Are tech ecosystems worth buying into?

Ecosystem (Noun)
any system or network of interconnecting and interacting parts, as in a business

When people think of ecosystems, typically they think of two or three ecosystems. Usually that’s the Apple ecosystem and Google ecosystem. Ecosystems are almost on a spectrum, ranging by how much you buy into one, such as the Apple ecosystem. The Apple Ecosystem can range from an iPhone and buying into iCloud Drive, to having everything Apple, even down to external hard drives.

Budgets usually dictate which ecosystems you buy into more. If you want to use new parts, Apple is the most expensive consumer ecosystem by a long shot, but also the most well working and arguable the most seamless.

There’s always a dynamic when you have two pieces of tech that do not correspond. It kinda exchanges blows between being indifferent at best, and terrible at worst. For example, if you have an iPhone and a Chromebook, you can’t use SMS at all, including iMessage. If you have an Android and a Chromebook, you can use Messages for Web built into most Chromebooks and use SMS. Things like that come up all the time when you’re into more than one ecosystem.

Now to answer the question ; are tech ecosystems worth buying into?
Well, that’s a little bit of a loaded question. Do you have an iPhone and a Macbook Pro, having anything other than the Airpods for wireless earbuds, or Apple Watch for a watch is just inconvenient. The same if you have a Pixel and a Chromebook. Ecosystems aren’t just hardware though, and it spills into services.

The line is a bit blurred when it comes to services. Since Apple, Google, and Windows don’t all make the same services, you can find yourself going out of your ecosystem. When it comes to the Apple ecosystem, you can even get Apple Music on Android now. Also, the YouTube app in the Google ecosystem is actually much better on iOS compared to Android.

It’s not the worst thing that you can do to get a Windows laptop and an iPhone, but if you have a Mac, go for an iPhone. It’s a bit of a weird thing to explain because whether or not you buy into an ecosystem depends completely on what you need and what you have. If you have something like an iMac that you do not want to get rid of, then it’s simply not a very good option to go with Android if you need some connectivity between them.

Tech ecosystems are a very interesting thing to try to calculate. Whether or not it is worth it to buy into one depends on three things ; budget, needs, and what you currently have. Though one thing that I am confident in is that if you want to buy into it, buy into it. People often exaggerate when in debates about ecosystems they are not into, and it’s a helpful habit to research deeply and make a well informed decision of what you go for instead of asking biased sources.

P.S Not to be pushy but…..