Apple’s singular vision for the future should be a wake up call for Google - Android

Opinion post by

Dhruv Bhutani

Apple’s annual WWDC Conference is its time to showcase the next year of its smartphone, tablet, and Mac operating systems. As with everything Apple does, it is always a pretty big deal in the tech world.

This year’s event, held back in June, was a historic one — and not just because it was held entirely online. It’s barely been a hot minute since WWDC and already Apple has changed the conversation around tech in more ways than one.

Amongst the expected and not-so-expected updates, there was one major takeaway: by transitioning full-blown MacBooks to Apple’s own silicon, we can finally see the culmination of a decade’s work to synergize an ecosystem that other companies can only dream of.

I’ve been a Mac user for over a decade and have always been impressed by how well Apple’s products integrate with the operating system, going all the way back to the venerable iPod. Seeing the company continue to put the same level of care into every product in its ecosystem only exposes how dire the situation is elsewhere. I’m talking about Google, of course.

Apple's singular vision is driving it forward in ways Google just can't compete with at the moment.

Google’s approach towards hardware has at best been lackadaisical and at worst lacked any overarching vision or direction. The result has been individually brilliant products that don’t always work together in any meaningful way. In the face of Apple’s latest power play and with several new Made by Google products seemingly on the horizon, that needs to change.

It’s all about the ecosystem and customer lock-in

It is no secret that Apple has been building towards a completely unified ecosystem; a broader gamut of products that are aimed to reduce friction for a consumer. It irks Android die-hards and has flamed many a fan war, but there is no doubt that Apple’s heavy-handed focus on a consumer-first experience has resulted in a walled garden of apps, services, and products that just work and, crucially, work together.

There is no first-party equivalent for the synergy between Apple's different product lines.

Features like Continuity ensure a seamless transition between Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Sidecar increases productivity by making the iPad a powerful second screen. The ability to quickly scribble a signature on your iPad and immediately insert it into a document on your Mac is the kind of stuff that simply isn’t possible across Google’s products. This year the iPad will even get the extremely powerful Spotlight search feature from macOS.

Tablets are another telling point of comparison. The iPad app store is full of high-quality apps that often have no equivalent at all on Android. From music creation to games to code editors, the reality is that the iPad is powerful and versatile enough to become a true laptop replacement for a large customer subset.

Read more: 5 features the Google Play Store should steal from the iOS App Store right now

Meanwhile, Google’s efforts to support the Android tablet market are non-existent. The number of tablet-optimized apps on the Play Store is woeful and more often than not users are left with blown-up phone apps. Samsung has tried its best finagle the most it can out of Android on its Galaxy Tab series, but it is still a sub-optimal experience and not one that is consistent across the broader portfolio of Samsung devices.

Editor's Pick

Five years of Wear OS and it’s still too messy to recommend

Today is the fifth anniversary of the release of Wear OS. Born as Android Wear, Wear OS is Google's Android-based operating system specifically designed to work on wearables and smartwatches. After five years of development and refinement, …

The lack of cohesion between Android tablets and the broader Google-designed ecosystem is reflected across other products too. Wear OS has languished in more ways than one. Be it the lack of general refinement, minimal enhancements, woeful battery life even on the latest hardware, or simply the lack of a flagship product from Google itself, Wear OS pales in comparison to the feature-set of Watch OS for the Apple Watch or even Samsung’s Tizen-based Galaxy Watch lineup.

The same can be said for the iPhone and even the AirPods. While Fast Pairing is making strides to improve the Bluetooth pairing experience, it is still not a reality on most modern headphones. Meanwhile, with the latest version of Apple’s software, AirPods can detect exactly where audio is being piped in from and switch between sources. This is something that can only be done with the kind of vertical integration Apple has built over the years.

After WWDC, we now have the final piece of the puzzle. With the transition away from Intel, Apple is finally in a position to bring the Mac into that same fold. The ability to run iPhone and iPad apps is a tremendous opportunity for customers and developers. Yes, Chromebooks have been able to run Android apps for a while now. However, Chrome OS devices suffer from the same app optimization issues that have plagued Android tablets. The Mac, however, will be able to bypass this by taking advantage of the enviable iPad app ecosystem.

It’s not just apps and software, though. To take an obvious example, there’s little about the Pixelbook that actually ties it to Pixel phones aside from branding. As Android Authority’s Oliver Cragg put it, you can count the ways Pixel phones integrate with Chromebooks on one hand. That’s telling of just how fragmented Google’s hardware efforts are.

Google is its own worst enemy