This shows once again that Apple’s business model is extremely
comprehensive. When users purchase and use iOS devices, Apple
claims the right to extensively control said devices, a right
that the company defends with all means - and settles the
conflicts between its economic interests and consumers’ rights
on the backs of its customers. Attempts at regulation that are
intended to improve the situation for these customers are
specifically implemented in forms that invalidate the regulations
or even ridicule them.
This reinforces the idea that the smartphones and tablets that
Apple offers at high prices are, from the outset, essentially
rental devices - because Apple has ultimate control over their
use at all times. Free decisions about how and for which purposes
iOS devices are to be used are de facto not possible. This fact
alone makes Apple devices a dubious choice for use in education.
However, these latest developments once again reveal how strong
Apple’s intentions are to lock users into their ecosystem and
that this poses an imminent danger to the socialization of
students and their education to responsible consumers.
For software projects like AlekSIS, which as free and open source
software ideologically stands for independence and particularly
wants to guarantee all schools, teachers, students and parents
equal access to information, Apple’s decision has far-reaching
consequences - because it also forces us to make a decision that
will in any case be at the users’ expense:
- No longer offering a mobile app for iOS (previously as a PWA)
would mean that the functionality, for example with regard to
offline capabilities, on iOS devices would be severely limited.
- Offering a native app instead would mean that access to AlekSIS
is no longer free and free for students, as a “protection fee”
would then have to be paid to Apple for each installation.
The situation is precarious because Apple has done everything it
can to ensure its widespread use in schools over the recent years
and has used a lot of marketing effort to create an image that
makes it seen as the only viable choice by many teaching staff.
The reduced usability of open source software on iOS devices is
then often reflected on the staff instead of Apple’s underlying
control behavior.
It is therefore about time that resistance to Apple and other
offers that can only be called lobbying increases and that
politicians finally invest significantly in digitally sovereign,
open offers instead of continuing to provide schools with millions
in gifts from Apple, Microsoft & Co.
Update / correction: Currently unaffected are devices running
iPadOS, as Apple has not been classified as gatekeeper in the
tablet market. On the other hand, this means that students using
millions of iPads bought by or for their school are not protected
by the new market regulations.
