[neotek]

>Standing up for your right to lock-in your data with a single vendor?

Apple didn't lock me in, I gladly locked myself in, because Apple's ecosystem is cohesive in a way that nobody else even comes close to.

I love being able to make and receive calls and texts from my MacBook, I love having my documents in the cloud waiting for me wherever I am, I love being able to start browsing a site on my laptop and transfer it seamlessly to my phone on my way out the door, I love being able to take photos while I'm out and have them sitting on my PC before I even get home, and most of all I love that all of these things just happen without me even having to think about it.

There are a million different options for me, I could very easily switch to Android and use a dozen different services like Dropbox and Flickr and whatever the messaging app du jour is on Android these days to achieve the same results, but why on earth would I want to?

[tingol]

Google docs, drive and photos do those things and way better than apple imo. If the cohesiveness of the ecosystem is your most important measure, google is second to none.

[neotek]

Great, so that's one small part of the ecosystem covered, how about handoff between apps on my phone and apps on my laptop? How about a unified messaging system that lets me send SMS messages and make phone calls from my laptop?

Google is fine if all you need is the sliver Google offers, and if you're okay with Google doing their level best to violate your privacy, but there's so much more to Apple's ecosystem that nobody has replicated right now.

[pmontra]

Sending SMS from the laptop can be nice for the same reasons I sometimes use the web versions of WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram (days of long conversations), but making calls... Do they hand over to the phone if you want to walk to another room without bringing the laptop with you? I start only business calls on my laptop with Skype or Hangout, because I know I'll be at the keyboard working while speaking. Calls with friends, those start on the phone almost always.

App integration between phone and laptop looks nice but in fact for most people all it matters is email and files, mostly pictures and musing. Those are covered by Google and possibly by Dropbox, plus some streaming service.

Anyway, yes, even a slight edge over the competitors is better than no edge.

[dkonofalski]

Yes... FaceTime handles both audio and video calls so that you can unlock your phone and the call transfers to the handset. It's really, really convenient. Throw in an iPad and the Handoff/Coherence features are really, really awesome.