> There's a theory in the comments that they want to align with "people who want the best camera array and have money to burn".

I agree with you and this theory sounds like moving goalposts.

First people claimed that the free market will always give the consumer what they want.

Then this turned out to be not true (we even have a term, enshittification), and now people come up with a more "refined" theory. Why would it be true this time?

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coldtea 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>First people claimed that the free market will always give the consumer what they want.

That was maybe true at the time of Adam Smith for something like chocolates or bags of cheaper rice, or shirts and socks and bricks.

For things that take tens of billions to design, code for, build, and support, like smartphones and their OSes, there are just a few players (only two that mater for smartphone OSes), and there are huge barriers to entry even ignoring any rules and regulations you have to adhere to, but even more so with those in mind too.

So you get what the players give you, and that's it.

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AlexandrB 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> First people claimed that the free market will always give the consumer what they want.

Enshittification does give consumers what they want: free stuff. People will deny it up and down and claim they would pay for non-enshittified Facebook, for example. But how many people actually would pay a subscription to use a Facebook style service? Enough to build sustain a company of Meta's size? Probably not. How many people pay for Kagi?

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coldtea 3 hours ago | parent [-]

>Enshittification does give consumers what they want: free stuff

Nope. Enshittifition happens to paid stuff just as well, including stuff you pay more (including when inflation adjusted) from what you paid before.

It's about futher increasing the profit margins, whether it's a paid product or not, not about affording to give something for free.

	▲	amelius 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes. And it's also about strategic lock-in.

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poszlem 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Could it be that "people" that say that are different groups of people?

	▲	tcmart14 a minute ago \| parent [-]
		This is the other side of it. "Online everyone complains about X," but everyone is 200 randos online, hardly conclusive. If anything its more like the yelp effect. The people who are most likely to complain and celebrate online are the small vocal slice. Not even online really. The vast majority of people just dont give a damn so long as youtube, calls, and texting works.

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skeezyjefferson 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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