I don't understand people who want to remove choice. Don't want the ability to install apps from untrustworthy sources? Don't enable the option that gives you that ability.
Saying "doesn't have the ability to install apps from other sources" is the same as saying "doesn't give you the choice to install apps from other sources" -- it's removing a choice.
If you don't want to install apps that aren't approved by Apple then... don't. You could choose not to even if your ability to choose was not restricted.
Not from the marketplace.
If you care about this so much, you can go over to Android. I personally like the way Apple handles their platform with an iron grip and is part of the reason I buy their products.
I consider the tight control a feature and I'm glad this philosophy of computing is available in the marketplace.
I think people underestimate this view.
Buying a hypothetical Apple device and never flicking on the sideloading switch would still give you that. Whereas the person who generally prefers the security engineering, design choices and/or integration of iOS but wants some exceptions is now told "If you care about this so much, you can go over to Android.".
Until someone (my abusive spouse? someone with a narrowly scoped zero-day and physical access to my phone?) abuses the existence of this functionality in ways that compromise my security.
> Whereas the person who generally prefers the security engineering, design choices and/or integration of iOS but wants some exceptions is now told "If you care about this so much, you can go over to Android.".
I agree with you here. It would be great if Apple offered two classes of iPhone, one where such a switch was present and one where unsigned code was prevented from executing by hardware.
You don't even need two classes of phone, just a setting to allow unsigned code which requires a factory reset to change.
Nobody can compromise the data on your phone with unsigned code if switching to unsigned code requires erasing the phone, and you're going to notice immediately if your phone has been wiped, which is no worse for you than someone with physical access smashing it with a hammer and replacing it with another phone.
> You could choose not to even if your ability to choose was not restricted.
Choosing not to install apps that aren't approved by Apple is not the same thing as choosing to use a device where apps that are not approved by Apple cannot be installed. That is the entire point.
How can someone (perhaps yourself?) be in favor of expanding choice and also opposed to to the existence of this choice?
The issue isn't that an iPhone on which you can't install apps not approved by Apple exists, it's that an iPhone (i.e. Apple hardware running iOS) on which you can install apps not approved by Apple doesn't exist, so that choice is missing from the market. In order for it to be a choice it is necessary for both alternatives to be available.
Fair, and ideally both options would exist. But an Android phone is a close approximation of an unlocked iPhone, while there is no other close approximation of a locked iPhone. Pushing the security stance of iPhone to align more closely with Android is a homogenization of the landscape and a reduction in the diversity of options.