It's not even as complex as that... Apple are paying Ford to foist this on their customers.

There's a couple of huge differences between PC and Playstation... the first and foremost that any console is a monopoly, everything you do on a Playstation, everything you're allowed to own is done via Sony and entirely under Sony's good graces. Sony says "No" and you're screwed. PC isn't a monopoly, even with Steam being the 362.87 KG gorilla in the room they are not the only game in town. Sure they're one of the best which is what keeps them the top dog but you've options for days (GOG may not be a 362.87 KG Gorilla, but it definitely is a weighty Orangutang in it's own right).

The second thing is, Steam and Gog are making money without shafting their customers so they have no need to.

The third difference is, both GOG and Valve are entirely private corporations. No shareholders to please means no drive for constant increases in profit which means there's no need to make customers suffer just to make the quarterly balance sheet a tiny bit larger.

Also as a side note, you can download the offline installers from GOG and Valve's Gabe Newell has said they have a contingency in place in case they ever have to shut down Steam.

Of course the long term solution for every platform is for sales and ownership laws to be updated to stop this "we're calling it owned, but you're really just renting because we can change the terms whenever we like". This is unlikely to occur in the US until it's forced to by the rest of the world.

Whenever you paint a group of millions with a single brush, you're already hopelessly lost. But I can tell two things from your posts. You aren't rational, and you're willing to talk the longest, believing that doing so means you win. So good luck to you.

Your irrational hatred of a group of tech owners puts you squarely in a zombie dumbfuck cult members group of your own.

These are the same lazy dolts that call them selves "Software Engineer" yet don't know shit on how software actual works beyond an ID, don't understand software developer ethics, and think the can be sloppy because "computers have a lot of RAM" completely blind to the idea there janky ass software isn't the only thing running on a computer.

Modern IDEs have lead to this industry being full undisciplined half wits.

As recently as two weeks ago I inadvertently launched Apple Maps instead of Google, and it promptly instructed me to turn the wrong way down a one way. This was in the downtown core of a major city, and the street has been one way for at least five years. And if the destination is the least bit complicated by service roads and medians it ties itself in knots trying to plot a route. In my experience they're still way behind.

I literally do. Stop being bad at your job.

"I know it is counter to modern coding practices"
it is not. It's literally best practice. Coders not doing this are bad at their job, and should be fired.

Who the fuck leases a PHONE.

I think that's the question we should be asking. Just buy the thing. If you can't afford to buy the thing, then get a loan/card to buy the thing.

And a phone just shouldn't be that expensive or difficult to maintain or break so often that you can't do either.

You can keep your vanity plate names and waste all the money you want on them.

Nobody cares any more. They just google or bookmark you.

Yeah, I mean, who would call a website slash dot, because it then becomes w w w dot slash dot dot org....

It's more about the type of leasing. Something like a corporate or educational IT lease happens without these sorts of features because the customer has particular preferences about opex vs. capex or depreciation or whatever; but that do actually have money. Apple already does that(not sure if directly or through distributors like CDW and SHI, or both).

Building some sort of MDM system that allows you to lock people out of certain apps in order to encourage them to pay up something this week is a different flavor of leasing; normally used on customers who are at the "deciding which bills go un or underpaid this time" level. Apple has, historically, not dabbled in this area.

To an extent they probably do; and may even be correct to do so; but what would concern me is the shift to hard technical enforcement when, in practice, Apple already does a fairly massive volume of contract-based leasing and other payment over time mechanisms. Fleet hardware sales, the financial structure of all the "free" with 2 year contract iphones that go out, etc.

If you are building all sorts of locks in, including ones for hassling the user rather than just keeping stuff from falling off a truck and getting parted out, there's a strong reason to suspect that you are looking to tap, um very subprime, credit risks who you'd never lease something with just a contract; or that (since the 'App managed features' seems to be aimed at 3rd party financiers/resellers) that you are dipping your toes into the really nasty, high-touch, "block tiktok until they scrape up a payment for a portion of a debt that would be hard to collect normally' end of the market. Same as the really really, unpleasant used car places that install remote immobilizers because they know that there are times when your need for your car will seem more urgent than your other bills.

It's absolutely not the the case that there's no money there; some outfits are quite successful at soaking the poor; but it's hard not to provoke questions about either what margins you are thinking about accepting in the future or how saturated the market is among the customers you'd really prefer by preparing to dive in to that end.

Whoa, whoa, whoa there Tiger... Firstly you're suggesting people live within their means... are you some kind of Commulinst or something? Why do you hate 'Murica?

Most people are already so far beyond their means that $10 a month being saved would be a huge improvement. When I was a lad (I'm only just over 40) saying you were living "payday to payday" was a sign you had money troubles, now it's a sign you're doing well as most people are living debt repayment to debt repayment. They got into debt to get a shiny car, then the banks suckered them into putting their daily expenses on the card too, so when the money enters their account it immediately leaves to service their debts leaving them with nothing so next months expenses have to be financed on credit too...

It's hard to put $10 away per month when you're $3000 in the black to begin with before you get to your mortgage... And they thing is, they'll call you and I stupid for not paying for everything through credit.

BTW, I save enough each month that I could afford to buy a new phone from that alone. I never fell into the credit trap as a young fella so I'm not stuck in that trap in mid-life.

With our high end products becoming overpriced, oversized phones the computing will be very basic indeed... and you'll still pay hundreds per month for it.