Apple are always the ones that get walloped publicly on issues like this, and actually I'm ok with that. It's good these issues get air time at all, if Apple didn't exist and it was all Microsoft, Samsung and such none of this would ever get out and if it did nobody would care. But pretending this is all about Apple, slagging them in a comment and then going and buying the next Chinese made gear from Amazon or whoever is just brushing this under the rug.
Sounds to me like a) at least they're trying and b)they're being honest. Still a significant moral upgrade over most of their competitors.
Disclosing schematics (open-source hardware) and board x-rays removes the supplier trust requirement. A user with heightened security needs can diff received hardware with the reference (don’t trust; verify), or build their own phone to the spec.
Your breathless rhetoric is pointless too. When was the last time you actually bought or used an Apple device? You formed this view well before now, and now you’re just posturing.
Apple allows one channel. It owns that channel. It is responsible for the content on that channel.
Android had many channels, and Google’s App Store has the same apps banned, but an android user can simply use another channel.
Since Apple is responsible for the apps in the Chinese App Store, they’ll remove apps that expose them to liability. Google does the same.
> Apple allows one channel. It owns that channel. It is responsible for the content on that channel.
I understand this, and am claiming it is morally reprehensible: Apple's explicit and actively immoral decision to say there is only a single distribution channel can be used on their devices directly leads to this problem. They chose to build and sell a device with a centralized point of failure that made China able to block apps from their phones.
> Android had many channels, and Google’s App Store has the same apps banned, but an android user can simply use another channel.
I also understand this: the active and explicit decision made by the people who sell Android phones is what allows this. Apple explicitly decided to not allow this, because they are evil.
> Since Apple is responsible for the apps in the Chinese App Store, they’ll remove apps that expose them to liability. Google does the same.
Obviously. But that is entirely irrelevant to the discussion. The decision made by Apple to only allow a single store on their phones is an explicit, active decision to be horrible people and to explicitly allow Chinese censorship of their devices.
We know this wasn't a requirement to sell their phones in China, as many other phones are sold in China that do not have these restrictions. Now, you can happily say "Apple wanted to have a monopoly on app distribution, and that's why they decided to build a system that would require them to cave in to these censorship demands".
But you can't claim that they would lose access to the Chinese market. This claim, in fact, makes the error you (incorrectly) claim I do, which is to incorrectly model the decisions Apple made with respect to their platform.
FWIW, if you want to listen to me go on about this issue for an hour and a half--to verify I am not somehow twisting my words here to avoid being wrong--here is a video of me speaking at Mozilla Privacy Lab.
Your claim of offering only one software distribution platform as being morally reprehensible is absurd. All Apple phones can run any web app. No consumer is forced to only purchase an Apple phone. Apple hasn’t done any more than follow the law that they have to follow given other decisions they have made.
You’re right that they made an explicit choice, but not for the reasons you’re suggesting. The App Store wasn’t created to enforce CCP policy. One could argue that allowing the uncontrolled distribution of apps that violate that security and privacy of the user is far worse.
You seem to have an intense dislike of Apple for other reasons. That’s fine, no issues there. But it is causing you to misattribute blame. They are far from a perfect company, and the App Store is problematic for many other reasons.
However, you seem to ignore the same behaviour when conducted by other businesses. Why is it ok for other phone makers, movie producers, and game distributors to censor or alter their products for the Chinese market, but it’s the height of evil for Apple to do so?
If you are truely concerned about morality, look deeper. You should direct your outrage at the CCP and less so at Apple.