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I strongly doubt that Apple will make it easier to share devices. Every Apple device, from Macbooks to iPads to iPhones to Airpods is built to be a personal de
by jakobegger 9y ago
I strongly doubt that Apple will make it easier to share devices.
Every Apple device, from Macbooks to iPads to iPhones to Airpods is built to be a personal device. Even Macs, theoretically capable of multi-user, are a pain to share (eg try updating a Mac App Store app purchased with a different user account than the one you are logged in as)
Apple doesn’t want to sell one shared device to a family. They want to sell multiple devices to every family member.
- zaroth 9y agoThe number of hours I spend per week in front of an iOS device will not decrease by adding this feature. The number of hours my kids spend in front of iOS could conceivably increase though, speeding up the inevitable point where they get their own...
- bitsapien 9y agoBut the number of devices sold by Apple would multiply, which is the whole point.
- lytedev 9y agoThat's just it, though. It's not about number of hours for Apple. It's about units sold.
- TomMarius 9y agoMore hours would lead to more sold units.
- JetSpiegel 9y agoNot if people share their phones.
- joncalhoun 9y agoIt still could. Many people buy their kids cheap tablets now because buying them an ipad is too expensive, and later in life those kids will be familiar enough with the Android ecosystem that they may never switch to Apple devices. If those same parents could instead just hand off their ipad to their children and have it only load their apps this could lead to them being more familiar with ios and buying apple devices later in life. Not a guarantee obviously, but it could theoretically have an impact in future sales and market share.
- vanderZwan 9y agoGiven that a lot of Apple users seem buy a new phone/tablet whenever it's available, I think children end up with the older models.
- TomMarius 9y agoStill no decrease of sold units
- vanderZwan 9y agoI'm not sure what you mean by that, since what I'm implying is that there is no real economic incentive for Apple to support multiple users. And on the other hand, there are also benefits (for Apple) of encouraging one-user-per-phone. For example, it makes it more likely it becomes an extension of your identity. Having multiple users per phone undermines that type of personal attachment. This isn't something that started with Apple - mobile numbers have always been tied to individuals - but it's very convenient for their "lifestyle" approach to selling their units.
- 9935c101ab17a66 9y agoI don't think Macs are at all a pain to share, and your example isn't very compelling.
- tw04 9y agoThen, at least around iPhone, they're idiots. I'm not going to have one cellphone for the whole family. Even in the best case scenario of my wife being a stay-at-home mom, I'm going to work. I'm not leaving my phone with her all day at home. And she's not going without a cellphone all day. So... where's the "one device per family" coming in? Even if we assume kids "share" - that works until they're what? 5? 6? 10? At some point the kid is going to want a phone at the same time you do, and eventually "No because I said so" is going to fall on deaf ears.
- nardi 9y agoI think you read the exact opposite of what GP wrote.
- endless1234 9y agoI think GP was just saying that in the case of phones, it's silly to try to make the devices single-user since people are going to want to have their own phone anyway, even if they could log in to their partner's phone and see "their own".
- tw04 9y agoNo, I really didn't. >By default if her phone rings it should only alert on her primary device. Unless she authenticates to my device at which point everything is there waiting. If her phone was ringing and she picks up my device and authenticates it should answer the call. He's talking about each person having their OWN DEVICE, but being able to seamlessly switch between devices among their family group.
- NTripleOne 9y agoWhy are you arguing completely different points then?
- justusthane 9y agoI believe he's arguing against the idea that Apple won't implement this device sharing because they don't want to sell only one device per family.
- cm2187 9y agoEven changing the email address of the Apple account is a world of pain. It confuses all of the ecosystem. But I think it is just poor software design, not necessarily malice.
- red75prime 9y agoWho needs malice if one can have poor software design for free.
- thecrazyone 9y agothat's a good quote. Not sure if it means much, but it sounds good and intelligent :)
- red75prime 9y agoI targeted "funny", but "intelligent" sounds good too.
- lostlogin 9y agoBeing allowed to have my own email address that I bought that relates to my domain would make iCloud a lot better. But it's not all that difficult to stumble across brittle edges unfortunately, so adding more isn't going to be helpful.
- funnelsgun 9y agoI've had the pain of trying to do this once before when my parents got a new email address. The Apple account was never consistent thereafter, with different devices showing either the new or old email address. We solved it once and for all by creating a new Apple ID under the new email address.
- cm2187 9y agoThe problem with doing that is the music and the apps purchased.
- amelius 9y ago> I strongly doubt that Apple will make it easier to share devices. So Apple devices are actually closer to being a PC than what we commonly call a Personal Computer.