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I don't think there is any developer lock-in. As you are saying it's the customers choice. When customers have more choice they can choose to go for an OS without Apple-control.

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There is a lock-in. We invest a lot of time in learning an ecosystem with a very specific programming language, quirks, rules, practices, problems - oh, and the AppStore approval process. On top of that, one day we suddenly discover we also depend on the availability of Apple's cert server.

Customers/consumers are not locked in in this regard, and generally they don't care whether or to what extent developers are.

They can, but they aren't really. Why would any consumer anywhere care if the apple dev forums are down for 2 weeks. Nobody knows, cares, or has any reason to know or care. less than 1% of people likely. Readers of HN do not account for all buyers of smartphones as it happens.

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