Big tech's convenience trap

When tech companies are so focused on making things seamless and convenient, they also make them harder to escape

A woman tries the iPhone X.
(Image credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

If there is one clear rule in the tech world, it is that everything Apple does, no matter how minor, is news. So last week, when it surfaced that Apple is planning to unify iPad and iPhone apps with Mac apps, the usual flurry of analysis followed — despite the fact that the story is a bit obscure.

The Bloomberg article that broke the story suggested that starting next year, developers can choose to make apps that worked with both touch on iPhones and iPads and with a trackpad and keyboard on Mac. Though it sounds like a technical detail, there is a certain inevitability to the move. As the smartphone becomes not just the dominant computing platform but also the guiding principle of the technology world, forces both economic and cultural align to place mobile at the center of everything. In that sense, Bloomberg's report suggests Apple recognizes this shift and is thus trying to entice mobile developers to improve Mac apps.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.