Digital Revolution

The biggest news this week is of course the launch of Apple Watch Ultra. Before covering the topic, however, there is a point about hardware and software that seems worth making. Hardware innovation depends on material properties, whether it's faster, more durable, or thiner. To match market sector and hardware, there are lots of experimental/physical facts to be harnessed. Physical laws don't bend, that's the hard part of hardware innovation. Gut feeling is that hardware ideas are harder and harder to come by, which is why software innovation is more important in the long run. Software ideas are almost limitless, but the trouble is that the entire landscape is a mess. To be wise enough to blast a trail is crucial. If the judgement here is correct, vendors will drastically improve software locked onto hardware to deliver whole package. Hardware will be small steps forward, and software advances, though huge, will be severely subject to hardware. The future isn't closed ...

Compared with Google, Apple is slow in delivering a cloud platform for developers. Apple's consumer cloud business has been a spectacular success, but its developer cloud offer, Xcode Cloud, is very limited. So far, developing cloud applications that run on macOS relies on third party vendors, and macOS isn't built for the cloud. Clearly, there is a lot to improve. Modern applications often contain cloud components and if Apple is serious about a all-Apple developer process, it should build its own cloud platform. Cloud platforms have been known to be extremely messy. Apple's philosophy is simplicity. There are huge challenges to be overcome in order to build a cloud platform by Apple's standard. However, the advantages of building critical applications like ERP on Apple platforms definitely make sense for better corporate adoption of Apple products. In the business world, Microsoft wins big with good desktop-cloud integration. Apple should consider. Sure, cloud is not ...