this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Am I the only one that doesn’t see how Apple Watch drives iPhone sales? Surely it’s the other way around, right? Like who would switch to an iPhone just to use an Apple Watch when alternatives for Android exist?
I feel like this was a mistake. Steve Jobs once said releasing iTunes on Windows was like giving “a glass of water to someone in hell”. He was obviously joking, but if they managed to get android support with the Apple Watch as good as it is on iOS, I could definitely see people switching to iPhone just because their experience with their Apple Watch is a lot better than anything they’ve used before.
I hope that technical reasons were also behind this decision, because I don’t see how this effects iPhone sales long term
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.