
Google Is Eating Apple's Ecosystem for Lunch - seanwoods
https://char.gd/blog/2018/google-is-eating-apples-ecosystem-for-lunch
======
zitterbewegung
Vendor lock in through making products working together is not only present in
Apple's ecosystem but in Google's and also Facebook .

It looks like they changed their ecosystem to use Google Products because they
have more feature that they want. All of these decisions are valid. To be
honest the biggest issue with Google is the support and longevity of the
software that they create. On Apple it seems like they are slowly moving to
more of a service oriented platform and are attempting to overhaul it but at
the cost of their Prosumers.

I really hope that eventually in the "post screen era" that we don't have to
buy devices that are owned by one company.

~~~
orbifold
I don't see facebook surviving long term, they have close to no hardware
presence (with the exception of oculus) and all their products are constantly
challenged in one way or another. Very few people I know actually use facebook
and even WhatsApp adoption is pretty low and inconsistent. In other words none
of their products are essential or irreplaceable the way Google and Apple
products are to some people.

~~~
scarface74
_Very few people I know actually use facebook and even WhatsApp adoption is
pretty low and inconsistent._

If very people you know use Facebook and Facebook has over 210 million users
in the United States ([https://www.statista.com/statistics/398136/us-facebook-
user-...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/398136/us-facebook-user-age-
groups/)) isn't that the definition of "anecdote is not data"?

If you look at the daily usage numbers of Facebook and Instagram, the data
doesn't support your conclusion.

If Apple one day said they weren't going to allow Facebook on their phone, who
do you think it would hurt more - Facebook or Apple (ignoring the fact that
the FB experience is a lot better in the browser.)

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goblins
This horrifies me!

Can't think of anything I would want less than one of the big 5 US companies
spying on me everywhere all the time.

~~~
JohnJamesRambo
What about headcrabs attaching to your face?

~~~
NetOpWibby
Yeah, I wouldn’t want that either.

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pharrington
I clicked "flag" because this strikes me exactly as an unmarked advertisement.

~~~
hbosch
I agree, this feels and reads like an ad. Also, the word "Amazon" appears zero
times and this is an article about voice assistants.

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yequalsx
All of my devices are Apple devices. A crappy Dell laptop and my
disasstifaction with Windows led me to switch to Apple 12 years ago. I loved
the Mac operating system and that momentum got me to buy iPads and their
phones. I use Apple Music. I use iDrive.

I don’t use Siri. Apple Maps sucks and as a result I don’t use CarPlay. Apple
Music search sucks. There’s a bunch of thing now in Apple’s ecosystem that
don’t “just work”. More and more I find myself telling my wife that Apple is
slipping. Privacy concerns are the only thing keeping off of Google’s system
but it won’t be long before the hostile nature of Apples system forces me to
abandon ship.

I think Apple ought to spend a year concentrating on fixing the increasing
number of annoyances and stop doing stupid things like keeping Google maps off
Car Play. What’s the point of adding features that don’t “just work”?

~~~
subpixel
I’m in the same boat, and resolved never to buy a new iPhone again since from
a consumer perspective I believe the premium cost is unjustified. I bought my
most recent iPhone on Swappa but I’m getting closer to the point where I leave
Apple altogether.

Last week I had to connect my iPhone to my computer (despite wireless sync
being enabled), use iTunes to copy audiobook files to my phone, and then for
some reason I can only access them in the iBooks app on the phone, despite
them not being available in the app of the same name on my Mac. It reminded me
of Bill Gates’ famous MovieMaker rant.

One more thing...if I want to watch video files on my iOS device, why do I
need to use an obscure app called TV? Would it make sense if I had to use an
app called Radio to listen to audio files?

~~~
givinguflac
There are tons of simple ways to get those files into any video or book reader
you want. Using iTunes you could have loaded them into the app if your choice
as well. Granted it would be nice if iTunes had defaults for which apps what
files went to, but this is entirely eliminated using the files app, airdrop,
cloud services etc.

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pfarnsworth
Google photos is one of the most amazing and useful apps I’ve ever used. Being
able to search on the contents of a photo is the first real 21st app that I’ve
run across, in my opinion.

However I’ll never move to Android. I’ve tried it and it just isn’t as good as
iOS. I’m not saying iOS is great but it’s ceetainly better in my opinion.

Things like FaceTime are very easy for my parents and relatives to understand
vs something like Skype or google hangouts. Photostream sharing is also a very
easy and intuitive way for me to share pics of the kids with my relatives as
well.

The biggest thing for me, though, was the fact that iMessage and iPhone was
uncrackable by the fbi. It’s a very public fight they had to keep our data
secure.

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mccoyspace
An interesting take on Google vs Apple. I would have loved to hear at least
something about Alexa. I’m a hardcore Apple and Amazon user (plenty of Google
too). I see myself staying imperfectly hybrid for awhile. (Edit:) the
observation of post-screen being a way to be connected but not distracted was
a real revelation. Would love that....

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melling
Amazon’s Echo is far ahead of Google Home in sales. They’re trying to get
voice in everything. Many companies were showing off Alexa built into their
products at CES.

Voice as a user interface is almost here:

[https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-
inte...](https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-interface-is-
almost-here/)

How long before a significant amount of search is simply asking some device a
question and being told the answer?

~~~
tonfa
Is Alexa launched for non US? European market is pretty big and needs support
for non English languages (Google home is already launched in a bunch of
European countries).

Similar to Apple with the iPhone, Amazon dominance on voice interfaces might
end up being only true for the US market.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Apple iPhone does really well in Asia. Not sure where you think dominance is
only true for the USA.

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JepZ
Well, we all know that the google services are pretty convenient, but the
problem is much less their functionality as the things 'you have to do' in
order to use them, like:

\- load all your images on their servers

\- load all your documents on their servers

\- load all your mails on their servers

\- load all your contacts on their servers

\- load all your appointments on their servers

\- load all your...

That way it is completely non-transparent what they are doing with your data.
I mean for every app on our smartphone we have a detailed list of permissions,
but for google its just 'take it all'?!?

~~~
KirinDave
There are detailed user agreements for photos, drive and calendar that are
comparable to other services, and agencies salivating at the thought of
winning a class action privacy lawsuit. Google has to be pretty careful,
because all it takes is one whistleblower and even Donald Trump won't be able
to evict them from the global news cycle.

And it's not like Apple's any different here, or like it's realistic to try
and do these sorts of things from local resources.

I've been working on moving a lot of my data and services off the cloud and
it's very hard even if you know what you're doing. You need to be able to
build a home lab, have some solution for connectivity to your home (most
people have never heard of ngrok, dyndns simply doesn't work well for many use
cases), and spend lots of money on storage. This isn't like renting more
expensive cloud computing services, the cost is below $25USD a month.

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ghufran_syed
Yeah, my “workflow” when I get in the car:

1: “hey Siri, open google” -> opens google app

2: “ok google, navigate to [name of destination] -> opens it in google maps...

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scarface74
I don't disagree that technically that Google is better at this kind of stuff
than Apple, but "millions" of devices is vague. Google doesn't release
numbers. How many has it sold?

Everything he says is technically possible, but how many people are both
technical enough to set this stuff up and care enough to even bother? I know
people who have smart speakers, but most of them just use them for music.

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phyller
Almost all of the magical things described are exactly why I will never own
one of these. Google makes money off of knowing everything about you. Orwell's
"1984" is a bit ridiculous, but with respect to technology, we are almost
there. At least Apple still makes money off of selling things, I think there
is at least a better chance of privacy with them.

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BadassFractal
Can I buy into the google software ecosystem + Google Home without trading in
my MBP/iPhone/iPad for a Chromebook/Pixel/Nexus?

~~~
AznHisoka
You can use the search engine, Gmail, YouTube, Youtube TV, Google Maps, Google
Chrome and Google Analytics all on an iPhone or Mac.

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muninn_
Here we go again...

Ok a couple of quick quotes:

"I say 'OK Google, goodbye when I leave the house to turn off the lights" k. I
just turn off the lights. Why do I need a Google Home to do that? Why can't I
do that with Homekit or Echo?

" grew frustrated by Apple's terrible iCloud pricing, and how seemingly great
Google Photos appeared to be"

iCloud's pricing isn't terrible, it's just fine. They don't mine my photos and
data, and I pay $2.99/month for 200gb. Some people don't understand that
"free" photo storage isn't actually free.

"First, Google Assistant alongside Google Home is wild. When you own a Pixel,
saying OK Google at home activates your speakers and your phone"

 _yawn_

"Apple's direction, for better or for worse, is to lock you into a single
track and make it agonizing to use anything but the official services"

Really?

Look, I think the Pixel 2 is a great phone and Google has some great products,
even if I disagree with their business practices, but this article is over-
the-top bad.

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neuro_imager
Has anyone here tried using Purism? They're claiming that they provide 'high-
quality privacy, security, and freedom focused computers and software.' They
have their own OS and software. I'm tempted to buy one of their laptops and
put on an order for their upcoming mobile phone. Does anyone have any
experience with this company and its products? Do you lose a lot when you move
from the evil 5?

[https://puri.sm/](https://puri.sm/)

~~~
sowbug
Your comment has nothing to do with Google, Apple, ecosystems, lunch, or
assistants. It's difficult to interpret it as anything but spam or trolling.

