Okay, maybe not exactly, but big boardrooms hate you. Let me explain.

Big or small, most companies could not care less about you. Companies only care about their investors and graphs in the sense of monetary gain. A few examples are Apple, Google, Nintendo, Sony, John Deere, Lenovo, Tesla, Samsung, the list goes on.

Why do they hate me? I will tell you exactly why.

Apple⌗

Anti Right to Repair⌗

Apple does not sell any parts to their products outside their own stores and Apple Pro certified techs. Even then, they still have heavy guidelines on what they can and cannot do with Apple parts with the threat of losing their certification. Okay, but who is going to open their thousand dollar phone anyway? Well, even if you do not want to repair the device yourself, what about repair shops? Only a fraction are Apple Pro certified, so smaller repair shops are stuck with buying third-party parts. If you pay possibly hundreds of dollars, don’t you think you want a display directly from Apple?

What if they get it directly from one of the people Apple already sells to? Ha, Apple already saw this coming. The screen’s serial number is bound to the phone’s motherboard meaning either functions of the device you paid for will cease to work, or these repair shops have to shell out even more money to reprogram the device with the matching serial number. Plus, if an Apple Pro certified business is caught selling parts, they will be kicked out the program, losing access to the exclusive store for Apple OEM parts. In newer iPhones, Apple even goes as far as to bind the FaceID module to the motherboard too which means that if you replace the screen, the FaceID sensor, or the motherboard, some functions will stop working.

That’s not all, though. In MacBooks since 2016, Apple has been soldering on the RAM and SSD for most models (only one model from 2016-2019 had a replaceable SSD) which means you need to pay the “Apple Tax” on your RAM and storage which can be hundreds of dollars more than what you should pay. In the newest Mac Studio, Apple added two M.2 SSD slots for storage. As it turns out, the entire multi-thousand dollar computer will stop working entirely if the original SSD is installed in the exact spot it was before and the other slot is empty if that’s how it originally was before. It turns out that the SSD(s) preinstalled in the system are just dummy NAND controllers because the storage is built-in the M1 chip. Because of this, the SSD is uber fast, but you will NEVER be able to replace it.

Apple also intentionally makes their products difficult to open and will reject or charge more for a repair if they discover you or someone else has opened it before even if it is in perfectly working order. Also, if Apple finds another part that needs repair when you wnat something else repaired, they will charge you the original quoted price plus anything extra they find.

App Store Monopoly⌗

Apple keeps their iOS software locked down so that no one can view the source code to it. Fine, a lot of people do that. It is more secure I guess. Let’s talk about the App Store. The App Store is Apple’s golden child. So many people buy those stupid games that are poorly made and loaded with ads. Apple takes a 30% cut of anything that goes through the App Store, including purchases of apps, in-app purchases, and subscriptions. Anyone who would try to mitigate this would have their app taken down which led to the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit. Even after that lawsuit, Apple can still charge whatever they please. Apple did lower their cut to 15% for small developers until they start making a lot of money. Generous, I know.

Apple also clashed with Spotify about their Spotify Premium subscription because Apple did not want competiton with Apple Music, their own music streaming platform. Although I dislike Spotify, Apple does not have the right to block competitors. There is actually a law against that, and many companies broke it. Almost no one did anything about it.

Google⌗

Search Engine Monopoly⌗

We all know Google. Google Search is the most widely used search engine ever. Google Chrome has the most market share in browsers. Google is also the default search engine on Apple products. That’s right, they do not hate each other. In fact, Google pays millions or even billions of dollars every year to Apple to keep Google Search as the default search engine. Google also makes most smartphone manufacturers install Google’s default apps and services on phones that they make. That’s right, Android is also not safe from anti-competition.

“Android is open source which makes it better than iOS!”⌗

Is Android open source? Yes. Is that a good thing? Yes. Is it a good thing that Google owns it? No. While Android is open source, it comes with Google’s default apps which are not open source by any means. Google has infused their services into core Android features which means not even rooting your phone and installing a custom ROM can save you from the strings of Google.

While I do not trust Apple and Google with my data, I would trust Apple more. Why? Google is an advertising company, not a technology company. Most ads on the internet go through them, and their funding is very heavily dependent on advertising. Apple, on the other hand, is a technology company so big that I bet even if they did not collect data, they could still have a very comfortable amount of money.

Google Assistant⌗

Google also owns a decent voice assistant, Google Assistant. Very creative name, I know. Unlike Siri, Google Assistant is at least half reliable. You may wonder, “How is it so advanced and knows exactly what I’m thinking of?” Let me tell you exactly why. They’re always listening no matter what settings are turned on or off. They have history of every interaction on any of their services, including Android. Google feeds all this data through an A.I. to start thinking like you. They, then, use this data for their ad service to appear across any websites you go to along with YouTube ads.

Anti Right to Repair⌗

Google also has the same practices as Apple on right to repair. They have their own certification, guidelines on said certification, revokes the certification if said guidelines are not met, and break their products when you do not buy their services. They also heavily tie their Google One subscription with Android to try and force you to buy it.

Samsung⌗

Anti Right to Repair (again)⌗

Samsung is involved in the same anti right to repair actions as Apple and Google. They have the certification, guidelines, secret parts store page, etc. Samsung also intentionally binds parts together and makes their devices way harder to open than Apple and Google. Samsung also goes as far as to block certain parts from working just because that part comes from a different color of the phone.

Folding your wallet⌗

Samsung also sells the most expensive phones out of the big phone manufacturers. Their phones can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. They believe in a folding phone future which just is not possible. As seen by every single one of their folding phones, they break very easily. Samsung also does not care whatsoever about it. They claim they have a three year warranty on their folding phones, but they never honor it. They blame design flaws they knew about on user error and make the user shell out more than half of the phone’s cost to fix it.

Horrible TVs because of Software⌗

Samsung TVs have exceptional quality. That is, only when you dial in the right settings. Their interface is ugly and hard to navigate, but that’s not an issue with them hating you. Let’s talk about the cost. Samsung TVs can range from a few hundred dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars going from a half-decent TV to a 200+ inch behemoth of a TV. Their typical TVs are $1,000+. The issue is that they bake in ads to the TV you paid over a thousand dollars for. In the home menu, they advertise their TV Plus app and other sponsors who paid to be there. They also put ads and trackers built into the TV and put the TV Plus button as the first one on the remote. Also, good luck repairing the TV. Almost no one sells parts or has a guide on how to do it.

Nintendo⌗

You notice a trend here?⌗

Nintnedo has made the headlines a few times for anti right to repair and moves which are just plain wrong. Nintendo also does not sell parts, but the only way to repair their devices is through Nintendo’s authorized repair centers.

Because Nintendo repairs their products through themselves, they can charge whatever they want for the simplest thing. If they control the market, they control the prices, and people pay them because not many people offer repairs at the fear of the wrath of Nintendo.

Switch Homebrew Crackdown⌗

Why fear Nintendo, the company who makes games tailored for the family to play? A hacking group called Team Xecutor developed not only software for a Homebrewed Switch but also a modchip to bypass Nintendo’s hardware block on the Homebrew exploit. What happened to them? Nintendo got them to be sent to prison. Some guy was running an emulation site which had games from many retro systems, including Nintendo’s systems. These are games you physically could not buy anymore. What happened to him? He went into millions of dollars of debt. People fear Nintendo because if you cross them, your whole life is ruined.

Conclusion⌗

You see, no company likes you. Not a single big company with the value in the billions and up. What can we do about it? Not much. This is what we have built up, and there arent many alternatives to the services and products provided by these companies. I suggest that you check out The Clone Wars on GitHub which is a collection of common services and the open source alternatives. Is it a replacement to these popular services? No, but it is a start, and I highly suggest you at least look at it.