[sem000]

>Realistically (and I am not singling out Apple here), we are more and more captive of an ecosystem.

Yes, we definitely are. But I am not so sure that is a bad thing? And it's nothing new... how many businesses had their entire operations tied to Blackberry, Microsoft, Lotus, etc. for so long? The market might be a little slow, but it's not stupid.

I personally like Apple products and services. I like the integration. I like that I don't have to go out and find third party apps for certain things and hope for the best.

> Losing my phone at this point is worse than losing my wallet and Apple is pushing for even tighter integrations with their customer's life which will ultimately centralize all that information.

The great thing about this is a replacement phone can be loaded almost instantaneously with all your info again. How long would it take to have every credit card company and the DMV send you replacements?

[stale2002]

> Yes, we definitely are. But I am not so sure that is a bad thing?

Well, it is the basis of anti-trust law and pro-competition law, that the legal system supports competition and opposes anti-competitive effects.