[imwillofficial]

That argument is shortsighted. Classic business school thinking. No consideration of second order effects or long term strategy.

Sure, that’s where things stand today, but the Mac is part of Apples brand. They screw it up enough and iPhone won’t win on its strengths anymore. Design and execution.

You’re on top of the world…

Until you’re not.

[carlycue]

> Sure, that’s where things stand today, but the Mac is part of Apples brand. They screw it up enough and iPhone won’t win on its strengths anymore. Design and execution.

It used to be but not anymore. The iPhone is Apple's most important product and the majority of iPhone users aren't interested in the Mac.

[happymellon]

That's because the majority of iPhone users are consumers.

The majority of Mac users are producers, creating content for the iPhone users. If they kill Mac then their iPhone cash cow will dwindle as they will no longer have content.

[0x457]

> The majority of Mac users are producers

That's not true at all, and sounds like Mac user elitism that everyone hates.

It is true, that many iPhone users aren't interested in mac and some not interested in any kind of desktop/laptop device at all. The same true vice-versa - I have a mac* and not interested in iPhone and plenty of my colleges are the same.

*: One because compliance is easier than on Linux and another one because I need to develop for mac and iOS.

[happymellon]

Sorry, that's not what I meant, I incorrectly phrased that the wrong way around.

If you are making stuff for iPhones, you essentially have to have a Mac because XCode to create iPhone apps requires a Mac to run. I meant the majory of app creators are Mac users. So if they kill the Mac workflow then they will castrate the cash cow that is the iPhone.

I know there are alternative workflows you could make by using something that can cross compile to iPhone and using a Windows/Linux system, then renting a Mac device via a cloud service like AWS, but I would be surprised if it made up a significant amount of development.

[0x457]

> If you are making stuff for iPhones, you essentially have to have a Mac because XCode to create iPhone apps requires a Mac to run.

I would assume people at Apple aren't brain-dead to kill mac and not have an alternative development flow, haha. "killing mac" if it's on a table would include allowing other platforms to build iOS / iPadOS apps.

[jaywalk]

This is pretty much only because the Mac is the only way to "officially" create iPhone apps.

[happymellon]

And, while it is really the only way to create iPhone content Apple cannot let the Mac die.

[imwillofficial]

Let’s do a thought experiment.

If the Mac disappeared today in a puff of smoke, would that result in less iPhones sold, a less prestigious brand, or maybe an improvement?

An additional argument is that companies rarely have one major product. Apple is big enough to execute well on several synergistic fronts.

$30b is an awesome business all on its own, and compliments, not detracts from, the iPhone brand.

Apple should be able to execute in multiple domains with a high degree of quality all at once.

[andrekandre]

  > $30b is an awesome business all on its own, and compliments, not detracts from, the iPhone brand.

yep, and just because the ratio of revenue is heavily in favor of iphone, there is no reason to subsume (subvert?) the mac ui into its paradigm... the worse ux could result in that 30bn shrinking, wherein they will just devote more resources to consolidation, again accelerating the mac's decline.... its a potential negative spiral if i ever saw one...

[imwillofficial]

Exactly!

[Apocryphon]

There's huge amounts of work that can only be done on desktop or on laptops, and not on smartphones, simply because of form factor. Unless we're imagining a future where people plug their phones and tablets into monitor-keyboard setups and type away, all the time.

[GoOnThenDoTell]

I think that could be a reality one day, if they get the UI right. An iphone is plenty powerful for most office-style workloads