The Apple Ecosystem, What Does it Mean?

[scott craft]

I'm relatively new to the Apple ecosystem. I'm currently on my second iPhone, but the rest of the house is an iPhone for my wife, iPod for my son and I have an iPad and we have a MacBook Air. Previously I was an extensive android and Windows phone user. The things I like about this ecosystem are family sharing, especially the ability to approve or disapprove apps for my son's iPod, messaging synced on all my devices and backup and restore. I could live without my messages being synced and when my son is 13 I won't be able to approve his apps, but restoring a new phone from backup is huge for me. I know everyone has different things they deem as important, but these are big for me.

 

[thelookingglass]

Maybe I can share an example of how I might have "locked" myself into the Apple ecosystem.

I own a variety of Apple products. Currently using a 6S+, iPad Mini 2 (soon to upgrade to the next iPad Air 3 or whatever it's called), 2011 11" MBA, 27" iMac, Apple TV 3rd gen and 4th gen.

I have my 3rd gen Apple TV installed in my classroom (I am an elementary school teacher), which I use to airplay my Apple devices to the interactive whiteboard. Because airplay only works with Apple products, that's a very strong disincentive to switch to any other competing product. I am aware there are other devices out there which do the same thing for other brands (like the EZ-cast dongle), but my set up is working seamlessly and reliably for me and I see no need to change yet.

I like being able to do stuff like use airdrop to pass files around my Apple products, or take calls on my iPad via Continuity, or transfer a task to another device via Handoff. Again, bringing a non-Apple product into the mix would mess up the harmony I am enjoying. My photos are synced via icloud photo library, as is most of my data.

There are benefits, like paying once for an app and being able to install it on both my iPhone and iPad, or iMac and Macbook. Moving away would mean having to purchase those apps all over again on the new platform (and I do spend a lot on apps), not to mention that some apps like Overcast, Tweetbot and Fantastical remain iOS-exclusive.

I am subscribed to Apple Music over Spotify because the former has Siri integration and is also available on Apple TV. I use Apple Maps over Google Maps as the former is "good enough", and my personal stance is that so long as Apple's offering meets my needs, I will use it over the competition. I have recently moved back to Notes from Evernote. And I do see myself eventually getting an Apple Watch down the road once it gets "good enough".

Basically, what Apple has done here is offer me an integrated solution that "just works" for most part, so long as I stay within their ecosystem. I understand that the deeper I embrace the Apple ecosystem by using their services over more platform-agnostic alternatives such as Google's, the harder it will be for me to leave in the future should I so desire and maybe that's precisely what I want deep down inside - to continue to use Apple products for a good many years to come and have a compelling reason not to switch.

But basically, my Apple products and services work well and play well with one another and that's all that really matters to me.

Great examples. And I'd add iMessage and FaceTime. A lot of us use these two tools almost exclusively with our family members. I'd love to try out the new S7, but it would quite literally mean losing touch with a lot of people I care about. So no can do.

By the way, how is your move back to Notes from Evernote? Notes is nowhere near as versatile as Evernote. Aren't you missing a bunch of Evernote's features?

 

[Abazigal]

Great examples. And I'd add iMessage and FaceTime. A lot of us use these two tools almost exclusively with our family members. I'd love to try out the new S7, but it would quite literally mean losing touch with a lot of people I care about. So no can do.

By the way, how is your move back to Notes from Evernote? Notes is nowhere near as versatile as Evernote. Aren't you missing a bunch of Evernote's features?

Well, for me, I never really found use for many of evernote's advanced features. I initially used Evernote has a dumping ground for links (now replaced with pocket). I actually typed and stored my lesson plans there (the table feature is perhaps one thing I really wished was on Notes). However, Evernote was too fiddly and needed more steps to get the same job done, but all I wanted was a quick way of jotting and retrieving notes.

Notes is working great and I use it fairly extensively everyday. Notes has about 80% of the functionality that I need and ultimately won because of its speed and lightweightness. Moving forward, I would also like a way to adjust font size as well.

I think I used Evernote's presentation feature all but once (but it proved its weight in gold).

I have actually migrated to Telegram. I guess it helps that not many of my friends and colleagues were on iMessage to begin with (majority were on whatsapp). iMessage is still cool, but I now only use it when I need to send mass SMSes from my Mac (uncommon, but it happens).

 

[Savor]

I think Apple's ecosystem is what popularized the term ecosystem in the tech world. The only times I heard the word ecosystem usually pertained in biology class with wildlife. I've been reading in PDF form NEXT Generation magazine issues from 1995-1999. Trying to find the parallelism between the different tech industries. This was way before Google was a household name and Apple became successful again. There is even an interview with Steve Jobs in a 1999 issue where his philosophy was always the same. People have to remember millions survived in tech without an ecosystem for years. Back in the 1990's, Sony was only a hardware maker. Microsoft was only a software maker. Google wasn't into mutliple services yet. I didn't really hear the term ecosystem for tech until late-2000's when the App Store opened. It was really Apple to become the first company to truly make a successful ecosystem and make the term popular in the tech world.

But any industry is FICKLE. I was watching a G4 Icons episode of the video game market crash of 1983. I was wondering if the mobile industry will ever get their own crash with the market being saturated enough and less and less innovations during the next decade or so? It might. Because the real estate industry went through their own recession back in 2007 and most human beings would rather have a roof over their heads than owning multiple gadgets at their disposal. No company is truly safe no matter how dominant they are in an industry for so long. Go ask IBM, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and Nokia. Apple can be relevant for so long like Disney, but dominating 94% profits because of an ecosystem may not be forever. We can never be too confident with any market because all empires fall down...

 

[Mildredop]

apps, media, iMessage, iCloud, accessories, and software integration with other Apple products.

Here's how I read your points:

Apps - all available on Android. I've spent, probably, around £40 on apps. Not the end of the world to re-buy.
Media - will all play on Android. Photos, music, videos are all cross-platform
iMessage - What's App is more widely used and cross-platform
iCloud - Just migrate to Google Drive, Drop Box etc. Easy job
Accessories - I guess this depends on the user. And going forward, Android accessories are cheaper (chargers a case in point)
Integration with Apple products - Android and Google work fine with Apple. Ok, so no sync with iTunes, but I regularly read that iTunes is a "mess" anyway.

 

[Gav2k]

Funnily enough a while back I was considering repurchasing all my apps so I didn't have the split between iCloud and my iTunes login so I done the math which made my jaw hit the floor.

Apps - OS X and iOS hit just shy of £1000

Music wasn't important because I use iTunes Match so to move it would be a simple case of cancelling match on one address and setting it up on the other. Easy.

Hardware I've got to much to list but I'm invested big time.

Backbone - server wise I've a mix from qnap and drobo. I do have an Xserve but that's for another project.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Here's how I read your points:

Apps - all available on Android. I've spent, probably, around £40 on apps. Not the end of the world to re-buy.
Media - will all play on Android. Photos, music, videos are all cross-platform
iMessage - What's App is more widely used and cross-platform
iCloud - Just migrate to Google Drive, Drop Box etc. Easy job
Accessories - I guess this depends on the user. And going forward, Android accessories are cheaper (chargers a case in point)
Integration with Apple products - Android and Google work fine with Apple. Ok, so no sync with iTunes, but I regularly read that iTunes is a "mess" anyway.

Obviously it depends on the user but not all of my apps are available on android.

The TV shows and movies I have bought on iTunes, which is a considerable amount cannot be played on android devices because they have DRM.

Sure Google and android can play with Apple products but not it the way that Apple plays with Apple.

 

[gotluck]

Obviously it depends on the user but not all of my apps are available on android.

The TV shows and movies I have bought on iTunes, which is a considerable amount cannot be played on android devices because they have DRM.

Sure Google and android can play with Apple products but not it the way that Apple plays with Apple.

Ugh you can't watch drm itunes content on Android? That sucks

It's ridiculous how much more convenient pirating is

 

[tbayrgs]

Ugh you can't watch drm itunes content on Android? That sucks

It's ridiculous how much more convenient pirating is

Apple is more restrictive in this regards than anyone, and is exactly why the only content I'll purchase though iTunes is music. Plex is available just about everywhere so I'd rather take the extra time to rip/encode a Blu ray disk into preferred formats so that's I can watch our context on just about any device.

 

[mrex]

itunes and movies - no go...

ecosystem works only when you build your whole life to support the ecosystem and you are tied up to make decisions to support the ecosystem. when you buy a gadget you must check at first if the gadget works with your "ecosystem" and only after that "what cool can i do with it?"

i cant find anything (so special) that cant be done without living in the apple ecosystem. i have iphone, ipad, mbpr but there is nothing so special that i should start building my life around it. i prefer to live out from any of the ecosystem and buy gadgets that arent labeled "designed for...". some said that atv is the key for airplay. i use my android box to airplay/mirror my ios/osx/win/android. and the best part, because it is an android box, my apps bought from google play work with it.

living on this way, i havent faced problems in a real life to do something which seems to impossible because of... the less im living in the bubble, the more i can benefit from gadgets around me.

 

[Easttime]

Then you only get to experience a small amount of technology products, which kills it for me. Too interested in tech to only buy from one company

This was me, from my first PC with an 8088 chip until the day I gave up dealing with Windows and Palm software/hardware and slid into Apple's integrated world. Now I just use the hardware/software instead of tinker and use. I'm done with the tinker phase. That's what "ecosystem" means to me. But after five years fully into Apple, while I spend less time tinkering, I still seem to be spending as much money on hardware and software as I did before. I'm paying for the convenience.

 

[ozaz]

i use my android box to airplay/mirror my ios/osx/win/android. and the best part, because it is an android box, my apps bought from google play work with it.

Out of curiosity, which Android box do you use, and which apps do you use to receive Airplay/mirrored content from iOS, Android, and Windows devices?

I've never tried using an Android device as a receiver. I once tried using a Windows computer to receive mirrored iOS and Android content (via an app called Reflector, I think), but it was extremely unreliable. As a result I have an Apple TV, a Chromecast, and a Windows PC all connected to my TV. I'd much rather just have a single device that does it all.

 

[gotluck]

Out of curiosity, which Android box do you use, and which apps do you use to receive Airplay/mirrored content from iOS, Android, and Windows devices?

I've never tried using an Android device as a receiver. I once tried using a Windows computer to receive mirrored iOS and Android content (via an app called Reflector, I think), but it was extremely unreliable. As a result I have an Apple TV, a Chromecast, and a Windows PC all connected to my TV. I'd much rather just have a single device that does it all.

I have been unable to find a reliable way to receive airplay video on a non apple device. Audio only airplay works on kodi on pretty much anything. I ended up buying a cheap atv3 for airplay video and mirroring

Have an atv, chromecast and pc on my TV too

 

[lparsons21]

I have been unable to find a reliable way to receive airplay video on a non apple device. Audio only airplay works on kodi on pretty much anything. I ended up buying a cheap atv3 for airplay video and mirroring

Have an atv, chromecast and pc on my TV too

I'm with you. AirPlay only worked well on Apple gear. I have Googlecast on my TV natively and fortunately more apps work well with the ChromeCast/Googlecast than used to be the case. I use AirPlay with my ATV4.

 

[mrex]

Out of curiosity, which Android box do you use, and which apps do you use to receive Airplay/mirrored content from iOS, Android, and Windows devices?

i use an app called Airpin(Pro), and it works well with ios/osx/android/win. it is only needed to run in the android box - no need to ibstall any other apps/software to other devices. just enable the airplay in ios/osx and of course with windows your computer needs to support WiDi.

 

[mi7chy]

Apple ecosystem means limitations with headache. Was given a new iPad Mini 2 that I set up as new and updated from iOS 9.1 to 9.2.1. With just three Safari tabs and nothing else running it's mostly frozen and only scrolls a little every minute or so. For comparison, my Moto G 1st gen with same 1GB DRAM has no issues with the same three sites.