Some people love it so much that they make the claim that they are trapped. They say they could not leave even if they wanted. Which is a BS excuse really. You can if you are willing to do the work to leave and set up alternative services.
But most people aren't willing. They feel they've invested too much time and money into the system to abandon it. They allow Apple to do whatever Apple pleases to it's services, following along even if they don't like it and lose features or access to their stuff. In this way, Apple owns them.
This is the sort of thing that completely confuses me. I use Apple products extensively. I have a MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, iPhone, AppleTV, and HomePod. I even used an AirPort router until it broke down and I was forced to switch. Along with that, I use iCloud mail, storage, etc.. The thing I like more than anything about Apple's ecosystem is how complete and integrated it is. Not only is it easier to set up and more stable and practical when everything is actually designed to work together under a common vision, but it also affords a truly beautiful and pleasant experience that makes using my tech stuff fun again.
I have never understood why it is inherently a problem for me to do this. I fully admit I could "leave" the "trap" any time I wanted. I choose not to. I don't see why I should be ashamed of that choice or why I need an excuse of pretending to be stuck to justify it to anybody. Sure, sometimes there are limitations to these products that frustrate me like anything else. It's up to me if it is worth losing that integration to avoid those limitations. With rare exceptions that prove I am capable of free will (Apple Pages, Studio Display, some Apple adapters), I have for the most part decided that the integration is more important. I wish Apple offered a web search engine so I could use that too instead of Google's. That seems to be the one glaring omission in their services lineup.
I originally tried to do this with Microsoft a long time ago during the Windows 8 era. But with the death of Windows Phone, Apple became the only way to have your phone and PC operating systems be made by the same company and designed to work together. It doesn't sound like Windows Phone was ever that usable anyway.
I hear I'm taking a big risk putting all my eggs in one basket. I'm supposed to spread myself out over all these little companies that each specialize in just one thing. Then I hear about one of those little companies either going under or changing their business model to something egregious due to financial problems and people panicking because the product isn't popular enough for them to be able to easily import their data into something else.
Ignoring the benefit of integration though and just comparing iOS and Android as standalone products, I think Android would be better for usability and flexibility, and iOS would be better for security. Android gives you far more choices for hardware, and there is no need to jailbreak to run whatever you want. I purchased a Google Pixel Tablet so that I could keep up with what's going on in Android land, and I appreciate being able to use it to play the many thousands of available emulated console games, which Apple would never allow. At the same time, there is a dangerous lack of security on the Google Play Store, and premium-quality Android devices are only cheaper than Apple ones if you don't care about security patches when deciding how often you want to replace your device.
...I wouldn’t bother trying to persuade him because let him find his way as to what he wants to use. Sure it’s annoying not to have iMessage if you text him a lot...
This right here is my #1 complaint about Apple. Apple is not a charity. It is not a movement that needs or deserves my activism. It is a for-profit corporation that is more than capable of doing its own advertising. I strongly resent the way they seem to punish me for not doing their marketing for them against my own friends and family. I don't think it is unreasonable to want them to make free, decent iMessage and FaceTime clients for Windows and Android specifically as a service to their paying customers who want to be able to actually use these products with others. I find it especially tasteless to watch them capitalize on the "green bubble" phenomenon in their own advertising. Obsessed with integration as I am, I am happy to inconvenience myself by encouraging my loved ones to use what makes them comfortable in the name of resisting something this offensive.
