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I'll never understand why companies make such customer hostile decisions.

I think it's because Apple more or less proved that the walled garden approach can be wildly successful and everyone is trying to copy them. Seems however that they are the only ones to have success with it.

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They teach it now in business schools as case studies.

This is probably the point where it all goes wrong. Like the game of deaf phone, by the time the idea reached the mind of students, it's twisted into an abomination, having lost the entire essence in-transit.

How wonderfully perfect that "game of telephone" by the time it reached your ears had transformed into "game of deaf phone."

I was writing that on mobile so it was inconvenient to double-check if I got the name right (that's what we call this game in Polish anyway - "głuchy telefon", which literally means "deaf phone"). I see how this is fitting though :).

I hardly think Apple was first. What about Nintendo and the NES lockout chip?

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