Cracks in the Walled Garden

Apple devices are great, but the arrival of OS 26 has taken some of the shine off, and the App Store ecosystem has been stagnating for quite some time already. At this point, I avoid subscriptions that force App Store billing. If your app allows payments outside it, I’m far more inclined to try it.

The abundance of apps on our devices has lulled us into forgetting that this system isn’t open, and that Apple ultimately controls what can and cannot exist on your personal computer (pocket or not), often on a whim.

Want to download an app in your region? Too bad, it’s not available.

That music you paid for? Gone.

Want to install software outside the App Store, like on an actual computer? Nope.

Want to download an opposition app from our glorified App Store? Don’t bother. Your government asked us to remove it, and Apple wants to keep doing business there - so you can fuck right off.

Years before Apple removed ICEBlock from the App Store, it had already been doing the same with Russian VPNs and opposition apps (and I'm sure we can find similar examples in China). What’s changed isn’t the behavior, but the geography: the U.S. is now adopting the same autocratic tactics Russia used years ago, and only now does anyone seem to care.

Cyberpunk and sci-fi taught us to expect a world where corporations are bigger than states - Tyrell, Wallace, Weyland-Yutani. But that world isn’t here. Our world’s corporations may be powerful, but they still fold when states apply pressure, as the Trump administration demonstrated in the U.S.

That’s why I don’t want to give in, or hand everything over to them, or move my entire life into “the cloud.” I still care about having things I actually own, systems I can control, and data that isn’t rented back to me.

The idea of the open web, of freedom, and of ownership is still there, like a lighthouse standing somewhere between a fading past and an unknown future.

It just so happens that Apple chooses to ignore it right now.