Apple isn’t just a walled garden, it’s a carrier
As we await the beginning of Apple’s latest WWDC keynote and all of the new software products it will unveil, let’s talk about metaphors. Specifically, the metaphors we use to talk about Apple’s ecosystem. The go-to for years has been that it’s a “walled garden” — here’s Joanna Stern at The Wall Street Journal making that case in a literal walled garden — but I’m not sure that’s the best one anymore.
It’s worth kicking around some different ways of describing Apple’s ecosystem in this moment because of the nature of keynotes — even online-only keynotes. Apple is the master of crafting narratives around its products that become an organizing principle for understanding what those products are. Those narratives aren’t intellectual exercises, they’re stories told to change how you feel about Apple and its products.
There’s nothing inherently nefarious about Apple telling a story about itself and its products, but right now there are more counter-narratives than there ever have been. Apple is facing antitrust scrutiny from governments around the world, from its Epic lawsuit, and from the very developers it is addressing today.
