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Apple's most valuable intangible asset isn't its patents or copyrights - it's an army of people who believe that using products from a $2.89 trillion multinational makes them members of an oppressed religious minority whose identity is coterminal with the interests of Apple's shareholders.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones
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@[email protected] 1/2 Not saying I wholly disagree, but I’d like to hear your take on the following:
If you wanted to open a place in my food court, and you made good money from doing so, since the people who only look for food outside the mall typically have less available money and lower willingness to pay, would you say I’m robbing you if I started to demand rent or kick you out otherwise?
@[email protected] 2/2 In other words, is providing a platform on which to attract potential customers for free on is a basic feature a service, and if yes, is it a service for which payments need to be rendered?
Relatedly, would a flat fee be better? You pay the mall’s rent, and either you have the $5k/mo necessary, or you’re booted out – this is how it’s done in real life, capital trumps – instead of a percentage revenue cut? (small devs/dev companies are the analogy)
@[email protected] The problem with the analogy is that you're not operating a restaurant, you're selling me groceries, which I take home, and then you're insisting that I can only cook them in pots whose makers paid you 30% vig - and you've found a law that makes it a felony for me to use other pots, in my own house, with my own groceries.
You sold me the groceries. If you have regrets about how I prepare them, that's a you problem.