PDF and I have been talking about the benefits and drawbacks of convergence as noted in his recent post about Flock. I remember stating that I wasn’t too sure about the concept and we complained about how companies are drawn to taking two products and, regardless of what their functions are, combining them. There are obviously good results from this at times, such as smart phones or refrigerators with TVs in them. But at the same time, there are all these individuals who get the skewed impression that adding more things to something automatically makes it better. This same logic applies to companies who, rather than focusing on a single product, insert themselves into every market they can get their hands on. HP, Sony, Samsung, and Dell all do this, as does Apple.

Paul made the argument that Apple being responsible for not just their hardware, but their OS, software, and peripherals may be another example of that unnecessary convergence. I beg to differ. I think every time Apple starts to tap into a new market (which, when compared to others, doesn’t seem to happen often) they do it with good reason. There’s a logic in adding a music player that works with your jukebox software that runs on the operating system that makes your computer go. Apple’s main intent is to have as much control over the end user experience as they can – they want to ensure that when you use a Mac everything just goes. The only way they can really make this possible is by being in the markets they’re in.

Does this negatively affect the consumer? I guess that depends on whether or not you mind having your OS and certain peripherals predetermined for you when you pick up your shiny new iMac. I don’t, personally (have you noticed?), because what Apple has to offer works for what I need. But just as there are people who feel their amps and preamps should be separated and weigh 50 pounds each, there are those who want to have control over each and every bit of their computing experience. Apple is not the choice for them. A Mac is what you get when you get frustrated as to why your amp and preamp aren’t playing nice with your SACD player (you bought one of those?) so then you can hop on Safari and find the answer in a forum.

I think I lost my focus ten minutes ago. Maybe I’ll revisit this later on.

AMENDMENT 1 : 03 November 2005

See Paul’s (PDF’s) comment at right first. I now understand what he was saying and I totally agree. I don’t know anybody who uses an Apple with no third-party software on it and I wouldn’t expect them to. What I would be surprised at is if they were using non-Apple software in place of what Apple provides, like the iLife suite or even Safari or Mail. The point being that Apple provides you with pretty much all the necessary “lifestyle” software that you would basically use a computer for (music, movies, internet, photos), which leaves you to spend your money on more specialized applications like Adobe CS or Macromedia Studio.