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Interesting background: Apple was, for a while, planning on officially supporting Android as a "host phone OS", but axed the project out of ecosystem concerns:

by lxgr 2y ago

Interesting background: Apple was, for a while, planning on officially supporting Android as a "host phone OS", but axed the project out of ecosystem concerns: https://9to5mac.com/2024/03/22/apple-watch-compatible-android/ https://9to5mac.com/2024/03/22/apple-watch-compatible-androi... Personally, this is actually how they got me – I used to use Android phones for many years, but found the Apple Watch so much more appealing than anything available from Google at the time that I made the switch.

CrazyStat 2y ago
> Personally, this is actually how they got me – I used to use Android phones for many years, but found the Apple Watch so much more appealing than anything available from Google at the time that I made the switch. Same. Maybe Android watches are better now—it’s been a few years since I looked at them—but at the time they were universally thicker and with worse battery life than the apple watch, which is already thicker than I like.
davidmurdoch 2y ago
Their lock-in behavior is what has prevented me from buying anything from Apple.
jeroenhd 2y ago
If Apple was stupid enough to actually document this decision and the ecosystem concerns in written record, I wonder if they'll get dinged by the DMA for gatekeeping (again) over this.
- lxgr 2y ago
  I'm not sure the Apple Watch has enough users, or is considered critical enough, to be covered by the DMA (iMessage, macOS, and iPad OS aren't either, for example). In any case, this was all long before the DMA went into effect, so it would have to be a regular old antitrust case.
- bhelkey 2y ago
  From the US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple: >Apple recognizes that driving users to purchase an Apple Watch, rather than a third-party cross-platform smartwatch, helps drive iPhone sales and reinforce the moat around its smartphone monopoly. For example, in a 2019 email the Vice President of Product Marketing for Apple Watch acknowledged that Apple Watch "may help prevent iPhone customers from switching."...Apple also recognizes that making Apple Watch compatible with Android would “remove[an] iPhone differentiator.”[1] The lawsuit also alleges that Apple degrades APIs to hurt Third Party watch manufactures. [1] https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24492020/doj-apple-antitrust-complaint.pdf https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24492020/doj-apple-an...

by lxgr 2y ago

CrazyStat 2y ago

> Personally, this is actually how they got me – I used to use Android phones for many years, but found the Apple Watch so much more appealing than anything available from Google at the time that I made the switch. Same. Maybe Android watches are better now—it’s been a few years since I looked at them—but at the time they were universally thicker and with worse battery life than the apple watch, which is already thicker than I like.

davidmurdoch 2y ago

Their lock-in behavior is what has prevented me from buying anything from Apple.

jeroenhd 2y ago

If Apple was stupid enough to actually document this decision and the ecosystem concerns in written record, I wonder if they'll get dinged by the DMA for gatekeeping (again) over this.

lxgr 2y ago
I'm not sure the Apple Watch has enough users, or is considered critical enough, to be covered by the DMA (iMessage, macOS, and iPad OS aren't either, for example). In any case, this was all long before the DMA went into effect, so it would have to be a regular old antitrust case.
bhelkey 2y ago
From the US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple: >Apple recognizes that driving users to purchase an Apple Watch, rather than a third-party cross-platform smartwatch, helps drive iPhone sales and reinforce the moat around its smartphone monopoly. For example, in a 2019 email the Vice President of Product Marketing for Apple Watch acknowledged that Apple Watch "may help prevent iPhone customers from switching."...Apple also recognizes that making Apple Watch compatible with Android would “remove[an] iPhone differentiator.”[1] The lawsuit also alleges that Apple degrades APIs to hurt Third Party watch manufactures. [1] https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24492020/doj-apple-antitrust-complaint.pdf https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24492020/doj-apple-an...