“Earlier this month, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled the next version of its Mac operating system: OS X Yosemite,” Sam Mattera writes for The Motley Fool. “Yosemite includes a number of helpful features, many of which will benefit all owners of Apple’s computers. But not everyone will be able to take advantage of everything Yosemite brings to the table — in order to do so, Mac users will also need to own Apple’s mobile devices. Collectively, Apple refers to Yosemite’s iOS integration as ‘Continuity.'”
“Continuity is composed of a number of individual features that allow Apple’s iPhones and iPads to work well with Apple’s Macs,” Mattera writes. “Examples include Handoff (allowing iPhone owners to do things like compose an email on their phone, then quickly finish it on their Mac) and call integration (letting Mac owners receive and respond to phone calls from their computer).”
“Many owners of Apple’s Macs also own Apple’s mobile devices, but many buyers of Apple’s mobile devices don’t own a Mac. According to a recent survey from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, just one-quarter of the consumers who recently purchased an iPad owned a Mac, and only 28% of iPhone buyers had an Apple-made PC,” Mattera writes. “Given the relative market share of Microsoft’s Windows, it’s likely that many iPhone owners use a Windows-powered PC. As Continuity rolls out this fall, and Apple continues to support it, Windows PC owners that have an iPhone or iPad could eventually be enticed to make the switch.”
Mattera writes, “Google won’t be able to match Apple’s Handoff right away, but intends to eventually offer something similar.”
MacDailyNews Take: Smirk. Yeah, okay.
Mattera writes, “Google announced that it will bring Android apps to Chrome OS at some unspecified future date — and when it does, apps installed on the Chromebook could easily interface with the apps on the owner’s Android-powered handset.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Could… at some unspecified future date,” like the first Tuesday after never.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
Related articles:
All-Apple product users have a distinct advantage over others with seamless Continuity – June 5, 2014
OS X Yosemite first look video: Handoff – June 5, 2014
Why Apple’s Continuity for Mac, iPad, and iPhone is great for investors – June 4, 2014
Continuity: Apple is now moving in new directions and beyond where Steve Jobs might have gone – June 3, 2014
At WWDC 2014, Apple unleashes thermonuclear war against Android – June 3, 2014
Why developers are going nuts over Apple’s new ‘Swift’ programming language – June 3, 2014
Apple just delivered a knockout blow to Android with iOS 8 – June 2, 2014
Xcode 6 features resizable device simulators, paving way for iPhones with new screen sizes – June 2, 2014
WWDC 2014: Apple sets the scene for its next decade – June 2, 2014
Apple unveils new versions of OS X and iOS, major iCloud update with iCloud Drive – June 2, 2014
Apple’S WWDC news bores investors, not developers – June 2, 2014
Apple’s HealthKit aims to unite wearables and fitness apps – June 2, 2014
Apple releases iOS 8 SDK with over 4,000 new APIs – June 2, 2014
Apple unveils iOS 8, the biggest release since the launch of the App Store – June 2, 2014
Apple announces OS X Yosemite for Macintosh – June 2, 2014
Hahaha.
Everything threatens Microsoft’s Windows. Apple could sneeze and threaten Windows. Google could take a dump and threaten Windows.
Poor Redmond
What threatens Microsoft is the fact that technology ALWAYS moves on.
This is while the King in his castle with the protective moat of existing income producing products ALWAYS tries to protect and extend the reach of existing products.
Apple, on the other hand, sees no problem in killing off technologies (SCSI, floppies, DVDs, etc.) and products while looking to create broader usability overall. Big Diff.
Here’s hoping that Apple and whomever are whipping up some mind-blowingly awesome advertising around these features. Who wants to hold their breath with me? On three…
I really think MicroSoft’s failure in this area really lies with Bill Gates. His dream to have a tablet PC focused most of the MS resources (including Ballmer) on achieving that. That was over 10 years ago.
Unfortunately, the PCs did not stand still during those 10+ years. With little vision of the future of computing by its founder, the MS designers and programmers faced a moving target and huge challenges trying to shoehorn a full PC into a tablet.
I still remember Steve Jobs speech on the end of the PC era…comparing it to the US’s agrarian society of yesterday and their need for trucks (PC) vs. today’s urban lifestyle. Many got the metaphor, MS did not!
The ability to use any of these devices and never miss a beat will be the dagger through the heart of MS.
Right or wrong, as a child I remember being told a drowning person surfaces three times before succumbing and going under.
MS has Surfaced twice and is now Surfacing for the third time!
Microsoft can’t even handle reliably syncing a USB thumb drive when plugged into a PC. It can sync in the wrong direction, another words, overwriting a newer file with an older file with the same name.
I first tried this many years ago with a “Zip drive” (does anyone remember “click death”?), dumb old Microsoft copied the “short cut” to the file and not the file itself. I had to drive back to the office over 100 miles (200 mikes round trip) and get the file. This happened in 1996- do you think I’ve forgotten?
when your home gets a virus, try calling Google or Mircosoft. LOL.
Consumers still buy Windows machines? Really?
The only individuals I see buying Windows are people who think Apple and Macintoshes are things that reside in the produce section of Safeway. 90% of the people I know who have purchased a PC in the last 3-4 years have purchased a Mac, even if they never owned a Mac. (Of course, my salesmanship skills might have influenced those decisions a bit).
The primary buyers of Windows machines these days are the doofuses in enterprise IT departments. If it wasn’t for these fools, Windows would die right about now.
PCs sell well for two main reasons: 1. They’re cheap. 2. People are used to using Windows at work.
It isn’t until they get them home that the cold realization that there’s no IT department to call hits them.
Even Mr. Haney threatens Windohs.
The future looks bright for Apple software. But the last time I heard, they really don’t pay much attention to what anyone else is doing.
The current iteration of Windows is hurting MS sales. Like any business, they will address the issues to satisfy customer demand. Or they will perish.
I’m betting on the former.
One bad strategy is to not listen to customers needs when designing products.
Another bad strategy is to only fix obvious problems once customers complain about them.
A third bad strategy is to have a company vision based on internal company goals that mean nothing to consumers (like we need to be in this market segment, we need an answer to Company X’s product, we need to extract 10% more dollars from this group of customers, blah blah).
Microsoft seems to be following all three of these bad strategies when it comes to their consumer products. They are doomed.
Wow I bet Apple is really concerned about Android and Chromebooks interacting in this fashion or to be more accurate a patchy imitation of some aspects. Quaking in their boots I bet. Not to mention the fear of all those herds of Winphone users, or more likely a fraction of a fraction of them like Android, looking to do the same thing.
It’s not Apple’s ‘Continuity,’ it’s Apple’s ‘Quality’ that threatens Microsoft.
Apple writes OS X and iOS, designs the Macs, Apple TVs and iDevices and even, in some cases, the SoCs, so it would be very difficult for any competitor to come close to the level of integration that Apple is capable of.
Sure, you can get a Dell laptop running a Microsoft OS to play nice with an LG phone running a Google OS on a Qualcomm SoC while communicating with a Roku set top box, but it isn’t seamless or even easy.
Apple has really hit the nail on the head with the Yosemite/iOS 8 release. It will turn the halo effect into a gravitational effect.
Since iOS penetration is over 90% in large organizations, probably at least an hour of productivity per employee is lost every day because iOS devices do not seamlessly integrate (apps, handoff, messaging, widgets, some emails, bookmarks, etc.) with Windows desktops and laptops. The obvious answer for these companies is to invest in Macs. I imagine a lightbulb will go off in many managers over the next few months and Mac market share growth will quickly accelerate.