I wonder, though, if there's going to be an end-game to this walled-garden nonsense. On one hand, people (tech-minded people) seem to be slowly getting it.
On the other hand, industry has somehow set up this insane legal system where the product you buy? You don't actually own it. So I go to the store and buy an iPhone. I give them money and I leave. This process is the same as if I bought a regular, land-line phone. Only with the iPhone, I don't own the box, the software, the O/S, or control what the phone does. Carrier wants me to have new software? It pushes it out and I have it. Apple wants to get rid of a favorite app I use? Poof, it's gone. They seem to be doing this without any major push-back from the user community.
I am prone to think both the "educated tech user" community and the "Joe Sixpack" community are going to meet up at some point, but I'm not sure. Maybe the strategy with this and all the other dystopian bullshit we're seeing is to try to run out the clock; keep things the way they are long enough so that the argument can then be made "but it was always like this!"
It's weird. I keep reading these articles about how various services suck, but it only seems like tech people know/care about it. That can't go on. Something's gotta give somewhere.