[smikhanov]

> But there is no such possible way to use an iDevice without relying on Apple's services.

There is. One can go through the iPhone setup wizard and opt out of everything. You don’t need to have any accounts, neither iCloud nor App Store one, or to be logged on to any Apple services to use your phone.

Someone who knows more about iOS than both you and me could comment further on whether subtle things like aGPS would continue to function as expected, but everything you specifically thought of when you wrote “to use an iDevice” would work.

[treyd]

It's still constantly phoning home for things like OS updates.

And that's not even the main issue, you're still unable to decide what software you're running on it, so Apple controls what you're able to do on it even if you opt out if all of that.

[hulitu]

> There is. One can go through the iPhone setup wizard and opt out of everything

Not really. Apple reserves the right to start WiFi or Bluetooth.