[microtherion]

> I also wish they would spin out their computer business (Macbook, Ma Pro, Mac Mini, iMac) into its own division

To me, one of the core strengths of Apple is integration of all its devices, and it seems to me that creating separate divisions competing with each other would risk undermining this integration.

In the late 90s, I heard hair raising stories of how various divisions at Sun were operating at cross purposes due to a myoptic focus on their own balance sheets. I believe you worked there. In your opinion, were the competing divisions a strength or a weakness of Sun?

[ChuckMcM]

It is true, Sun did it poorly :-) What Apple has that Sun didn't are vertical product stacks. A 'Macintosh' company has its own hardware, software, and (shared) sales channels. The 'iDevice' company has its own hardware, software, and (shared) sales channels. I think that separation could work.

From where I could watch, Sun's biggest issue was that they forgot they were a systems company and started trying to be a components company. They had also pretty much become completely afraid of 'open' systems at that point. Playing tricks on competing SPARC computer companies, screwing up the OS portability, etc.

[microtherion]

As far as I can tell, Microsoft suffered similar problems, with their desktop oriented divisions occasionally holding back the mobile divisions. It's not like Apple never suffers from any organizational dysfunction, but I feel that separating divisions actively incentivizes dysfunction.

macOS and iOS share quite a bit of software, both in the sense of code bases that have overlap on the two platforms, and code bases that need to work together (e.g. for handoff, or features like Apple Watch unlocking a Mac). Not so sure about the hardware situation, but there is at least some sharing going on. And in many cases, the people behind the technology are shared as well.