Choice isn't always good.
There is a long standing preconceived notion that variety is inherently a good thing and that competition is also universally good. But I have to disagree. Not to say that variety and competition are bad as such. Just that it isn't as clean cut as those cliches. Working in software I probably have a better understanding of this than most.
Do you know what the two best periods in time were for quality of code and availability of applications? The decade leading up to the popularity of the iPhone and period beyond that up until Android surpassed iOS in sales.
The reasoning is simple, during those periods of time most applications had a single platform target. All competition was on the same platform as well so improvements and price cuts happened across the board, and for everyone. If a user wanted the best smartphone experience they bought an iPhone. If they wanted the best PC experience they bought a Windows machine.
For the rest of the article I'm going to try to stick to just talking about the mobile landscape between Apple and Google. But, the same is true even if you expand mobile to BlackBerry or Windows Phone and to a lesser degree on PCs.
Once Android came on the scene, all of a sudden the iPhone had competition. And yes, the hardware improved and customers had variety on that front, but we've landed in a spot where if you want certain combinations of features or apps they simply can't be had.
While many developers will target both iOS and Android, there are definitely a large number of holdouts that write apps exclusively for one system or the other. And despite fierce competition on an OS and hardware level there are aspects of both of those as well that are platform exclusives.
Lets say I like Apple Pay and want to buy an Apple Watch, but I'm a huge fan of the Galaxy Edge. As a consumer, has the variety and competition resulted in a choice I could leverage? No. If you get the Samsung phone you can't use the Apple Services, or amusingly, their watch. If you want the Apple products and services, you need to abandon the phone you want.
Now, you could probably make similar arguments about specific hardware configurations for pre-built PCs in the era mentioned above, but we're not talking about simply about hardware combinations. There always were some caveats. The problem is that number of caveats is growing and no longer things like "I can't get this exact processor", it is now things like "that is an iOS feature only".
Now, think back to the two time periods I mentioned above. Of course, things like Apple Pay and the Apple Watch didn't exist... but if you wanted a feature that was available on a smartphone, or an app or a smartphone accessory... virtually anything that could be had, would work with an iPhone. Had Samsung made a smartwatch in the same time period it would have worked with iPhones on day 1.
I guess, if anything, I'm trying to say that today we have variety to such a degree that it has created tangible divides. Developers are divided more heavily than ever before. Technologies are divided. Features are divided. Services are divided.
You have more choice than ever before but you also have more distinct boundaries than ever before.
Do you know what the two best periods in time were for quality of code and availability of applications? The decade leading up to the popularity of the iPhone and period beyond that up until Android surpassed iOS in sales.
The reasoning is simple, during those periods of time most applications had a single platform target. All competition was on the same platform as well so improvements and price cuts happened across the board, and for everyone. If a user wanted the best smartphone experience they bought an iPhone. If they wanted the best PC experience they bought a Windows machine.
For the rest of the article I'm going to try to stick to just talking about the mobile landscape between Apple and Google. But, the same is true even if you expand mobile to BlackBerry or Windows Phone and to a lesser degree on PCs.
Once Android came on the scene, all of a sudden the iPhone had competition. And yes, the hardware improved and customers had variety on that front, but we've landed in a spot where if you want certain combinations of features or apps they simply can't be had.
While many developers will target both iOS and Android, there are definitely a large number of holdouts that write apps exclusively for one system or the other. And despite fierce competition on an OS and hardware level there are aspects of both of those as well that are platform exclusives.
Lets say I like Apple Pay and want to buy an Apple Watch, but I'm a huge fan of the Galaxy Edge. As a consumer, has the variety and competition resulted in a choice I could leverage? No. If you get the Samsung phone you can't use the Apple Services, or amusingly, their watch. If you want the Apple products and services, you need to abandon the phone you want.
Now, you could probably make similar arguments about specific hardware configurations for pre-built PCs in the era mentioned above, but we're not talking about simply about hardware combinations. There always were some caveats. The problem is that number of caveats is growing and no longer things like "I can't get this exact processor", it is now things like "that is an iOS feature only".
Now, think back to the two time periods I mentioned above. Of course, things like Apple Pay and the Apple Watch didn't exist... but if you wanted a feature that was available on a smartphone, or an app or a smartphone accessory... virtually anything that could be had, would work with an iPhone. Had Samsung made a smartwatch in the same time period it would have worked with iPhones on day 1.
I guess, if anything, I'm trying to say that today we have variety to such a degree that it has created tangible divides. Developers are divided more heavily than ever before. Technologies are divided. Features are divided. Services are divided.
You have more choice than ever before but you also have more distinct boundaries than ever before.
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