THE APPLE ECOSYSTEM
Creating an ecosystem, or a collaborative network is essential for successful technology companies. Many companies create a ‘family of products,’ but none do it quite like Apple. The Apple ecosystem draws in customers with a single device, often the iPhone, before the customer branches out to purchase Apple’s other products. The seamless transition between Apple products is one of the many reasons for Apple success. Apple’s iCloud, photo stream, airplay, airdrop, WiFi hotspot, Apple Pay and more help integrate all of Apple’s products together. Using these technologies, you can start a Pages document on your laptop, leave to go out and continue editing the document on your iPhone, or you can receive phone calls and texts on your laptop, even when your phone isn’t in the same room.
The latest addition to the Apple family is the HomePod. Once connected to your other devices, HomePod users can ask Siri to play their favorite music from their Apple Music subscription, add events to their calendar, send messages from their iPhone and more. It is this seamless transition between devices that attracts so many Apple customers.
However, Apple not only makes synchronization between devices seamless but they also subtly encourage users to exclusively buy Apple products. For example, the removal of the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 coincided with the release of their wireless AirPods. While users can still use other wireless headphones with the iPhone 7, many third party companies are not compatible with other Apple products.
All these devices work together to create a sense of consistency and ease for the user, so each new device fits in seamlessly to the user’s routine. Even back in 2016, companies were calling Apple’s ecosystem its greatest innovation, and since then Apple has continued to establish its dominant presence in our lives. While all their devices can be used independently, it is their interconnection that makes Apple so powerful, and it seems the Millennials have benefitted the most from Apple’s innovation.