It depends on the profit motivators. Windows fell victim to telemetry and forced updates because Microsoft’s business model might not be what you think it is.
Apple has a simple business model for macOS. It exists solely as a vehicle for selling Macs - premium computers with (most importantly) a fat profit margin.
Keeping the customer wanting to buy new Macs (and maybe that new iPhone…and that Apple TV+ subscription…) is what drives their OS to be, generally, much less user-hostile than Windows. The user is the customer; whether through direct hardware sales or through the subscription purchases those hardware sales lead into.
Microsoft, in turn, sells Windows to OEMs and the business world via bulk licensing. You, the consumer, buying a Windows 11 license is not what’s funding Satya Nadella’s new private island. It’s Initech Corp. buying 5,000 PCs with Windows because “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
Disclaimer: this is largely all speculation, and if I am off the mark, do let me know.
First, Apple now has a vast ecosystem which they are trying to promote, be it music, movies, TV, advertising, some of it requiring or optimized for their hardware. It goes beyond selling Macs.
Second, Microsoft is also trying to sell PCs. I don't buy the idea that they can be explicitly anti-consumer and get away with it. Backlash against the OS would hurt MS's bottom line perhaps more than Apple.
> Second, Microsoft is also trying to sell PCs. I don't buy the idea that they can be explicitly anti-consumer and get away with it. Backlash against the OS would hurt MS's bottom line perhaps more than Apple.
Gmail wastes 10% of your mobile inbox screen real estate on a large bar at the bottom of the screen that's only function is to let you switch between email and their attempt at a Zoom competitor.
Macs is a small part of the Apple revenue. Apple is no longer in computer/phone business. It is in an ecosystem business wherein it can keep on adding a deca-billion dollar vertical every few years.
Apple has a simple business model for macOS. It exists solely as a vehicle for selling Macs - premium computers with (most importantly) a fat profit margin.
Keeping the customer wanting to buy new Macs (and maybe that new iPhone…and that Apple TV+ subscription…) is what drives their OS to be, generally, much less user-hostile than Windows. The user is the customer; whether through direct hardware sales or through the subscription purchases those hardware sales lead into.
Microsoft, in turn, sells Windows to OEMs and the business world via bulk licensing. You, the consumer, buying a Windows 11 license is not what’s funding Satya Nadella’s new private island. It’s Initech Corp. buying 5,000 PCs with Windows because “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
Disclaimer: this is largely all speculation, and if I am off the mark, do let me know.