You are right to point at Apple, as they have been and still probably are the blocking piece for this to not become a reality. NAS vendors saw that future and

You are right to point at Apple, as they have been and still probably are the blocking piece for this to not become a reality. NAS vendors saw that future and worked toward it. Synology's solution is pretty extensive and could have been a real game changer... if it wasn't for: - being a PITA to handle network shares on the mac - iTunes being the prevalent link to iPods and iPhones for such a long time, even for local file exchange - music files being the sanctuary no third party messes with on iPhones - photo sync being such a PITA as well for anything non Apple for so long (still is?) - iOS backups being iCloud only - even Time Machine backups require more specific adjustments that make it harder for normal people to use outside of the Apple offering. Don't get me wrong Google also screws the market in so many nasty ways, but Smartphone got rebooted by Apple, and they royally fucked it for so many third party applications to cement their own services' profits.