Most every company designs their products in this manner. Locked-down app stores? That’s less about “user safety,” and more about making switching between Android or iOS incredibly painful. Netflix and Disney+ and other deal services’ taking content exclusively to their platforms? They want you locked into their service, not the other guy’s. “Free” cloud storage? They want you sticking photos (that probably train their AI) on their servers with automatic backups so you overrun that storage and buy more for them. Xbox Game Pass? Rent games forever and never switch to Playstation because you’ll lose everything (hence spending billions to make Starfield and others exclusives).
The two biggest driving forces right now are “you’ll own nothing and like it,” and “only we have what you need, so never look elsewhere or else.”
Most every company designs their products in this manner. Locked-down app stores? That’s less about “user safety,” and more about making switching between Android or iOS incredibly painful. Netflix and Disney+ and other deal services’ taking content exclusively to their platforms? They want you locked into their service, not the other guy’s. “Free” cloud storage? They want you sticking photos (that probably train their AI) on their servers with automatic backups so you overrun that storage and buy more for them. Xbox Game Pass? Rent games forever and never switch to Playstation because you’ll lose everything (hence spending billions to make Starfield and others exclusives).
The two biggest driving forces right now are “you’ll own nothing and like it,” and “only we have what you need, so never look elsewhere or else.”