Elon's phone confusion
It was amusing yesterday hearing Musk talking about "building his own
phone" if #Twitter is tossed from the #Apple and #Google app stores
for violations of their Terms of Service. Notably, his comment gives
us instant insight into his lack of knowledge in this area. Let's
review:
1) There was already supposed to be a Tesla Pi phone to be available
by perhaps the end of this year. Maybe it will arrive in a fully
self-driving Tesla without a human driver.
2) He doesn't actually need to build his own phone. If he wants an
Elon phone, he could just rebrand one of the many Chinese Android
clone phones (though notably, most of these will not have Play Store
access, see below).
3) The phone isn't the problem for a toxic Twitter. The *ecosystems*
are the issue. The Apple and Google smartphones ecosystems are built
to provide end-to-end security for apps, best effort protection
against malware (e.g. Google's Play Store "Play Protect" that scans
apps for malware), and so on. If an app is not in the app stores, you
can't easily run that app. Sure, Elon could sell a clone phone with
his pay-to-play Twitter app already installed, but that phone would
not be expected to have access to the Google Play Store for other apps
unless they were preloaded also. Now you also need an update mechanism
for the apps. Essentially, you have to build an entire new ecosystem.
4) Apple currently locks down their iOS devices tightly against
non-app store apps. This will be changing with new EU rules coming
into force. On the other hand, Google has always permitted sideloading
of (non-Play Store) Android apps by knowledgeable users. Technically,
Elon could promote users sideloading a Twitter app on Android (and
presumably eventually iOS) to bypass app store restrictions. However,
there is definitely significantly increased friction and potential for
user confusion in this model.
5) We've heard Elon complain about the cut that the Apple and Google
app stores take from app revenues. This of course only is an issue if
your app isn't free and/or is charging users for something. This tends
to validate the observation that Elon wants to turn all Twitter users
into an ongoing profit center -- thus his talk about crypto, banking,
etc. via Twitter, and his "anything app" fixation. While he may be
able to convince significant numbers of users to pay him continuously
for now worthless blue checks, the extent to which large numbers of
Internet users will want to participate in a "your entire life belongs
to Elon" app/banking ecosystem remains to be seen. -L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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