Corporations will do anything they can to keep that from happening. That's why every software product has gradually veered towards subscription models. They want you hooked to Microsoft/Apple/Facebook's AI girlfriend who will subtly insult your virtue as a partner if you don't buy extra credits. If you want to try out a politically incorrect fetish that's an extra 500 dollars per month for "extra premium"
Apple is the odd one out here, considering they've been making substantial efforts to move things on to consumer devices. For example, the ML-driven auto-categorization of pictures you keep in the Photos app happens on-device in the background whether or not you have any subscriptions.
Yeah, on locked-down devices under Apple's control.
I honestly believe locked-down consumer devices are the next step in corporate power consolidation after cloud services: Control is just as firmly in the hands of the corporation as with cloud, except now it doesn't even have to pay for bandwidth or energy costs - and costs for hardware upgrades turn into revenue!
I wouldn't give them too much credit. With the addition of the T2 "security" chip, your devices are bricks if they can't authenticate against your Apple ID. Combine that with them soldering together formerly modular components, and it's a very expensive lesson in you not owning your own hardware.
I'm specifically talking about the T2 chips in the laptops. The newest Macbooks can be activation-locked, just like the phones. This has already bitten legitimate owners who are trying to restore backup images, etc.
Legislation needs to step in to make it illegal for corporations to prevent resale. If I have a piece of hardware in my hands it is mine. It should ALWAYS be possible to access it. If Full Disk Encryption is used then there should be a button to reset it and start over.
Physical access should be all that's needed, and you shouldn't need to beg for permission from the company who sold you the device.
Software that locks out people with physical access from resetting a device is not an ethical, or effective, way to prevent hardware theft. It's dystopian.
