Apple Ecosystem — The “Walled Garden”
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Apple’s products work with each other flawlessly which makes it very easy to enter the ecosystem but too difficult to leave, just like a black hole
There’s chatter of Apple’s “Walled Garden” all over the internet. You must have heard this phrase before on YouTube or read it somewhere in the articles related to Apple.
Everything inside this garden is beautiful, attractive, and addictive. But it’s the giant walls surrounding this garden that you can’t climb out once you are in.
In most cases, iPhone is the gateway to this garden. It is just because it’s the best all-around phone with better hardware in the market. Then you buy other Apple products and get deeply integrated into the ecosystem — “Apple Ecosystem”.
Apple has a lot of options when it comes to both hardware and software. They make iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, Homepods, AirTags, Airpods.
They also have exclusive software products like Facetime, Airplay, Shareplay, Airdrop, Continuity, iCloud, iMessage, Fitness+, Apple TV+, Apple News, etc.
So, once Apple pulls you into the ecosystem by one of their devices, let’s say an iPhone for example, then they try to lure you to spend more on other Apple products. Because they work seamlessly with each other.
Apple knows that people who buy their products can afford to buy their other products too. That’s the reason Apple is so successful in developed nations like the USA where people have high per capita income as compared to developing or under-developed nations, where people have low per capita income.
Because of this reason only, Apple has less than 3% market share in India (a developing nation), even though India is the world’s fastest-growing and second-largest smartphone market.
Most of the companies have a bunch of products, which’s not new in Apple’s case. But what makes this distinct ecosystem the most successful ecosystem ever is not only how seamlessly they work together, but the gigantic walls they’ve built up around those things. These walls on the outside are huge and Apple doesn’t want you to climb out or explore beyond those walls.
