A Look At OS X Yosemite And iOS 8.1
by Brandon Chester on October 27, 2014 8:00 AM ESTConclusion
It has definitely been a busy few months in the Apple world. September delivered the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, along with iOS 8, and a preview of the still mysterious Apple Watch. This month we got the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3, the iMac with Retina 5K display, iOS 8.1, Apple Pay, and OS X Yosemite. Those last three points are some of the most interesting, and they all happen to be part of Apple's software ecosystem. I don't think that's a coincidence. We're reaching a point where it's becoming more and more difficult to differentiate your products based on hardware alone. Great software driving a great experience is where the focus needs to be moving forward.
Apple's strategy to provide that experience appears to be deep integration of their services across all of their product lines. It starts with the cloud, with new additions to iCloud like iCloud Drive and Photo Library. From there it goes to software commonality, with a design language that exists on both iOS and OS X, and applications that exist on both platforms. On the opposite end of the spectrum from the cloud are the new continuity features which provide integration between all the devices that you have right there with you. SMS Forwarding and iPhone call transferring expands communication on iPad and the Mac to new areas, while Handoff makes the transition between applications seamless and accurate right down to where your cursor was.
What interests me the most about Apple's stategy is how it provides incentive for a user with one Apple device to buy other Apple devices. This exists to a certain degree with other manufacturers as well. If you own a Samsung smartphone, you may be more inclined to buy a Samsung tablet due to the similar hardware design and user interface. But apart from any brand loyalty you feel, you don't really have any incentive to buy a Samsung laptop which runs Windows and doesn't integrate with your other devices. Apple's integration covers their entire lineup of devices. An iPhone user has a lot to gain by choosing a MacBook over a Windows Ultrabook, and an iPad over a Nexus 9. It would be interesting to analyze what percentage of people purchasing a new Apple device already own one or more Apple products.
Overall, I'm happy with the work that Apple has done with iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite. It's clear that a lot of this has been in the works for some time now, and integrating products and services to this degree requires a lot of planning to position your hardware and software so that it will be capable of working together in the ways you want them to. The Yosemite redesign has also gone quite well, and there aren't as many jarring inconsistencies as there were with iOS 7 at launch despite OS X being a more expansive operating system. Apple has definitely learned from their experiences with the iOS redesign. That being said, there is still a lot of work to do. Apple Pay needs to expand rapidly, and iCloud Photo Library isn't as far developed as I had expected it to be.
It's hard to say where Apple will go as we move forward. It will be hard to outdo the work that has been done with Yosemite. However, history tells me that there are still great things yet to come from Apple. It seems that year after year Apple is able to make updated products and proclaim them to be the biggest advancements in that product's history, and regardless of my initial reaction, I somehow always find myself agreeing .
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Brett Howse - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
You can actually tether to a Windows Phone from the laptop without touching the phone - just like the Apple method it connects to the phone over Bluetooth and then turns on the hotspot. So yes to that one.But no to everything else they need to do more work on integrating the experiences of phone and desktop.
andrewaggb - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
well microsoft tablets run windows, so they basically have the same capabilities. They do have smartglass for the xbox which allows browser transitions between tablet and xbox (works with an ipad as well). I don't have a windows phone.I know the playto feature to play movies and stuff to the xbox one and 360 (and other dlna players) works great.
SkyDrive sync's your windows profile/files etc across tablet and pc.
It's not perfect by any stretch, but there's definitely integration. I use the same billing account for my microsoft azure cloud services as I do for my xbox, it's all tied to my microsoft account. As was a purchase from the microsoft online store.
The sms and call transferring stuff is cool though, hopefully they grab that as well. Windows media center integration with the xbox 360 was great, but unfortunately that product is gone.
Bob Todd - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
Ah cool! One feature down. I really hope they put an emphasis on tying all of their big offerings together (desktop/phone/tablet/Xbox/etc.) in meaningful ways like that.DarkXale - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
1) Yes.2) Theres a standard bluetooth profile for that; started doing it in the feature phone era. This is old even on Apple's side.
3) Yes again. See point number two. Feature phones sometimes required their 'Suite' software for this to work fully.
Impulses - Friday, October 31, 2014 - link
Does the Bluetooth profile actually pair the phone via Wi-Fi tho? Tethering over Bluetooth itself would be kind of a bottleneck if you have a particularly good LTE connection... I remember tethering over just BT back on the day with my netbook and Sony Ericsson phone, didn't have to turn anything on in the phone either, but this was back before 3G!HisDivineOrder - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
I think Apple's incentivizing of staying in their ecosystem is interesting for the user who will do that or has the money to do it. That said, I think Google started the ball rolling and Microsoft has joined now too with a lot more emphasis than even Google at making broad compatibility across lots of platforms, which I think is probably the better way forward.Apple is a devices company. It's obvious. Google is a marketing company and so they emphasize their services as a way to get more info to use for marketing. Microsoft wants to be both Apple and Google, but Nadella seems keen to focus Microsoft on the Services part of that equation, which is wise because their devices just won't sell very well save for some high end Surface tablets to some ultra niche customers.
I think Microsoft's approach of making their services envelop other platforms so if you have an Android phone and a Windows PC and an iPad, you can use all your platforms to see OneDrive or Office 365 is the most convenient one for the typical consumer with the typical budget.
I think Apple's way is the most convenient one for Apple and the few people who have the budget to afford all Apple devices and the Apple Tax that goes with them.
odedia - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
Guys, when is the iMac retina 5k due to appear? It's the one thing keeping me from ordering it.Ryan Smith - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
Next week.Anandrian - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
I think the article is spot on."You can only use the whole apple ecosystem if you have apple hardware/software"
Take full advantage of the ecosystem, yes! but that's the apple way. They control every aspect of the ecosystem to guarantee a better than average experience and I think they've succeed.
"OS X Yosemite not innovative"
That may be so, but it is damn good even if it's not innovative. At this point in time the improvements or new features might not be ground breaking but when you used them regularly you can really understand the advantage of them. This also is true for windows 8.1, some people hate it and some people love it and in my own experience, I like what win 8.1 brings to the table the way I use it.
"Apple is expensive"
Yes it is, is it worth it? I guess that's personal. I do have a 2009 13" macbook pro and it's still working fine with OS X Yosemite (I did upgrade my HDD to an SDD an the memory from 4GB to 8GB almost since I bought it). And I also have an awesome watercooled pc with win 8.1 which I built myself, I use it for programming and gaming and it is awesome!. I really like both machines however I do have an iphone and an ipad and I like what the apple ecosystem brings to the table, would I like it to have more features? yes, of course but that will come with future iOS and OS X releases just as it will happen with Microsoft and Google and all the other players out there.
Don't hate guys! just enjoy :D
mfenn - Monday, October 27, 2014 - link
"I had never used it until Yosemite rolled out with the new capabilities that Apple had built in."What??? How did you launch applications before?