As I take the latest news report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman about theapps Apple is building for Apple ’s forthcoming AR / VR headset , I was again prompt about how unique Apple ’s place in the tech ecosystem is .
We let the cat out of the bag a hatful about Apple ’s competitors , and to be sure , it has them in every single market in which it contend . But while Apple has competitors , none of them are playing the same game Apple is . For decades I ’ve observed that many of the multitude who dislike Apple as a business do so because they do n’t understand it – they test to fruitlessly liken it to other troupe in the technical school sphere .
The fact that we ’re even able-bodied to discussApple ’s coming headset , headset operating organisation , headset app platform , and headset apps says everything about how Apple has a scheme that lets it put to death in way no other society can .
The iPhone and iOS are what Apple’s platforms all revolve around.
Incomplete comparisons
To truly see Apple ’s uniqueness , consider its closest analog in the technical school industriousness . The company that are build up their own OS and app platforms are largely doing it once : Microsoft for personal computer , and Google for phone . They dabble in hardware , too , but other computer hardware partner do the heavy lifting . Apple has hardware challenger everywhere , but they ’re mostly using someone else ’s software package .
That ’s because even build and maintaining a individual consumer - equipment operating system and app political platform isincrediblyhard . How many of those have ever been successful in the story of the computer diligence ? A handful or two over four or five tenner . It is a massive chore to be a platform possessor : software package , hardware , and developer recounting . Apple believably owns more feasible consumer operating systems than the residuum of the world put together . ( And if not , it ’s a astonishingly close thing . )
This is not to say Microsoft and Google are doormat . In fact , Apple kind of stepped in it ( metaphorically verbalise ) when it separate Mac OS X and turn it into iOS beginning in 2007 . Yes , the iPhone was a huge hit that changed the globe , of course of study , we do it all that . But take what Apple was left with : a rapidly - evolving iPhone bone that need to cater to the needs of mobile devices , and the existing bag of OS X. Two more and more disparate operating system of rules with completely unlike and ill-sorted app - development platforms . If run one calculation program is hard , running two at the same time seems nigh impossible .
The iPhone and iOS are what Apple’s platforms all revolve around.
This was the conundrum of Apple in the 2010s . A victim of its own success , Apple involve to find a way to keep a sight of plates spinning ( iPhone ! iPad ! Mac ! Apple idiot box ! The new Apple Watch ! ) while trying to find a way to make it all sustainable . Slowly , a strategy came into direction : take the most important and successful chopine ( Io ) and make it the gist of the company ’s strategy .
The first Apple TV to begin with ran Mac OS X , but it switched over to Io pretty rapidly . watchOS was base on iOS and , in fact , could n’t run without an iPhone nearby . There was even a moment during the middle of the tenner when it looked like Apple would put the Mac out to pasture .
The iPhone and iOS are what Apple ’s platform all orb around .
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Out of many platforms, one
What happened after that was a masterstroke . Apple started planning to move the Mac to Apple ’s own processors , the same ones in the iPhone . It spent a few geezerhood bringing the underpinnings of macOS and iOS back together after years of them drifting aside . And it made it potential for Macs to take advantage of the iOS software package weapons platform , either via Mac Catalyst or even run iPad apps directly on Apple Si Macs .
This is how Apple can handle to be the platform possessor of all these different devices . While they look different , and behave other than to a certain grade , beneath the surface they ’re all variations of the same political program . Yes , macOS is an outlier – though far less than it once was – but every other product is securely a derivative of iOS , from the Studio Display to the HomePod … to the forthcoming Apple headset .
This is what take me when reading Tuesday ’s report from Bloomberg : Not even Apple has the resourcefulness to work up an alone new operating organisation , system apps , and a development platform from scratch for a new AR / VR headset . But what Applecando , and in fact has gotten very , very good at , is taking Io and then making a edition that gibe the product in question .
So while Apple is building apps for the VR headset , is there any doubt that they ’re based on the knowledge , and probably the code radical , of correspondent apps on iOS and iPadOS ? Of naturally , any new feature of the headset will have to be added , but Apple has an enormous library of computer code for silver screen sharing , message , gaming , media playback … you name it .
When Apple unveils this machine to developers , it wo n’t ask them to start from scratch , either . or else , it will be speaking to seasoned iOS developers , many of whom have been exposed to VR / AR - adjacent Apple software tool for the last few twelvemonth . There will be slew of read to do , but they will be starting from a position of familiarity .
It will be a lot easier for Apple to convince developer to grow apps for a new headset that ’s running a familiar operating organization with a few new wrinkles . It ’ll be easier for users putting on the headset for the first metre to see Modern version of Apple ’s own apps .
None of this is easy . Being a political program proprietor is n’t light . That ’s one reasonableness there are n’t very many of them . But the strategies Apple has utilize in edict to ship so many unlike kinds of devices are on the nose the strategies they ’ll be able-bodied to use to ship one more . It ’s an advantage that only Apple has , and you bet they ’re locomote to use it .
