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Disagree. It's about selling apps, not hardware. What holds Apple back is user OS adoption. With iOS updates being free, users can get the latest apps, and App

by mvkel 13y ago

Disagree. It's about selling apps, not hardware. What holds Apple back is user OS adoption. With iOS updates being free, users can get the latest apps, and Apple doesn't need to worry too much about backwards compatibility. OS X didn't have that luxury until today. With the free play, Apple is giving their customers zero reason to stay on older versions. They want to see 90 percent adoption rates in 6 months. Why? The App Store ecosystem. The more users on the App Store, the more developers will build apps, the more revenue it will generate for both.

blueblob 13y ago
If it was just about apps, why wouldn't they release OS X for all x86* architectures instead of just their hardware? Then projects such as hackintosh/osx86 would be irrelevant.
- zdw 13y ago
  Increased support burden, by several orders of magnitude. People blaming the OS for hardware deficiencies. Etc. I'm not seeing any upside for Apple if they did this.
  - mvkel 13y ago
    Exactly. This is also the reason they released Mav for Macs going back to 2008. To reduce the support burden of previous OSs
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
> It's about selling apps, not hardware. Apple makes very little from app sales, profits from iTunes purchases (including both App Stores) are under $1 billion a year. Apple rakes in tens of billions in profits a year from Mac sales, and even that is a minor business compared to profits from iOS device sales.
- mvkel 13y ago
  Apple doesn't offer ios updates for free to sell more idevices. They do it to keep every single device relevant, and able to run the latest apps. It reduces their support burden and increases the value of the app ecosystem, however small its contribution to the bottom line. Yeah it only generates a billion on revenue, but it also DIDNT EXIST 5 years ago. That's a crazy growth curve Apple could replicate in the OS X world if they play their cards right.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    Even if Apple were to sell 40 million Macs a year (2 times what it sells right now) and the entire installed base of OS X users were to buy 50 $10 apps a year on the Mac App Store, profits from Mac apps would still be less than Apple makes from selling iOS devices.

by mvkel 13y ago

blueblob 13y ago

If it was just about apps, why wouldn't they release OS X for all x86* architectures instead of just their hardware? Then projects such as hackintosh/osx86 would be irrelevant.

zdw 13y ago
Increased support burden, by several orders of magnitude. People blaming the OS for hardware deficiencies. Etc. I'm not seeing any upside for Apple if they did this.
- mvkel 13y ago
  Exactly. This is also the reason they released Mav for Macs going back to 2008. To reduce the support burden of previous OSs

Samuel_Michon 13y ago

> It's about selling apps, not hardware. Apple makes very little from app sales, profits from iTunes purchases (including both App Stores) are under $1 billion a year. Apple rakes in tens of billions in profits a year from Mac sales, and even that is a minor business compared to profits from iOS device sales.

mvkel 13y ago
Apple doesn't offer ios updates for free to sell more idevices. They do it to keep every single device relevant, and able to run the latest apps. It reduces their support burden and increases the value of the app ecosystem, however small its contribution to the bottom line. Yeah it only generates a billion on revenue, but it also DIDNT EXIST 5 years ago. That's a crazy growth curve Apple could replicate in the OS X world if they play their cards right.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Even if Apple were to sell 40 million Macs a year (2 times what it sells right now) and the entire installed base of OS X users were to buy 50 $10 apps a year on the Mac App Store, profits from Mac apps would still be less than Apple makes from selling iOS devices.