"... if we can't shake the desire for free apps and operating services that provide them we'll be doomed to enhancing their capabilities against us."
I think that in time the desire to minimize expense for the tech we want to use will drive Open Source Hardware and personal manufacturing (3D printing) to make the capitalist manufacturing paradigm obsolete. As our ability to make stuff ourselves becomes available to more folks, less capital will be spent paying big companies to make it for us, because it will cost far less when we make our own.
There's always some people that want to be dependent, and they're not going to be the first adopters. As OSH and 3D printing continue to advance in capability, and reduce in cost, the downsides of being subject to Orwellian social control and paying for it will drive adoption by those that value their freedom - and their wealth - highly enough to take control themselves.
Hopefully, problem is big brothers tech is so high tech that they'll invest millions to infiltrate even the most obscure of technologies. In that way they can be alerted with red flags should anyone create something that endangers their ability to be "big brother."