Who are they trying to protect from this bad user experience?
The Android brand.
I think that ship has sailed.
<...>ask some prospective customers who haven't already bought iPads what features they want<...>
It is not the customers' job to know what they want. — Steve Jobs
iPad is great, but a bit too closed for my tastes. I'll just have to suffer a few months longer...
You poor thing... Such suffering, having to use a device that you happen not to like. You know what, being a kind and altruistic soul, I'll rescue you from your unimaginable misery by reluctantly accepting your iPad, free of charge.
Github Revolution in Jordan
GitHub revolutions are pointless, as they are easily reverted.
Microsoft did no such "bailout." Although Apple had experienced a single quarter of posting a loss of $67 million, at the time of the so-called bailout, Apple had been operating in the black for two quarters, had more than $1.2 BILLION in cash and liquid assets, and had never been in danger of insolvency. There was no "bailout"... what happened was something else entirely... a settlement of cross complaint lawsuits involving intellectual property that Microsoft had misappropriated from Apple's Quicktime, without removing the serial numbers, so to speak, to create their own media player software.
Microsoft paid Apple $150,000,000 for some restricted, non-voting, preferred stock as part of a lawsuit settlement which Microsoft basically LOST. In addition to the stock purchase, as part of the settlement agreements, MS had to continue development and marketing of MS Office for Mac for an additional five years, they had to license certain software patents FROM Apple for an additional undisclosed yearly amount for five years, and, in addition, license TO Apple, in perpetuity, certain software patents that MS owned at NO COST to Apple.
For its part, Apple had to issue 10,000,000 shares of stock (i.e. printed up a stock certificate), license the software patents to MS (and made a profit), and install Internet Explorer along with Netscape Navigator on new Macs (but not make it the default browser) for five years.
This settlement was published in the contemporary computer and business press at the time it occurred The three interlocking agreements implementing the settlements, and the Judge's dismissal of both Apple's and MS's lawsuits in light of the settlement, are available on line for those caring to seek them out.
So can we just drop it?
Neither company is really worthy of all that much respect when you get right down to it, unless your only measure of a corporation's worth is the size of their dividends.
Except Apple makes products that work. You can at least respect them for that.
Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock.