&$@#, you’re absolutely right. Had a complete brain fart not-remembering that bit. thanks. 
For whatever reason I don’t really think of those as 3rd party. You’re right they are, but 3rd party in my mind is resellers/gray market, or something like a non-amazon stores selling on amazon.
None of that excuses Apple, and never meant to imply they didn’t mess up badly. My point is that Google, or anyone else, is likely to mess up just as badly at some point, so going all in with anyone should not be the takeway from the article.
“I’m not making any hasty decisions, but when it comes time to upgrade my phone, I’m likely going to try out an Android. After what’s happened with Apple, I want to engage in a bit of digital independence and not tie myself to a single company’s ecosystem.”
The statement just feels like it needs a bit more. Is it so the authors phone and desktops (if spending $15k with apple, I’m assuming it involves a laptop or desktop) are separate eco-systems? That is valid. Is it because Android is ‘more open’ and 3rd party apps (like Spotify, your choice of photo upload, news reading, whatever) work a little better togeher than iOS where things are more locked down once outside of Apple’s apps? Again, valid point. Is it because as a last resort you can side-load apps a little easier? Sure. Is it just because it’s not Apple, and you’ll go all in with Google suite of apps and services? Nope, not a good plan. Which of those things did the author mean? Who knows?
This is my own personal risk aversion speaking, but I stay away from 3rd party sellers on online platforms, whether Amazon, Best Buy, or Walmart unless I know them specifically. (I guess they would technically be 4th party?). The MassGenie site is a no-no for me. It doesn’t look like they are actually selling anything just facilitating a group of strangers to get together for bulk discounts from other sellers. The itunes giftcard is sold by DealGuru for example - https://www.massgenie.com/apple-itunes-gift-card-50-yl9e6doizovjpfzt. Who are they? Maybe a warlord with an army of slave child labourers. Maybe clones of Mother Teresa who do this to fund their homeless shelter for amputated kids. I dunno. I’m sure they’re perfectly fine, but to me that is too many cooks in the kitchen should anything go wrong. Again, saying this to shift blame away from Apple, MassGenie handled things perfectly well by the authors account, just my personal preference.
edit - whelp, didn’t think I was writing an essay. ಠ_ಠ
