beowulfschmidt

The amendment actually says "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech..."  "Pressuring" a corporation skirts that restriction unless they decide to impose some sort of punishment.  It can be a very fine line, and until the unlikely action of the U.S. Supreme Court to stop them, they'll continue.

However, Congress and U.S. courts have created many, many exceptions to unabridged free speech.  Incitement to violence, for instance.  Fraud.  Misleading advertising.  Certain forms of pornography.  Intimidation.  Often, the legitimacy of any given "speech" hinges on the intent of that speech.  Parody and satire, for instance, even though potentially depicting entirely false information, are protected speech, while false accusations of crimes or misdoing fall under slander or liable, which are not covered by free speech.

Um, no it's not.  The reason is money.  There might be other secondary reasons mixed in, but the bottom line is "reduce cost of the phone without making the phone quality suffer."