a refuge from the vast majority of harmful and malicious attempts to steal my meager secrets and exploit them for nefarious purposes. I know without a doubt when I download software, literally instructions that my computer will follow, from Apple, that they will not be instructions to subvert my computer. I can rest comfortably in my “crystal prison.”
I also know that were Apple to leave the doors open as it were, you would be among the first to scream bloody murder from the rafters about Apple’s poor security measures and how they’ve harmed users.
And, concerning your desire to “tinker” as it were, tinker with your own computer as much as you like. Code away! Learn learn learn. Nothing is stopping you as Wozniak indicated. (I think he’s been hitting the sauce a great deal since Steve died). There isn’t a thing about the Mac or the iPhone that you are prevented from learning. There are only policies on what Apple will and will not allow into the crystal palace and I am more than fine with that. No innovation has been thwarted. Show us something truly innovative and I’m sure Apple will take notice.
Until then, please leave those of us in our crystal palace alone. You can enjoy yourselves in the straw huts of Ubuntu if you wish, and the illusion of power that it gives you.
A prison? Please. Do people sign up, nay PAY to get into prison? Pffft. I am utterly pleased by what I get in iOS. Every June I’m taken to new heights. My iPhone is my key out of the prison of the fragmented, ugly, gouging, ridiculous, visionless masses of corporate greed that infect nearly every other aspect of my life…
The Apple experience in iOS is great even if you don’t download any apps. there are many free apps. The paid apps are cheaper than equivalent android paid apps. you can download free book reading apps and borrow tons of material for free from your local library. When you choose to take part in apple’s “crystal prison” and buy apps, the experience is tip-top, too – def more features and bang for the buck than the same android apps.
Nothing says you can’t buy and install boxed software or download from a web site. This is free enterprise and convenience at its best. The world is going all digital and Aplke is the best and got there first you dont think removing and shipping physical software not to mention the reduced environmental impact is worth 30%? Another idiot article written by another idiot unable to think. Buy microcrap or a chrome book or Linux if u don’t like it. Free enterprise is still alive and well, doofus. : S
Exactly! Developers can still sell boxed software or downloads from their own stores. Users can also set options for software installs such as App Store only or more liberal. I would say Apple users have more choice.
I just love them especially all the bright colors and sparkles
that they generate on walls and ceilings. Oh, wait, I thought you said crystal prisms!!
Never mind.
Hmm, a crystal prison you say? Maybe a needle full of iron in the ass will set you free?
I just don’t get these people. I remember a talk by the great Bertrant Serlet, when he talked about APIs in OS X and the process of how they move from internal APIs, through testing, then after years of thorough bug squashing they release a public API. He stressed the importance of making sure the API is as perfect as it can be before they release it publicly;
I’d take the wisdom and knowledge of Mr. Serlet over these assholes any day of the week.
Sent from my very comfortable and clean crystal prison.
Thank you for posting the video. Bertrand Serlet is a top software ecpert. Apple was very lucky to have employed him. A true software visionary is every sense of the word.
Good post. +1
Too many so-called freedom fighters have no concept of freedom. A “bill of rights” for mobile computer purchasers? Please. Just another set of rules.
MDN- Don’t forget that the AppStore also handles all customer issues and returns. On the android store, developers are expected to micro manage their own returns and issues.
Good point. I have on occasion queried the effectiveness of the software I downloaded from the app store, not being consistent with the description the developer put on it, and have been refunded in full by Apple.
They do great work managing the app store.
There are many articles like this, from self-appointed saviours of imprisoned Apple users.
Won’t these Forces-of-Imposed-Freedom feel embarrassed, when they storm the ‘prison’ walls, and the residents not only refuse to leave, but become angry that outsiders are trying to change our relationship with the only computer company that has ever operated with the consumers’ interests at the forefront?
My sentiments exactly!
Additionally, such FUD directed at the most news-worthy company of our day is the perfect way for these “self-appointed saviours of imprisoned Apple users” to get attention they crave.
Hands off my relationship with Apple!
Where were these guys when the best deal in mobile for developers was you got 50 percent, and regularly devs would get 30 percent or LESS!
Android is open! Yeah, sure.
I wrote this to one of the EFF authors:
Look, if you want to hack your phone and expose yourself to all kinds of maladies, great – go buy an Android device. As my Italian father used to say, “quando si arriva, scrivere.”
Get a clue – some of us want devices that “just work.” I am happy in my “crystal prison” and I am NOT some newbie user. I bought my first computer in 1978 and have been productive in at least a dozen different OSes – and in iOS I don’t need root privileges – or any of the other stupid things you want – to do so.
As a mature, intelligent adult I realize that freedom in a democracy and in computing means that I can’t scream “FIRE!” in a crowded theater, or have certain user privileges that would put either my device, or others, at risk. Apparently you and the rest of the “freedom fighters” at EFF must have skipped that social studies class.
Sent from my iPad
Amen.
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was going to post. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
——RM
I agree. What happened to individual choice and the marketplace deciding? If people think Apple is evil and putting them in “prison” they can simply buy someone else’s phone! What is it with people who want to eliminate choices in the name of openness and fairness, resulting in only one government approved choice? Is anyone old enough to remember landline phones sold only by government approved monopolies?
Apple, “closed-minded” since 1976.
Looks like you lost your mind along time ago if you believe that “mees”.
Another loser that just doesn’t get it.
For Freetards, 30% looks like highway robbery.
MDN: armchair critics. Never developed software before have you? Imagine Apple taking 30% of all of your Website revenue. How would you feel? Imagine Apple did search… had a search engine, and every site listed had to give Apple 30% of their revenue… you’d swallow that too and make excuses for them.
You’re delusional.
And you are obviously an individual whom has never used or even has a clue of the exception offerings made by Apple.
Enjoy your short sighted existence “dasf”
Oh and by the way Apple has no adverts on any of there pages, but the poor uninformed Google clones have them shoved down and plastered all over to pay for what is considered nonexistent Customer Service.
Let’s not talk about all the malware and deceptional predatory Apps that google offers.
Apple is and has been rated #1 for many years.
Talk about Delusional, right back at ya chief.
Before Apple’s 30% we used to think a 50/50 split was incredibly good considering the shelf space cost or the mail order overhead.
Pull your head gently out of your ass and smell the roses for a change.
Also imagine you don’t have to pay any merchant services fees, deal with returns, spend money marking on various websites, pay for somewhere to host your software and merchant site, etc. etc.
If you don’t like it, develop for Cydia, and you can have your software pirated left and right.
@Dasf
“Imagine Apple taking 30% of all of your Website revenue.”
Oh no! In exchange for providing the world’s premier marketplace for developers to sell their apps and make real money doing so, Apple takes a 30% cut. That’s soooo eeeeevil of them!
They should be like “free” and “open” Google, and offer a marketplace flooded with shit where most developers make chicken scratch if they’re lucky enough to make anything at all. That’s the RIGHT way to do it!
Oh, if only the Apple sheep in their crystal prisons would realize this…
Imagine Google taking 30% of your website revenue.
Wait, they actually take more than that from ad revenue.
If you’re looking for delusional, check a mirror.
Last time I licensed software to a marketing company I got 15%. Are you completely stupid?
EFF is rumoured to be trying to get the restrictions of programming with other than 1’s and 0’s. They say that it is restrictive for those who want to program with halves and quarters too.
Freedom with no responsibility. Thats the American way!
When will we be free from the pixel prison of ignorant tech writers who want to subject us to malicious code scammers and lazy companies that just don’t care?
These guys are not delusional, they’re utopian. They really believe that everyone will do only good, that no one will take advantage of an “open” system and create malware (they apparently haven’t read up on Android and malware lately), and clearly don’t understand that some functions in a phone/mobile computer must NOT be tampered with by a third party app, no matter how well-intentioned it may be, so that the phone can always access a network for emergency calls, etc.
Their example of Windows absolutely blows a gigantic hole in their own argument. For decades now, Windows has been plagued not only by malware, but by basically the same malware just repackaged with a different “hook” for the user. And yet Microsoft can’t seem to stop it. Well, now they (say they) are going to make it tough or impossible for malware to exist on their mobile devices and Windows with ARM processors.
If “open” was so great, why is Microsoft moving aggressively away from it? Why is Android becoming plagued not only with malware, but piracy of apps? Why hasn’t Linux caught on because it’s “openness” is so great and wonderful?
Answer: Because people who make money off of software and hardware understand that consumers like things that just work, even if there have to be a few restrictions placed on the operation to ensure that it does just work.
Utopia is fine. Too bad it’s a fluffy white dream.
Good point. You said it well. There are costs involved in managing the app store and ensuring that quality standards are met. When there are standards, it attracts more buyers and the virtuous cycle continues. The lack of malware builds trust which in turn attracts more customers.
“These guys are not delusional, they’re utopian.”
Yeah, like Greenpeace and PETA.
Bizlaw,
That was probably one of best responses I’ve seen here in a long time. Too bad you’re not writing for The Electronic Frontier Foundation.
So because Apple gets a 30% cut is bad? They provide a distribution for software. Its as if the EFF assumes any brick-and-mortar store, does not get some kind of wholesale price or cut also.
Apple’s 30% cut helps pay for the bandwidth on the innumerable free apps they host for, uh, free – not to mention the free music and TV shows they give away each week.
the EFF reminds me a lot of the ACLU. they are certainly sincere, and it is vital that they both exist to pressure “the system” away from going “evil” – which it will always tend towards … just look around.
but i wouldn’t want to live in a world that actually operated 100% according to their ideology. it’s imaginary.
Here’s a little essay I wrote about the EFF article:
Quoting from the article:
The upcoming version of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion, will reportedly include warning messages that strongly discourage users from installing apps from sources other than the Mac App Store.
There are going to be three security restriction modes when using 10.8 Mountain Lion. They have already been extensively discussed on the Internet, including in an article I posted a few months ago at my Mac-Security blog. The third mode turns off all the warnings except what we have now with 10.7 with new apps.
Apple are giving business in general what they desire. Android is failing in enterprise business specifically because of its poor security. The malware for Android is increasing exponentially. This gives Apple’s walled garden, or whatever other metaphors come to mind, an extreme advantage. Apple are not going to give up iOS security advantages.
Also, Apple is doing some catch up with Windows security features with its signed apps. Microsoft started this with Windows Vista drivers, albeit with notorious developer gouging fees for signing software. Apple has also been slowly improving its implementation of ASLR to the point where it reportedly is safer than Microsoft’s buzzword compliant but notoriously leaky implementation.
EFF is my hero. I’m an anarchist at heart. But very few people are able to deal with anarchy, ‘full’ freedom, with a worthwhile sense of responsibility. We humans are extremely chaotic and selfish. EFF speaks of a great goal. But if that goal were achieved we would find it to be incredibly abused by the public. Therefore, it remains a goal only for sadly good reasons.
What we are actually going to see happen is the use of security restrictions where there is an administrator who requires keeping the client machines safe. The highest Gatekeeper restrictions will, theoretically, entirely kill off any Trojan horse installation by ‘LUSERS’. This is a brilliant thing for the Mac community. Almost all Mac OS X malware has been Trojan horses. The only exceptions have been malware enabled by third party software security holes. I.E. Adobe’s crudware, Oracle’s Java and JavaScript.
Meanwhile, the rest of us choosing not to use Gatekeeper restrictions will be in ‘downloader beware’ mode, etc.
Another consideration is SUPPORT. This is an extremely old subject. No company wants to support user-created problems on their devices or software. Clearly restricting the user to the designated environment saves time and money, as it should. A great example is the Psystar Mac clone debacle. The legal battle to kill off Psystar was not just about them breaking Apple’s OS software license. It was also about Apple wanting nothing to do with supporting those machines with Mac OS X installed, again as it should be.
I’m very sad to see the EFF using some very flawed logic and cherry picking facts to argue their case.
Asking for iOS to be more like Windows is unarguably insanity.
I agree with the EFF on most things, but don’t I have a right to have devices and a OS that are free from malware? I don’t want to have to run power stealing protection software because some organization thinks that people have the right to do as they wish. We already a platform where anything goes…Windows. People have choices, if they want the kind of environment that is closer to the EFF’s beliefs, go buy an android tablet.