The combination of things that I think of are:
– Software for developers: introducing this like catalyst, swift language, swiftUI (sorry, not programmer, but often terms discussed and explained in relation to ‘preparing for more similarities between platforms).
– Introducing more connectedness between devices like continuity (between iOS devices, and iOS & macOS)
– introducing APFS – was this a necessary move to make all platforms to work smoother? Just to remove legacy support in future macOS/iOS?
– Introducing + moving Macs over to a new architecture and making sure all the stuff remains working (I am sure there are still stuff broken, but my ‘average’ use of M1 has been very smooth, N=1). But still introducing products like the latest Mac Pro tower based on Intel and AMD GPUs.
– Hardware: making sure the hardware still works and somehow plan that the older MacBook chassis still work for the newer m1 logic boards (albeit perhaps not optimally) but choosing to ‘fix’ keyboards before the apple silicon move. Keep all the plans as secretly as possible with no new MacBook designs but introduce them afterwards
– macOS yearly updates: often as many said apps are introduced and neglected, but still introducing new apps and new features. Also depreciating 32-bit some years ago and now with Ventura changing/implementing to a new system settings/preferences app.
– splitting iOS/iPadOS: indirectly provide more specific focus to improve iPad as a platform vs iPhone. Continue to provide software updates that often get ‘replicated’ to macOS.
The list is not exhaustive at all, but just some things I remember that make me wonder what is the storyline of the bigger picture within Apple. What I find limiting in many of the blogs/podcasts/YouTube is that they (understandably) talk about a particular aspect and discuss the pro & cons.
However I wonder if anyone here can perhaps share a more higher level picture of how clever or dumb some actions have been with the bigger picture in mind. When we take into account the bigger picture (if there is any) there are certain limitations and opportunities, for instance we know now they were planning to move to Apple Silicon on Mac. That must have required a huge resource in time, effort and people which Apple could have been assigned on doing other things (or have been taken away from current teams). There must have been a lot of risks taken to choose such a route without knowing the results and complications that would come and how much resources it actually takes. Although many could say Apple is the richest company etc, it still takes actual people to organise it in whatever way to make it work, and people are limited due to competition and/or how the organisation is structured.
Anyways, I hope someone can satisfy my curiosity or point me into a direction where I can find out about these!
