Apple's Shifting Differentiation

I think you're confusing the Mac with iOS. Native Mac apps don't have to be approved by Apple unless they are on the Mac App Store.

Apple has made publishing apps without their approval significantly harder during last couple of years. With pretty much mandatory notarization there were several app developers who just stopped developing macOS software due to increasing amount of restrictions and process involved.

Very fair comment. I guess that most developers don't see it as a huge issue though (I've not seen any issues with Apps that I use on Catalina). Direction of travel is towards more onerous Apple involvement.

It looks like Apple is pushing towards having a single app store, see the news about the new macs being able to run iOS apps. I can definitely see them eventually moving to only allowing apps from the iOS store installed on macs, the same as how ipads and iphone are now.

I wonder if the next step after that will be Apple dictating what new apps are desirable in the app store and then a bit further Apple making apps themselves and only outsourcing the support or signing franchise deals. Once the hardware could only be repaired by Apple, they could move completely into a subscription model where you could subscribe to e.g. Office or Streamer package that would include a laptop for two years and a predefined set of applications.

To the contrary, most apps I have to install from outside the App Store now aren’t signed and need the workaround (right click, Open, OK the scary dialog, open again) to run.

Are you really ‘scared’ by the dialog?

Why would anyone subscribe to that?

Agreed but I think it's stretching it a bit call it a 'workaround' when it essentially tells you what to do :)

Do you not think we're moving towards a future where both platforms converge into just iOS?

Think we can't ignore that the iOS install base has been larger than the MacOS install base. Start looking at it that way and the iOS way of doing things is the norm in the eyes of Apple and MacOS is the odd one out.

You will find that many people would pay for having their worry about choosing the right laptop and software completely removed. They also won't have to worry about repairs etc. as long as any damage would be accidental or from a manufacturing fault.

That’s already why people buy apple and AppleCare.

What you are describing is taking this even further in the direction of an information appliance.

I am unconvinced that there is any benefit that your model provides that Apple does not already.

You can already just buy a Mac with AppleCare and install MS office from the App Store.

People may want their choices to be simplified, but they are also going to need to be able to use whatever important new thing comes along. E.g. Zoom or Slack.

You make this sound like a new problem. You have had to do that for unsigned apps for years and at least in my experience the majority of apps that come from outside the App Store are unsigned. This has been a thing for so long that I almost instinctively right click, Open the first time I run an app I downloaded from the internet

> Do you not think we're moving towards a future where both platforms converge into just iOS?

Could be, but as far as the new cross platform frameworks are shaping up right now it looks like their strategy is slightly different. Apple is seemingly creating a developer ecosystem to loosley describe interfaces and share them between platforms while they ultimately decide how your UI is rendered. Maybe you're right and one day that means flicking a switch and everything is unified. I also look at something like iPadOS for instance which started as extremely similar to iOS and has now diverged and become it's own thing, different to both the Mac and iPhone.

If think more people would buy a subscription instead of forking out few grand at once. It will be like a finance instead you won't own the laptop. I also understand this is quite stupid, but I feel that this is the direction Apple is going to go to extract even more money from their target audience.

Leasing the hardware makes sense - basically like the iPhone upgrade program but extended to macs.

I know people who upgrade their Mac every time there is a speed bump and just sell the old one. They would presumably be candidates for this.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this.

I just don’t see any reason Apple would tie the leased hardware to a limited software bundle.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

There should be limits on this. It's sad to be the baby outside the window, drenched in bathwater.

I think the bathwater is the least of the defenestrated baby's problems. :)