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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Yes, this is the main idea behind iOS and the App Store. I don't get why smart people are falling for this.

Let me try to strawman a little: I personally accept this on my phone because I honestly don't consider my phone to be a computer, and I don't really care about "computing" on it. My phone is not really that important to me. It is a toy/appliance that I goof around with. What it's running and how "free" and "open" it is, is about as important to me as how free the firmware in my car is, or the software on my gaming console.

I care about the free-ness and open-ness of my computer, because that's where I do all my work, my E-mail, my finances, and all my "serious computing." I feel that a different standard applies on a Real Computer because they are totally different devices, used for totally different purposes. So what I accept on phones, cars, and gaming consoles, I don't accept on my computer.

I suppose the reason for this is that this is how it has always been with mobile computing. People don't even bother to think about their smartphone as a computer anymore.

While this is fine for you, I worry about a sociocultural divide.

I believe the likelihood of a smartphone being the only form of computing (and access to the internet in particular) grows with diminishing income / cultural means.

This is based on anecdotal observation, does anybody here know of relevant survey data?

> relevant survey data

Based on a cursory look, keywords can include "smartphone-only internet users" and "large-screen computer ownership".

The American Community Survey asks questions related to that (income, computing devices). Comparing states, the poorer the residents of a state, the smaller the percent of households with regular computers ("large-screen computer ownership"), per "Computer Ownership and the Digital Divide" (Mihaylova and Whitacre, 2025) [0, 1, 2].

Also, Pew runs surveys on income and device usage ("smartphone-only"). Again, the lower the income, the higher the proportion that is smartphone-only [3, 4].

[0] Chart: https://files.catbox.moe/emdada.png

[1] Paper, "Census Data with Brian Whitacre.pdf": https://files.catbox.moe/1ttgee.pdf

[2] Web: https://www.benton.org/blog/computer-ownership-and-digital-d...

[3] Pew chart: https://files.catbox.moe/fs62tf.png

[4] Pew web: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/

It sounds like lower income people aren't Real People and don't need Real Computers.

The idea that smartphones aren't computers and their users aren't deserving of software freedom is frustratingly entitled.

You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide. Right?

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