This is so freakin' fascinating. The only reason Apple can get away with this is because they are making devices that large numbers of people actually want to own. The software has gotten quite stable over the years and I am happy to use and develop on the platform.
Should developers stop writing software for it, or should the public stop buying the phones, Apple will relent and open the store and devices up. You can see a similar thing happening with Microsoft. They've been in the room screaming, look at me, and people just walked by. So now they're opening everything up and loosening their grip.
Apple did the same in the late 90s and early 2000s when they were about to lose their biggest developer, Adobe. Suddenly they got Open Source and created an open platform much to the surprise of everyone. Originally the BSD/Unix layer was an optional add on to OS X, and then they hired the creator of FreeBSD and just started including it by default.
Should developers stop writing software for it, or should the public stop buying the phones, Apple will relent and open the store and devices up. You can see a similar thing happening with Microsoft. They've been in the room screaming, look at me, and people just walked by. So now they're opening everything up and loosening their grip.
Apple did the same in the late 90s and early 2000s when they were about to lose their biggest developer, Adobe. Suddenly they got Open Source and created an open platform much to the surprise of everyone. Originally the BSD/Unix layer was an optional add on to OS X, and then they hired the creator of FreeBSD and just started including it by default.