>You will upgrade because all of your data will be in iCloud and all of your finances will be in Apple Pay, and you will have no choice: you will upgrade or die.
You can download all of your iCloud data from the web client, and Apple Pay doesn't involve the cloud at all. It's all stored and encrypted locally and you have to re-add your cards with every new device. (I don't even think they persist over backups?)
>Even if Apple doesn't implement this strategy, they could, and that to me is cause for concern. Personally, I don't want the only thing standing in the way of being coerced in this way to buy things I don't want to be the continued benevolence of the largest corporation in the world. I want an escape hatch to keep Apple in check. And right now, I don't see one.
Yes, and Microsoft could do the same. Will either of them actually do so? I doubt it, but I suppose it's possible on an infinite timeline. Keep in mind that Apple needs a platform for their own developers to use, and for app developers, and closing the Mac would make that very difficult. Apple also knows how many of its customers are developers and they wouldn't just throw that away for questionable gains. Lock-in is fragile because eventually you get users using your stuff because they have to instead of because they want to, which is never a good situation.
>And the tools are set up so that you can only build for supported version of the OS.
Near as I can tell, this is false. I can set my deployment target all the way back to OS X 10.4. Will this not work?
You can download all of your iCloud data from the web client, and Apple Pay doesn't involve the cloud at all. It's all stored and encrypted locally and you have to re-add your cards with every new device. (I don't even think they persist over backups?)
>Even if Apple doesn't implement this strategy, they could, and that to me is cause for concern. Personally, I don't want the only thing standing in the way of being coerced in this way to buy things I don't want to be the continued benevolence of the largest corporation in the world. I want an escape hatch to keep Apple in check. And right now, I don't see one.
Yes, and Microsoft could do the same. Will either of them actually do so? I doubt it, but I suppose it's possible on an infinite timeline. Keep in mind that Apple needs a platform for their own developers to use, and for app developers, and closing the Mac would make that very difficult. Apple also knows how many of its customers are developers and they wouldn't just throw that away for questionable gains. Lock-in is fragile because eventually you get users using your stuff because they have to instead of because they want to, which is never a good situation.
>And the tools are set up so that you can only build for supported version of the OS.
Near as I can tell, this is false. I can set my deployment target all the way back to OS X 10.4. Will this not work?