• @digitalpencilB
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    18 months ago

    It’s because it further cements the user into their ecosystem.

    Imagine you have only an iPhone, and you want a watch, you obviously go for the Apple Watch because it works so well with your phone. Next year Google announce a shiny new Pixel.

    In the world where Apple Watch works only with iOS, you have an anchor keeping you in that ecosystem (you can switch, but you’d lose your watch), but if your watch worked with Android too…? now you’ve an out. You can dabble your toes in the Android waters, maybe you like it, maybe a couple more years down the line you switch to a Pixel watch.

    Apple don’t monetise user data, they make appealing products that work cohesively together. The continued purchase of which, further bricks the user behind their walled garden. The trick of it is the user does it voluntarily, because they like the products. Start making things intercompatible though, that strategy becomes much weaker.