{"id":32742,"date":"2021-06-07T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T15:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=32742"},"modified":"2025-08-04T10:33:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T14:33:53","slug":"on-walled-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/07\/on-walled-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"On Walled Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joanna Stern<\/a>:<\/p>\n

All it takes is some bedtime reading of Epic’s 365-page findings document<\/a> to see just how aggressive Apple executives have gotten in carrying out Steve Jobs’ 2010 vision to, as the finding document quotes him, “tie all our products together so we further lock customers into our ecosystem.”<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Those of us living with multiple Apple gadgets know the garden is pretty darn nice. We’re suffering no more than that person seated in first class next to the lavatory. But are we missing out?<\/p>

I set up camp in the increasingly harmonious Android\/Windows garden, talked to experts and dug through court documents. In the end, I found three strong reasons to justify Apple’s garden—and three strong reasons we need more holes in its walls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The people who use the term “walled garden” in this context typically do so as a pejorative. But that’s not right. Literal walled gardens can be very nice — and the walls and gates can be what makes them nice.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Better than “walled garden”, I like the comparison to theme parks. People love theme parks. Not everyone, of course, but a lot of people. They’re fun, safe, and deliver a designed experience. They’re also expensive, and the food, to put it kindly, generally sucks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Point taken, but I think this analogy breaks down because:<\/p>\n