As said by Wikipedia, the Apple ecosystem “is a term used to describe Apple Inc.'s digital ecosystem of products and services, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac computers, HomePod, and the applications that run on them.” But as put by that Wiki, the Apple Ecosystem is an intangible product–giving you the best experience by making products that function near-perfectly only amongst themselves. We seem to take its outstanding continuity for granted, since if you’ve got one Apple product, chances are you’ve got more. This continuity is only further emphasized by its quiet transition from being mainly hardware-focused to a software-centric , even more so if you’re a general population consumer and not involved in tech development.
When first asked, what springs to mind is how seamless the user experience transitions between devices, apps, and memory storage are–whether it be facilitated through hardware or software. You can even foot the bill with Apple Pay on your phone! Though these perks are undeniable, it’s still important to criticize Apple and its ecosystem for being pretty inaccessible in terms of user control, and again, for being a tightly-sealed closed system.
Many users who have made the conversion from non-iPhone to iPhone cite accessibility–Apple is often compared to a “walled garden” with amazing co-performance and integration among its own products, at the cost of being terrible at working with products made by any other company, smartphone or otherwise. The poster child for this exclusion is the infamous green text bubbles when an Apple user messages, say, an Android user. As for the former point, take AirDrop which makes sending images, files, or even contact information intuitive and speedy. In short, Apple has given us no reason not to buy into their system–rather the opposite. All of their products are complimentary–Apple Watches can respond to message notifications even if the messaging platform is not installed on the watch. The iPhone can also function as a makeshift webcam for your Mac or Apple TV in a pinch. Smaller, non-smartphone, accessories such as the Apple Pencil or AirPods, all serve to enhance the usability & accessibility of exclusively other Apple Products.
At the core of it all is the Apple ID, an access key to smooth interactions between all your Apple products. From iCloud’s shared data storage across devices to FindMy’s location tracking, or just not having to pay $6.99 for Minecraft each time you reinstall on a device under your account, it’s your passcode for so many essential functions. It gives you cloud-sync across all of your Apple devices as well as providing storage and synchronized download and content.
If this all sounds too good to be true, it is. These aforementioned functions are essentially gatekept from non-Apple devices. We all shake our heads at the old joke of emailing pictures or files to ourselves, but it’s not something that’d be normalized in an ideal world.
Well, it may not! Software, hardware products, and services (like Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+). Apple using the same user experience model across all its products also means they have been firmly ingrained in our mind as our paradigm for how technology is meant to function. And perhaps rightfully so, there’s no denying that Apple has done wonders with its brand identity and marketing overall, earning it a phenomenal reputation between June 2007’s first iPhone release and the current day.
But challenge yourself to think about how many products from other tech companies you’re familiar with. It doesn’t even have to be phones–think of tablets, laptops, and the like you use on a daily basis. You might be unaware of Apple alternatives released by other brands, like the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra which holds the same functions as the Apple Watch. Or take the Sony WF-1000XM3 over your typical AirPods. The price decreases between the brands are certainly nothing to scoff at. Point being, there’s a big world out there of things to consume, and we’d be remiss to contain our horizons to an Apple-sized circle of options. Chances are that if you’re a tech enthusiast, you’ve already shed the Apple shackles to discover your own device ecosystem. And Apple’s walled garden model does not work well even with its fellow tech oligarchs, like Google products which compete heavily with things like Gmail and Google Drive, which Apple’s versions cannot compete with performance-wise. These are services that are integrated into our lives just as much, if not more than iPhones, and Google apps being freely available on the App Store almost feels like a silent concession. The answer to if you should stick with Apple comes down to personal choice–are you sick of the ecosystem’s incompatibility or do you find it’s useful enough to support you by itself?