I think this issue is likely to be diminished as the performance difference's not been improving that much lately (X and XS having similar CPU performance) - we have come to a point of smartphone evolution where yearly additions to a performance will not be the reason to upgrade -> therefore I don't expect new iOS versions slowing devices significantly.
Interesting is though how the number's been growing over the years, even though the amount of sold devices's been rather stagnant. Google pays a lot per customer, while Apple allows to use DuckDuckGo and others. I wonder how long will Google feel it's that valuable for them (and what a percentage of users'd swich to Google even though other search engine would be default instead)
Apple really has google over a barrel here. You’d have to imagine that google wouldn’t even toy with the thought of not paying the ransom and testing how many people would switch their search engine from the default to google. Also, let’s say DuckDuckGo was the default and users actually liked it and switched their desktop browser search away from google, they’d be really sorry.
Totally agree (happy DuckDuckGo user here). My point is - is there a point from which Google wouldn’t pay “the randsom”? As it’s spiked and is prone to rise again.
Apple's been doing it for some time in "Others" category (Apple TV, Watch, Beats, Airpods) - it's mere extending of its policy. Furthermore, Apple's been increasing prices of iPhones - which will probably lead to worse numbers - but may lead to greater sales numbers - which Apple feels are much more relevant for investors and for them. It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad sign for Apple, as they always have focused on greater average-selling-price instead of of sold iPhones.
