After returning to Apple, Jobs, with his enthusiasm, innovation and pursuit of perfection, brought us a variety of world-changing products. At the Macworld conference in 2007, a device of epochal significance was announced. "Today I would like to introduce you to three revolutionary new products, the iPod with touch function, a mobile phone, a breakthrough network communication device... This is not three separate devices, we are ready to call it the iPhone" At this point, the mobile phone began to be gradually transformed from a functional machine based on physical buttons to a touch-screen-based smart machine, and a new era officially opened.
Redefine the phone
Many people know the "Apple" brand from the iPhone. As Jobs said, "Apple reinvented the phone," the iPhone is a world-changing product. It has changed the way humans and machines interact, and through multi-touch, it has brought a subversive revolution to the mobile phone market. It has also changed the shape of smart phones and pushed humanity into the era of "intelligence for all" in the true sense.
In my opinion, Apple is also a magical company. Since its inception in 1976, Apple has successively gone through the era of personal computers and mobile Internet, and has launched the Mac, iPod, and subsequent iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches, etc., which have become the first to be the first apple of many consumers, and may be one of the few companies that span the entire intelligent digital industry and have considerable results.
I have to admit that all technology companies will take Apple as the ultimate form of the company's development, everyone wants to become Apple, but no one can become Apple. Up to now, except for Apple, no company has achieved such brilliant results when trying to leapfrog the product field. Take the parallel development of the industry's most common mobile phones and notebooks, notebook manufacturers began to try to do smart phones, mobile phone manufacturers began to try to make notebooks, but mobile phones and notebooks are successful enterprises, as of now very few.
Why have traditional laptop manufacturers not been able to maintain their leading edge in the era of mobile Internet? Why are new smartphone manufacturers involved in the field of laptops? Looking at the "dividends" that Apple has received after its successful attempts, we may be able to find the answer.
"The Mac is OS X, it's in a nice shell, but it's software"
The above sentence comes from Jobs, which also explains the logic of Apple in designing a product: the combination of soft and hard.
Mac OSX
Compared with the commonly used Windows windows system, macOS, which also uses a graphical interface, was born earlier. From 1984 to the present, macOS has gone through nearly 40 years of history. After Jobs's return in 1997, Apple launched the rebuilt Mac OSX in 2001, and the debut of this operating system also laid the foundation for the future macOS experience.
macOS
Users who are new to macOS for the first time may find that its operating mechanism is very different from that of Windows systems: when using macOS, we do not need to pay attention to the remaining memory, because the system will be freely allocated according to the software usage to ensure that the user uses the process of continuous stability and smoothness; when using macOS, we do not need antivirus software, because it uses the Unix kernel, which can effectively avoid virus intrusion and use more reliably; when using macOS to search for local content, Users can directly call out efficient "focus search" through the combination of Command+ Space, when there are too many applications, focus search can also help us find the App we want to use for the first time.
Mac
As mentioned earlier, the Mac is to install the system in a beautiful shell, and for different user groups, Apple has also created different "beautiful shells": users who pursue lightness can choose a thin and light MacBook Air; users who have needs for performance and mobility can choose MacBook Pro; build a personal studio or no mobile needs, you can choose iMac or Mac mini with different screen sizes, and the ultimate pursuit of performance, Mac Pro can also meet you well. These "beautiful shells" have different shapes and different targeting groups, but from the perspective of software experience, their experiences are complete and consistent.
iOS is based on Mac OS X
This "combination of soft and hard" design concept has also come to the era of smart phones with time. The iPhone we are familiar with, at the beginning of the period it is equipped with a Mac OS X-based operating system, adapted to the small screen of the mobile phone, it was named "iPhone runs OS X". Based on the XNU kernel, the operating system features a highly uniform UI design, supports Multi-touch, and is equipped with calendars, photos, cameras, maps, weather, and more application settings that now sound fairly routine... Perhaps we are more familiar with its new name in the future - iOS, a new operating system, which also laid a good foundation for Apple's development in the era of smart phones
At the world-changing conference in 2007, Jobs quoted a quote from genius computer guru Alan Kay:
"People who are extremely serious about software should produce their own hardware"
From the earliest Macs to the world-changing iPhones, they all reflect Apple's attitude towards hardware and software. Moreover, apple will also successfully achieve complete control of the core technology of software and hardware through self-developed A-series chips and M-series chips in the next few years. Perhaps Jobs did not expect that the Mac and iPhone would achieve such impressive results in the next few years. After all, from the perspective of market share, whether it is a Mac or an iPhone, they firmly occupy the position of the top 5 in the industry.
In fact, whether it is OS X or Windows, iOS or Android, they are all divided into "Apple and others". In the technology industry, Apple is always placed on the opposite side to be compared, but no matter how it is compared, why can't the more open ecological environment ever surpass Apple?
Build apple software ecosystem
The key to the answer is "ecology"
In Apple's introduction there is such a sentence:
"Apple's five software platforms, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, bring a smooth experience across all Apple devices, while empowering people with breakthrough services like the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud."
The interconnection of systems of different devices, supplemented by various services, can be called ecology. For Apple, the ultimate purpose of building an "ecosystem" through different kinds of products is to "open up everyone's life".
Now, more and more iPhone users around me have replaced their computers with Macs, and the reason why they have changed to Macs is also very simple:
"The Mac-iPhone linkage experience is fantastic9
I can deliver the iPhone to the Mac directly through AirDrop; when working in front of the computer, even if the phone is not around, I can answer the phone through the Mac; the memos recorded on the iPhone can continue to complete the recording before coming to the computer...
Airdrop
Of course, if you want to better experience the Apple ecosystem, the iPad is also a very critical part. A few years ago, Apple brought a "homeboard" function to macOS, which can directly turn the iPad into a second screen, and improve the efficiency of use by expanding the display area. The "Universal Control" function in the latest version of macOS Monterey can even use a set of keyboards and touchpads to control multiple Macs and iPads, and even drag and drop text and pictures between the two devices is not a problem. At this point, the iPad is no longer a simple "screen", but has become a best "assistant".
Universal Control
At present, Apple may be one of the few manufacturers in the industry that can "produce software and hardware at the same time", and this accumulation of many years has also given Apple the conditions to do ecology.
Write at the end
From software first to ecology king, Apple is taking a very different route from other manufacturers. From the beginning of creating the first product, Apple has the foundation to build an ecology Now, Apple is slowly breaking through the barriers of contact between its own devices, and forming a perfect ecological closed loop through the cooperation between different hardware, software and systems.
It can be seen that the charm of Apple's software ecology is to skillfully integrate functions and products, take care of the details of the user's life, and brew up humanistic care. We always put "changing our lives" on our lips, but in fact, it is precisely this little detail that really changes our lives. The special optimization given by this ecology is not enjoyable by other brand equipment, and it can also bring higher quality to our lives.
So, can other manufacturers stand out like Apple in the current market environment? Building your own software ecosystem may be a good route. It can be seen that more and more mobile phone manufacturers are becoming Apple's imitators, they take mobile phones as the core, by entering the notebook market and incorporating notebooks into their own ecosystems to create their own ecological closed loop. But this kind of imitation can not only stay in the "shape", the kind of ecological linkage that goes deep into the details, the kind of transformation that makes the ecology change from form to habit, from feelingless, is the "soul" of apple ecology. It is precisely this "soul" that is also the place where those mobile phone manufacturers should learn and complete after entering the notebook market.