“Apple often credits its unique combination of hardware, software, and services as the secret sauce that makes its products so good,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “It’s hard to argue that control over the whole widget hasn’t played into Apple’s history of creating incredibly well-designed products like the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the Apple Watch.
“But as our technological lives get even more and more complex, it’s become apparent that Apple’s play is ever more about the ecosystem,” Moren writes. “I came to this realization in the aftermath of the company’s WWDC announcements of the past month, when I found myself itching at the prospect of upgrading my Apple Watch to the watchOS 3 beta.”
Moren writes, “It’s all connected.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote on June 14th: “We are armed with Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs and nobody lacking such a lineup can come even remotely close to our day-to-day capabilities. We are more efficient and we can accomplish much more than non-Apple device sufferers because our devices are infinitely more integrated. No other platform or ecosystem can compare.”
SEE ALSO:
macOS Sierra: Apple’s gateway drug – June 22, 2016
A week with macOS Sierra – June 22, 2016
The new ways Apple’s macOS Sierra works with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch – June 22, 2016
Exactly!
This is why I was so surprised (not really, considering the source), when recently an analyst suggested Apple spin off the Macintosh line.
Sure, knife the baby, kill the ecosystem, all for a few more instant gains for “investors”.
You’re absolutely right Dan. Its why its very hard to argue for the benefits of a samsung phone, android phone or tablet over its apple competitor. There may be a hardeare feature that the other platforms may have that are nice tomhave, but the well developed apple ecosystem is a marvel to use and it will only get better. Great article.
The ecosystem itself is the “Killer feature” no one else has.
“But as our technological lives get even more and more complex, it’s become apparent that Apple’s play is ever more about the ecosystem,” Moren writes
Well duh. Apple has created a suite of products targeted at different users at different times. The right device for the the right purpose. These products should no longer be looked at as computers. Apple is not a computer company. Apple builds information appliances. You take it out of the box and it just works.
All these appliances are tied together by the “ecosystem.”
Watch -> iPhone -> iPad -> MacBook -> Desktop Mac
———————————————-
iCloud/Apps/Services
Pretty much everyone (except for so called pros) will find a device or combination of devices in this group that fits their needs and iCloud will house their data, backup their data, and facilitate mobility.
Who else has this? HP? No. Dell? Hell no. Google? Nope. IBM? Off building their own services to support Apple’s appliances. In fact, IBM is probably the only major player to get it right. If you want to make money in an Apple world… build a better ecosystem.
Microsoft has built the worst most difficult to use suite of cloud services out there. They should have just gone out bought Dropbox, created equivalent Android, iOS, and Mac apps for office and their other important apps, bought Spotify, charged $50 a month for all of it and let it go. They’d be raking in the money.
True, the ecosystem has been the silent ‘Killer App’ … but the problem with it is also that it has been all too ready to drop something important to go chance after the latest fad.
Case in point: image management -vs- emojis.
Yeah, its great that Apple is catering to the teenage kids who want to IM little cartoonish hieroglyphs to each other … but over on the Mac where Mom & Pop have kept the family photos for the past 15 years, the prior ecosystem superiority afforded by the likes of { Aperture / iPhoto / iWeb / iMovie } have been systematically left out to twist in the wind and die a slow, miserable lingering death of purposeful neglect.