Brick instead of “iPhone”: social networks panicked due to the possible shutdown of apple gadgets
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At the end of the New Year holidays, Russian Telegram channels, with the light hand of the editor-in-chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, began to discuss the possible alleged blocking of Apple equipment in Russia. The blocking, we emphasize, is not from the Russian side, but quite the opposite, from across the ocean. Frankly, the topic has been raised lately not for the first time: the “bricking” of Apple gadgets was supposed back in February-March of the past year. Then the threat did not come true – what will happen now?
Technologically, the prerequisites for such an escalation on the cyber front are exactly the same as a year ago: the so-called digital technology ecosystems (the main three are Apple, Google and Windows) remain the most globalized. And “control panels” from them are in countries unfriendly to Russia. Our authorities can only demand transparency and concessions from global platforms, threatening otherwise to “cut off” all these services in Russia on their own initiative.
The owners of the platforms act in the same way – the threat of disconnection. It turns out that the user becomes a victim in any scenario. Nevertheless, almost a year has passed since the beginning of the military special operation in Ukraine and, accordingly, Western sanctions, and neither side has carried out its threats. And now, the employees of Russian IT companies and service centers of digital technology interviewed by MK are still confidently saying: duck, nothing like this will happen.
Just as gas, despite everything, continues to be pumped from east to west through the Ukrainian gas transmission system (and at least one crazy arrival!), So in Cupertino, California, employees of a company with an apple logo do not press buttons that can turn off the Russian equipment of this company.
The argument (guessing, of course, as in the case of gas) for the whole year is something like this. Firstly, for the owners of global platforms, this measure is a doomsday weapon: if such blocking does not completely destroy the enemy, their customer base in all other non-Western countries drops sharply due to distrust of the platform. Secondly, with the rich opportunities for espionage that the Apple-type digital ecosystem provides, only a very stupid administrator would turn off the iPhones of the Russians. Why, when you can continue to analyze huge data streams?
Nevertheless, the risk of “bricking” (and espionage too!) must be reckoned with. And above all, it is for Apple hardware: Google, which owns the competing Android mobile OS, behaves frankly unfriendly towards Russia, but is not inclined to drastic measures. And at the end of last year, Microsoft completely turned on the ability to pay for and renew subscriptions, which was blocked for Russians (considering the foregoing, they should not have done this!).
And in fact, the Russians heard this argument – sales of iPhones in 2022 fell seriously (the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev predicts that the number of users of apple gadgets in Russia will be halved by the end of 2024). And that is to say, the manufacturer clearly explained that he was not particularly interested in the Russians: it is impossible to install applications of Russian banks, not to mention the State Services, since the spring.
Therefore, in chats and forums dedicated to mobile technology, “former iPhone users” who changed the platform in 2022 regularly meet. Where are the iPhones? The usual answer: sold by ad. And here, of course, it is interesting who buys these “risky” gadgets and why in the current conditions. After all, there is a demand to this day, and for used ones (if only they would work and be updated), and for new ones.
One category is obvious – those who are stuck in the early 2010s (and there is no sin here – it was a great time for our country!). For them, the iPhone is still the most prestigious gadget. Even if half of its functions are now disabled, even if the manufacturer twists the hands of users, forcing them to update, it doesn’t matter.
Another category is those for whom the Apple ecosystem is simply the most convenient. And among such buyers, there may just be a lot of people from the “Moscow living rooms” that Simonyan referred to: they are afraid of blackouts and download their photos from Apple’s “cloud” all the holidays. Because from the first years of its existence, the iOS operating system has been and remains the most convenient for a simple user who does not want to delve into the features of the settings.
No fools: even a two-year-old child can be taught to use an Apple device. Those who came up with this “gesture” control language and calibrated the touch screens for it are real geniuses. And although “android phones” are catching up all the time, and in some ways they are pulling ahead, the functionality can be replaced here (Android has it even wider), but there is no convenience.
Those who know how and love to customize the equipment for themselves, to delve into how it works, have never liked Apple products. But there are far fewer people with engineering thinking than those who need “just a good phone so as not to bother.”
And here we have, ladies, gentlemen and comrades, a big existential problem. The desire not to bother with everyday routine is natural and strong. That this desire is used as a means of coercion by the “comfort providers” is also understandable. One thing is not good: neither in Russia nor in friendly countries can they create environments equivalent in terms of convenience for work and digital life.
It has been tested on the transfer of a cloud working environment from a global to a domestic platform: where everything flies and runs conveniently for transnationals, it slows down for us, makes unnecessary copies of working files, and some declared services are simply not developed. It remains to be hoped that the influx of Russian users to Russian platforms will give them resources for development – so that the inhabitants of the “living rooms” do not need equipment with a bitten apple.
Newspaper headline:
Victims of the bitten apple
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