Apple Invites

Brilliant move.

The transition of the major social networks over the last 10-15 years -- from being a space for friends to interact to being a space to consume content produced by "unconnected" entities like influencers -- has created a huge opening for someone to claim the friends and family network. There is no one better positioned (at least in the U.S. where iPhones are the majority handset) than Apple.

Brilliant? Launching an app for creating events that requires you to 1) own an iDevice and 2) pay into, just to create events?

I'll send an email for free, thankyouverymuch.

> 1) own an iDevice

You do not need to own an Apple device to either create events or join events.

> I'll send an email for free, thankyouverymuch.

This seems fine! There are open protocols (email, ics) if they work for you, but Apple specifically developed this in a way to neither require an Apple device or Apple Account to interact. Which is better than some of the competitors! (Facebook and Google tend to create social tools which explicitly require everyone to have accounts.)

> You do not need to own an Apple device to either create events

You need an "iCloud+" account to create, though. Which I as a non-apple user have no idea what is, and probably is useless for me to pay for not using anything apple beforehand.

I use a MacBook and I swear this is the first time I have heard of iCloud+.