I wonder what will happen if Google and a few other big hitters publicly encourage people to jailbreak their iOS devices in order to get the best experience (by avoiding Apple's lame restrictions).
Like suppose Larry Page goes up on stage at Google IO and saying "here's the next version of Chrome for iOS and btw, we suggest you jailbreak you iPhone to get the one with our awesome V8 engine".
I wonder if Apple can take any action against Google after that (other than kicking out current Google apps).
Nothing would happen. Maybe there would be five more jailbroken iOS devices. People could not care less about jailbreaking not to mention many don't see Apple restrictions as lame.
The problem with ideas like this isn't so much a hypothetical situation of what would happen if we decided to burn bridges tomorrow (probably not good.) It's neither about "What would Apple do?" or "How could Google leverage this"... unfortunately the truth is much more mundane.
The point that I feel is forever-lost on this forum, is that you as a user in your position are statistically unique, there aren't a terrible lot of you versus the great expanse of smart phone users out there. The overwhelming majority of smart phone owners are not interested in any of this in the slightest. Ironically, this is especially even more pronounced on the Android platform due to the penetration tactics that have been engaged(taking the cheap-default-handset crown from Nokia). You see yourself and your peers with the latest Android devices, this creates a false bias that everyone is the same as yourself, but you're actually part of the less than 7% of the Android market that uses the latest Android software. (Many of which can't upgrade even if they wanted to.)
This forum presents a group of like minded users who understand ideas like jailbreaking, follow news releases from Google and other tech companies. (Amongst other tech related discussion.)
However, what this forum seems to forget is that they represent a fringe user of both the internet and of technology as a whole. You may use the technology subjectively better, but even then you're still just a sliver out there.
The bias of being surrounded by people who are technical/brilliant/whatever, whether it's in your technically-minded workplace, your awesome university or the online places you lurk. You are still such a tiny fraction of users. There are more people out there using their smart phones to twitter images of their breakfast than there are forum users here. Even the list of unknown tech start ups dwarfs this forum.
The point I'm making, is that you'll have more effect on people by helping them do something incredibly mundane, than you will influence them to change a behaviour for differences that they truly won't notice.
About the idea: No one is buying an Apple product because they hate Apple. If the sole reason to jail break the device and install a competing fully-fledged browser is to stick it to Apple, or provide an experience that is available on Android - then you're talking to someone who is already an Android customer, or will be very soon. There is a mistaken idea that iPhones are status-quo grudge purchases, far from it, rather they're quite expensive propositions in comparison to the vast array of cheaper Android devices.
Like suppose Larry Page goes up on stage at Google IO and saying "here's the next version of Chrome for iOS and btw, we suggest you jailbreak you iPhone to get the one with our awesome V8 engine".
I wonder if Apple can take any action against Google after that (other than kicking out current Google apps).