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I believe that Apple is strategically choosing to coast on their desktop software while they work to harmonize their mobile, desktop, and entertainment software

I believe that Apple is strategically choosing to coast on their desktop software while they work to harmonize their mobile, desktop, and entertainment software stacks. Why? Because based on rumors, patents, and the decisions they've made and the actions they've taken (or not taken), it appears as though that Apple believes that in the not so distant future the concept of having a separate mobile device and a computing device will be irrelevant. Consumers will have a single device, and that device will be capable of some form of altered reality interaction, or at least some impressive context switching behaviour. It's already the case that an entire generation has been raised with their primary computing experience not being on general computing devices, but on some variant of mobile or tablet computing. It's not too much of a stretch to consider that they will be most comfortable with a device that behaves with some familiarity to that experience, but which can engage in much greater utility in a pinch. And it will be mobile, and it will require a better input experience than mashing your fingers on the small screen that splits its available space between the important information and large input elements.

stephen_g 4y ago
That seems exactly the opposite direction they’ve always gone though. Microsoft tried to have a completely unified PC/tablet experience, where their desktop OS basically became completely tabled focused in Windows 8. Whereas Apple has always made a strong distinction between e.g. the iPad and the Mac, refusing to build a convertible Mac or any Mac with a touch screen…
- conductr 4y ago
  I think Microsoft failed in it’s aim to steal market share just as Apple isn’t willing to cannibalize itself, yet.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Only partially, it gave birth to the Surface and all those hybrid laptops that are quite common and a nuisance to Android tablets.
- isametry 4y ago
  I hate to remind you this, but Windows 8 was 10 years ago. At that time, the iPad was only taking baby steps as the blown-up iPod Touch it was. Its selling feature was reading New York Times. In contrast, OS X was at beloved 10.8 Mountain Lion — the version considered by many as the pinnacle of Mac-assed macOS, and the definition of what Apple’s desktop experience should represent. So yes, in 2012, what you’re saying about “strong distinctions” was completely true. At that time, “computer” was synonymous with “Mac” in the sphere of Apple and its users. Meanwhile, look at macOS now. Its last design overhaul, 2 years ago, had one goal: Make all control elements bigger, blobbier and simplified. Last year’s updates were almost exclusively feature parity with iOS and iPadOS, and/or better collaboration of Mac with the other devices. This year, the lineup of new macOS features consists of: • better collaboration between Mac and iOS/iPadOS • ports of two applications (Clock & Weather) from iOS/iPadOS • redesign of an integral part of the OS, to make it look like iOS/iPadOS • port of a window management tool which was very clearly designed for the iPad first and only added to Mac as an afterthought. To say that the writing is on the wall would be an understatement. Yes, Steve Jobs made a clear distinction when introducing the iPad, but from the day he disappeared, Apple has been working steadily to remove that distinction.
nkozyra 4y ago
> the concept of having a separate mobile device and a computing device will be irrelevant. Well ... yeah. People have been predicting and experimenting with this for more than a decade. But when you do this some parts of each platform has to suffer. It's a compromise. User interfaces have to change, designs have to consolidate, performance or features take a hit. So the challenge becomes how do you sell this? Seamlessly moving from desktop to mobile sounds nice but is it actually practical? Do we actually want it?
- bandushrew 4y ago
  Let me use a single device but via different hardware depending on context. Give me a phone I can plug into 2 monitors and a keyboard and interact with as a desktop, or slot into the back of a laptop case for portable computing, or put into my pocket.
  - heartbreak 4y ago
    I remember when Bill Gates pitched this concept years before the first iPhone. It has been possible for a while with the right Android phones. Still waiting on someone to make it useable.
    - cowtools 4y ago
      Some level of "convergence" works on linux phones (e.g. Pinephone, Librem 5), with the same "mobile" apps playing nice with the rest of the linux desktop/userspace. I think it will be the future of consumer electronics.
  - asdajksah2123 4y ago
    Isn't that what Samsung Dex is?
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    Actually sounds pretty good, but how feasible is it for a phone sized device to be sufficiently high spec to run, e.g., fully featured development tools etc. I mean you need 32Gb RAM, 8 core processors and 512Gb SSDs these days just to run the basics (maybe less if using linux)...if you're doing modern game development or CAD stuff probably twice that. But... something you could dock your phone into as needed to allow a seamless experience that supplied the extra resources as needed might be feasible?
anonymouse008 4y ago
You’re missing the forest from the trees - it’s not one device it’s one user interaction layer. Drag and drop from real life to AR, to Illustrator, to printed document should follow one framework. We’ve entered into a realm where context dictates the task for the desired computing aims. The paradigms for user interaction change if you’re on a bus, at a desk, walking in the park. A unified abstraction for how to achieve user intent may be one device, but for certain a continuous ecosystem requires one language and one API paradigm to achieve user aims. That said, there are good ways of going about it (MacCatalyst) and bad (SwiftUI) - and I say this in light of whatever VR/AR is coming. I know a guy working on this for AR and thought he had 0 shot on earth, but seeing Apple go for SwiftUI greatly increases his chances.
kazinator 4y ago
> Consumers will have a single device, and that device will be capable of some form of altered reality interaction, or at least some impressive context switching behaviour. ... plus for real work they will have Microsoft Windows 14, so they will be covered.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dividefuel 4y ago
I'm skeptical of the "one device" future dream when so much of Apple's revenue comes from selling multiple devices for different form factors. Why would Apple want to sell you one device when they could sell you an iPhone, an iPad, AND a Macbook?
- hattmall 4y ago
  They will still sell all three along with many more devices. The brain, the most expensive part for apple to make will be the iPhone. I'm sure they will still make standalone devices as well but the pinnacle will be a singular compute device that works seamlessly with a wide range of "dumb" docking devices. We have seen previous iterations with things like Asus Pad Phone and Motorola lap docks. Apples ipad and laptop revenue combined is only around 15% vs 50+% for iPhones. They can sell the docking stations which may be both wireless and physical docking, as in they are useable when paired wirelessly but for maximum performance slip the phone in the docking slot. The docking devices (tablets, laptops, home centers, desktops, gaming systems, digital media equipment, etc) can be sold at great profit margins and various spec levels (Resolutions, Coprocessors, input sensors, etc)
aluminussoma 4y ago
iPhone+ iPad revenues compose ~65% of revenues. Mac revenues are ~10%. They are allocating people to where they expect to make the most money. I don't characterize that as coasting, just business sense. Overall, I still agree that Apple needs to do better with Macs.
- alwillis 4y ago
  Mac revenues are ~10% This is a little misleading. The Mac has had several record quarters since Apple Silicon Macs started shipping nearly two years ago. Let me repeat: a nearly 40 year-old computer has never sold better than it does now. On a revenue basis, the Mac generates more revenue than the iPad; that's been the case for quite a while now. Apple's latest quarterly report shows for the first 9 months of the fiscal year, Mac revenue is about $6 billion ahead of the iPad [1]. I get it; there are all kinds of different UI/UX paradigms that didn't exist back in the day and some of them are out of place. But I've been using the Mac long enough to remember how fragile System 7 was and how INITs could crash your machine because everything lived in the same address space. On a 25 Mhz 68030-based Mac with 2 Mb of RAM. The Mac is in much better shape now than it was a few years ago, when Apple couldn't ship stuff because they were beholden to Intel's processor roadmap, that was often late. I don't mean to echo something we hear at each Apple presentation but these are the best Macs they've ever made. Old timers will remember the multiple times the Mac (and Apple) were doomed. I don't expect that to be the case; I guess we'll revisit when the Apple Silicon Mac Pro ships later this year or early 2023. [1]: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/FY22_Q3_Consolidated_Financial_Statements.pdf https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/FY22_Q3_Consolidated_Fin...

stephen_g 4y ago

That seems exactly the opposite direction they’ve always gone though. Microsoft tried to have a completely unified PC/tablet experience, where their desktop OS basically became completely tabled focused in Windows 8. Whereas Apple has always made a strong distinction between e.g. the iPad and the Mac, refusing to build a convertible Mac or any Mac with a touch screen…

conductr 4y ago
I think Microsoft failed in it’s aim to steal market share just as Apple isn’t willing to cannibalize itself, yet.
pjmlp 4y ago
Only partially, it gave birth to the Surface and all those hybrid laptops that are quite common and a nuisance to Android tablets.
isametry 4y ago
I hate to remind you this, but Windows 8 was 10 years ago. At that time, the iPad was only taking baby steps as the blown-up iPod Touch it was. Its selling feature was reading New York Times. In contrast, OS X was at beloved 10.8 Mountain Lion — the version considered by many as the pinnacle of Mac-assed macOS, and the definition of what Apple’s desktop experience should represent. So yes, in 2012, what you’re saying about “strong distinctions” was completely true. At that time, “computer” was synonymous with “Mac” in the sphere of Apple and its users. Meanwhile, look at macOS now. Its last design overhaul, 2 years ago, had one goal: Make all control elements bigger, blobbier and simplified. Last year’s updates were almost exclusively feature parity with iOS and iPadOS, and/or better collaboration of Mac with the other devices. This year, the lineup of new macOS features consists of: • better collaboration between Mac and iOS/iPadOS • ports of two applications (Clock & Weather) from iOS/iPadOS • redesign of an integral part of the OS, to make it look like iOS/iPadOS • port of a window management tool which was very clearly designed for the iPad first and only added to Mac as an afterthought. To say that the writing is on the wall would be an understatement. Yes, Steve Jobs made a clear distinction when introducing the iPad, but from the day he disappeared, Apple has been working steadily to remove that distinction.

nkozyra 4y ago

> the concept of having a separate mobile device and a computing device will be irrelevant. Well ... yeah. People have been predicting and experimenting with this for more than a decade. But when you do this some parts of each platform has to suffer. It's a compromise. User interfaces have to change, designs have to consolidate, performance or features take a hit. So the challenge becomes how do you sell this? Seamlessly moving from desktop to mobile sounds nice but is it actually practical? Do we actually want it?

bandushrew 4y ago
Let me use a single device but via different hardware depending on context. Give me a phone I can plug into 2 monitors and a keyboard and interact with as a desktop, or slot into the back of a laptop case for portable computing, or put into my pocket.
- heartbreak 4y ago
  I remember when Bill Gates pitched this concept years before the first iPhone. It has been possible for a while with the right Android phones. Still waiting on someone to make it useable.
  - cowtools 4y ago
    Some level of "convergence" works on linux phones (e.g. Pinephone, Librem 5), with the same "mobile" apps playing nice with the rest of the linux desktop/userspace. I think it will be the future of consumer electronics.
- asdajksah2123 4y ago
  Isn't that what Samsung Dex is?
- wizofaus 4y ago
  Actually sounds pretty good, but how feasible is it for a phone sized device to be sufficiently high spec to run, e.g., fully featured development tools etc. I mean you need 32Gb RAM, 8 core processors and 512Gb SSDs these days just to run the basics (maybe less if using linux)...if you're doing modern game development or CAD stuff probably twice that. But... something you could dock your phone into as needed to allow a seamless experience that supplied the extra resources as needed might be feasible?

anonymouse008 4y ago

You’re missing the forest from the trees - it’s not one device it’s one user interaction layer. Drag and drop from real life to AR, to Illustrator, to printed document should follow one framework. We’ve entered into a realm where context dictates the task for the desired computing aims. The paradigms for user interaction change if you’re on a bus, at a desk, walking in the park. A unified abstraction for how to achieve user intent may be one device, but for certain a continuous ecosystem requires one language and one API paradigm to achieve user aims. That said, there are good ways of going about it (MacCatalyst) and bad (SwiftUI) - and I say this in light of whatever VR/AR is coming. I know a guy working on this for AR and thought he had 0 shot on earth, but seeing Apple go for SwiftUI greatly increases his chances.

kazinator 4y ago

> Consumers will have a single device, and that device will be capable of some form of altered reality interaction, or at least some impressive context switching behaviour. ... plus for real work they will have Microsoft Windows 14, so they will be covered.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dividefuel 4y ago

I'm skeptical of the "one device" future dream when so much of Apple's revenue comes from selling multiple devices for different form factors. Why would Apple want to sell you one device when they could sell you an iPhone, an iPad, AND a Macbook?

hattmall 4y ago
They will still sell all three along with many more devices. The brain, the most expensive part for apple to make will be the iPhone. I'm sure they will still make standalone devices as well but the pinnacle will be a singular compute device that works seamlessly with a wide range of "dumb" docking devices. We have seen previous iterations with things like Asus Pad Phone and Motorola lap docks. Apples ipad and laptop revenue combined is only around 15% vs 50+% for iPhones. They can sell the docking stations which may be both wireless and physical docking, as in they are useable when paired wirelessly but for maximum performance slip the phone in the docking slot. The docking devices (tablets, laptops, home centers, desktops, gaming systems, digital media equipment, etc) can be sold at great profit margins and various spec levels (Resolutions, Coprocessors, input sensors, etc)

aluminussoma 4y ago

iPhone+ iPad revenues compose ~65% of revenues. Mac revenues are ~10%. They are allocating people to where they expect to make the most money. I don't characterize that as coasting, just business sense. Overall, I still agree that Apple needs to do better with Macs.

alwillis 4y ago
Mac revenues are ~10% This is a little misleading. The Mac has had several record quarters since Apple Silicon Macs started shipping nearly two years ago. Let me repeat: a nearly 40 year-old computer has never sold better than it does now. On a revenue basis, the Mac generates more revenue than the iPad; that's been the case for quite a while now. Apple's latest quarterly report shows for the first 9 months of the fiscal year, Mac revenue is about $6 billion ahead of the iPad [1]. I get it; there are all kinds of different UI/UX paradigms that didn't exist back in the day and some of them are out of place. But I've been using the Mac long enough to remember how fragile System 7 was and how INITs could crash your machine because everything lived in the same address space. On a 25 Mhz 68030-based Mac with 2 Mb of RAM. The Mac is in much better shape now than it was a few years ago, when Apple couldn't ship stuff because they were beholden to Intel's processor roadmap, that was often late. I don't mean to echo something we hear at each Apple presentation but these are the best Macs they've ever made. Old timers will remember the multiple times the Mac (and Apple) were doomed. I don't expect that to be the case; I guess we'll revisit when the Apple Silicon Mac Pro ships later this year or early 2023. [1]: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/FY22_Q3_Consolidated_Financial_Statements.pdf https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/FY22_Q3_Consolidated_Fin...