Eventually Consistent

In this great article Bruce Schneier clearly explains the lock-in rationale for software companies and the way they try to sell this as security benefits for the consumers.

«By confusing control and security, companies are able to force control measures that work against our interests by convincing us they are doing it for our own safety»

«With enough lock-in, a company can protect its market share even as it reduces customer service, raises prices, refuses to innovate and otherwise abuses its customer base. It should be no surprise that this sounds like pretty much every experience you’ve had with IT companies: Once the industry discovered lock-in, everyone started figuring out how to get as much of it as they can.»

The article starts by talking about the locked nature of the iPhone - not about SIM locking but about the fact that you cannot develop/install 3rd party applications. This has been really annoying me and as much as I like Apple and the iPhone I think this is a serious blow to an important part of their users base: the tech geeks. Hey! WE-WANT-OPEN-PLATFORMS! In fact all my friends with iPhones are spending a lot of energy trying to unlock their iPhones… What a waste - they should be spending this energy contributing to the platform not trying to break free out of it!