Keychain — cross device password manager — Lastpass Premium, 36 dollars / year
Notes — cross device flexible note taking — Evernote Personal, 84 dollars / year
Pages, Numbers, Keynote — office suite in the cloud and local — Microsoft 365 Personal, 69 dollars / year
FaceTime — videocall meetings with up to 32 attendees several hours long — Zoom Pro, 139 dollars / year
… just to pick a few
Thats already 328 dollars a year in software, or 3280 dollars over the 10 year lifespan of a Mac. And we haven’t even touched on Garageband, iMovie, Messages etcetera. And more apps are being made, like Freeform announced at WWDC 2022.
Just think on that, it’s a very significant slice of the premium you pay for Apple devices, as long as you buy an all-Apple set of devices for your digital lifestyle. It’s true that the Apple-provided apps often don’t have all the features of their commercial counterparts, but for most people you will find what you really need is in there, which is why I feel justified making the comparison.
For me, having a beautiful set of apps to do the essential things, without overburdening me with too many features to learn, and having them integrate well with the entire ecosystem, is the logical conclusion of Apple owning the whole technology stack that makes their products. This is where you deliver value.
