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Really suprises me that a company would go out of their way to make software for Apple products exclusively. No B2B, customers are likely pre-college grads, an

Really suprises me that a company would go out of their way to make software for Apple products exclusively. No B2B, customers are likely pre-college grads, and the pool of customers are tiny. Anyone like to hypothesize why a company would be exclusive to Apple?

TomK32 8y ago
It's a cult, you simply don't ask such questions.
albertgoeswoof 8y ago
For media production apple is the market leader and the biggest market by a long way
- robertAngst 8y ago
  Source? Is this true? I've seen apple users say this, but none of them are out of college, or they are STAHMs. Does enterprise use this? Any big companies?
  - 7Z7 8y ago
    I'm in VFX, in one of the leading houses (5000+ employees over 5 sites). We use Linux for 90% of our workload, but the rest is probably evenly split between Windows for the occasional tools that don't have a Linux release, or Macs. Interestingly, its mostly the admin/production/HR team who are on the Macs. Additionally all company laptops are MacBooks.
  - elliekelly 8y ago
    > but none of them are out of college, or they are STAHMs Can you explain what you mean by this?
7Z7 8y ago
All of the software listed is made by Apple and bundled with the OS. So not that mysterious. Beyond that, and to your actual point, different developers have different motivations. Maybe their tool fits a specific need on macOS or within their community, or maybe they are starting with what they know, with a view to expand to other OSs later if they get traction. Or they aren't trying to sell the most software, and so don't feel the need to fish in the biggest pond. Or their software is iOS specific, which is potentially more portable to macOS in a way that it might not be to other OSs. Seems like lots of reasons, and probably not that different to why some software is only available on Linux.
zrail 8y ago
Because making things cross platform takes away development and support time that could be spent making your product better for your most profitable customers.
- ryandrake 8y ago
  Porting an existing (legacy) application to other platforms often takes a lot of development time, depending on how portably it was initially developed. I’d argue that if you start out with the intention of supporting many platforms and throughout the project do not tie it unnecessarily to OS-specific APIs and features, then releasing for multiple platforms becomes much less of a development effort. Stick to platform-neutral languages, use the standard libraries whenever possible, minimize and isolate the platform-specific code (probably just the UI), and you’re well on your way.
lowercased 8y ago
relatively speaking, the pool is smaller, sure. but I don't get 'pre-college grads'. i can't think of a single mac (or macbook) owner I know who is a non-adult (I'm presuming you were meaning to indicate a youth-angle, not education level). I'm sure there are college-age mac owners, but all the ones I know are adults, working for businesses (or themselves as a business). it's also easier to support just one platform than many. "there's riches in niches" may be the general answer.
- slow_donkey 8y ago
  Might be demographic differences but every college campus I've been to in California had about 50% macs
  - lowercased 8y ago
    college kids having macs doesn't mean the majority of mac-owners are college kids.

TomK32 8y ago

It's a cult, you simply don't ask such questions.

albertgoeswoof 8y ago

For media production apple is the market leader and the biggest market by a long way

robertAngst 8y ago
Source? Is this true? I've seen apple users say this, but none of them are out of college, or they are STAHMs. Does enterprise use this? Any big companies?
- 7Z7 8y ago
  I'm in VFX, in one of the leading houses (5000+ employees over 5 sites). We use Linux for 90% of our workload, but the rest is probably evenly split between Windows for the occasional tools that don't have a Linux release, or Macs. Interestingly, its mostly the admin/production/HR team who are on the Macs. Additionally all company laptops are MacBooks.
- elliekelly 8y ago
  > but none of them are out of college, or they are STAHMs Can you explain what you mean by this?

7Z7 8y ago

All of the software listed is made by Apple and bundled with the OS. So not that mysterious. Beyond that, and to your actual point, different developers have different motivations. Maybe their tool fits a specific need on macOS or within their community, or maybe they are starting with what they know, with a view to expand to other OSs later if they get traction. Or they aren't trying to sell the most software, and so don't feel the need to fish in the biggest pond. Or their software is iOS specific, which is potentially more portable to macOS in a way that it might not be to other OSs. Seems like lots of reasons, and probably not that different to why some software is only available on Linux.

zrail 8y ago

Because making things cross platform takes away development and support time that could be spent making your product better for your most profitable customers.

ryandrake 8y ago
Porting an existing (legacy) application to other platforms often takes a lot of development time, depending on how portably it was initially developed. I’d argue that if you start out with the intention of supporting many platforms and throughout the project do not tie it unnecessarily to OS-specific APIs and features, then releasing for multiple platforms becomes much less of a development effort. Stick to platform-neutral languages, use the standard libraries whenever possible, minimize and isolate the platform-specific code (probably just the UI), and you’re well on your way.

lowercased 8y ago

relatively speaking, the pool is smaller, sure. but I don't get 'pre-college grads'. i can't think of a single mac (or macbook) owner I know who is a non-adult (I'm presuming you were meaning to indicate a youth-angle, not education level). I'm sure there are college-age mac owners, but all the ones I know are adults, working for businesses (or themselves as a business). it's also easier to support just one platform than many. "there's riches in niches" may be the general answer.

slow_donkey 8y ago
Might be demographic differences but every college campus I've been to in California had about 50% macs
- lowercased 8y ago
  college kids having macs doesn't mean the majority of mac-owners are college kids.