What’s really rich about Meta and Zuckerberg’s incessant complaining about being restricted by Apple’s rules for third party software on Apple’s platforms is that Meta doesn’t allow third parties any sort of access to their successful platforms.
This is a bit of a false equivalency; “Apple’s” successful platform is a general-purpose computing device owned by the user while Meta’s are hosted services.
These traditionally have different expectations, with game consoles being the exception. Occulus devices seem more like game consoles to me, while iPhones are closer to general-purpose computers with a few weird restrictions. I don’t like either, but I see game consoles as less problematic because their use case isn’t important.
Facebook/Insta/Whatsapp are important. Imagine if Gmail didn’t allow you to use other email clients, you had to use a google made app or the web interface. Would that be a write-off as “not important”?
I did not say that they’re not important. I said that they’re hosted services, which traditionally don’t have the same expectation of user control as computers that users own.
If there is going be insistence on platforms being open there shouldn’t be these distinctions.
All of these devices are capable of general purpose computing at a hardware level, phones, tablets, PCs, headsets are now very similar and generalised in that regard. I don’t see why a phone platform should be forced to be open while a games console gets to remain closed, when there is now only a hair’s breadth separating an Xbox from a Windows PC.
This is a bit of a false equivalency; “Apple’s” successful platform is a general-purpose computing device owned by the user while Meta’s are hosted services.
These traditionally have different expectations, with game consoles being the exception. Occulus devices seem more like game consoles to me, while iPhones are closer to general-purpose computers with a few weird restrictions. I don’t like either, but I see game consoles as less problematic because their use case isn’t important.
If you go by usage, I’d say the iPhone is primarily an entertainment device.
Meta has been promoting their Quest 3 AR desktop mode for productivity.
By time spent, the iPhone is probably used for media consumption more than anything else, but media consumption is not just entertainment.
Facebook/Insta/Whatsapp are important. Imagine if Gmail didn’t allow you to use other email clients, you had to use a google made app or the web interface. Would that be a write-off as “not important”?
I did not say that they’re not important. I said that they’re hosted services, which traditionally don’t have the same expectation of user control as computers that users own.
Oh I thought it wasn’t that great ? Now it is an amazing general-purpose computing device owned by many.
Huh.
If there is going be insistence on platforms being open there shouldn’t be these distinctions.
All of these devices are capable of general purpose computing at a hardware level, phones, tablets, PCs, headsets are now very similar and generalised in that regard. I don’t see why a phone platform should be forced to be open while a games console gets to remain closed, when there is now only a hair’s breadth separating an Xbox from a Windows PC.