If you have Apple Watch, you can authenticate services on your computer just by double-tapping the Watch side-button. It also unlocks your nearby iPhone if you have the Watch on.
You can trigger Do Not Disturb across the ecosystem from any of your devices.
Find My lets you keep track of all devices in the ecosystem with a global lost and found mesh network built in.
Apple Pay works seamlessly across iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iPhone. My Mac uses my iPhone's FaceID or a confirmation on my Watch to authenticate payments - no setup or weird configuration required.
AirDrop works perfectly for me with all my devices. I can beam documents and data from device to device without thinking about it.
Handoff works across all my devices. I can start an e-mail on my iPad and continue on my Mac instantly.
I can see the charging/battery state of my iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple Pencil from any device in the ecosystem, including Mac.
AirPlay works across my iPad, iPhone, HomePods, Apple TV, Mac, and even Apple Watch. AirPlay 2 is incredible and has no delay. Rock solid connection - much better than any other protocol I've used.
If I get a new device, setup and integration with the rest of my devices is instant - no configuration required. This is especially great with AirPods - I don't have to pair them with each device. I just pair with 1 and I'm good to go on the rest.
Apple Store support for everything in my ecosystem.
etc etc etc
I can configure Windows to lock my PC if my phone is not nearby. Which makes a ton more sense than unlocking it if it is.
As for the rest, I've never had much success with all that being "seamless". I could hardly ever get my Airpods to show the battery level of the case by opening it and holding it near my iPhone.
Well the Watch has to be on your wrist, unlocked, authenticated with your iCloud account and close enough to trigger NFC.
It's actually one of the best non-fitness related things about the Watch imo.
Point taken on some of the features not always being seamless but I've had much more success than not and I really appreciate all the ways the ecosystem works together - I can't imagine not having some of these features.
You know that if you don’t want it, you can simply choose to not set it up that way, right?
Remember this feature competes with unlock mechanisms that can be defeated by a photo held in front of the camera, not with Fort Knox 6 factor identification.
On a windows laptop, you have Windows Hello, which is very reliable and seamless. Most of the times you won't even notice it. No $400 watch required!
> You can trigger Do Not Disturb across the ecosystem from any of your devices.
This is just a single click. I don't see the big deal.
> Find My lets you keep track of all devices in the ecosystem with a global lost and found mesh network built in.
Cool, but I don't see much use for it. I have literally never needed to track my laptop or phone or keys.
> Apple Pay works seamlessly across iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iPhone. My Mac uses my iPhone's FaceID or a confirmation on my Watch to authenticate payments - no setup or weird configuration required.
My credit card works seamlessly across Apple, Android, Windows, real-life. My browser stores the card number and pre-fills it for me, no matter the device. No setup or weird configuration required.
> AirDrop works perfectly for me with all my devices. I can beam documents and data from device to device without thinking about it.
Very useful in some situations. However, I hardly need to use it since my android phone is auto-syncing photos and videos to my Onedrive, which is syncing to my laptop. This works across all ecosystems, unlike airdrop. When I do need to send a particular file, Your Phone app works beautifully.
> Handoff works across all my devices. I can start an e-mail on my iPad and continue on my Mac instantly.
I can do the same across all ecosystems using gmail and/or outlook.
> I can see the charging/battery state of my iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple Pencil from any device in the ecosystem, including Mac.
Cool ability, I haven't thought about it, but I think I would enjoy it. Your Phone does show my phone's battery on my laptop.
> AirPlay works across my iPad, iPhone, HomePods, Apple TV, Mac, and even Apple Watch. AirPlay 2 is incredible and has no delay. Rock solid connection - much better than any other protocol I've used.
I am not sure what Airplay does. Is it something like bluetooth to stream music? Bluetooth works fine for me most of the time, and Chromecast also works well. Both of them are not locked into any particular brand, too.
> If I get a new device, setup and integration with the rest of my devices is instant - no configuration required. This is especially great with AirPods - I don't have to pair them with each device. I just pair with 1 and I'm good to go on the rest.
Same with Galaxy buds. I don't even need to have bluetooth on. The phone will still detect the buds.
> Apple Store support for everything in my ecosystem.
Not sure what you mean by this.
As you can see, I don't find any great benefits to the Apple ecosystem compared to other, more open systems. And it doesn't hurt that almost everything is much cheaper than iStuff too.
It's the details, integration and quality that you can't capture in words that make all the difference.
It's easy to downplay the features like you're doing, but the magic is all of them together working together in one ecosystem. Even the tiny tiny features like being able to ping my phone from my Watch - I use that feature every single day to find my phone in my house (if I left it in a jacket pocket for example).
Sure if price is an issue, Apple's ecosystem is not cheap.
It's almost unthinkable that some in-software feature that a lot of people like can be done in an Apple OS and not a Microsoft/Android OS.
The question is not whether it can be done, but how easily it can be done. If you have to jailbreak your phone or cobble together a collection of different applications to simulate the experience, for 80%+ of people that's basically equivalent to impossible.
I own both. From my POV I'm able to do more on Windows even if I prefer MacOS for day to day use and iOS for my phone (though again can do more on Android)
I was all in the Apple ecosystem the past couple years except for the Watch. And I'm struggling to think of something that's impossible to do with Windows and non-Apple devices besides Airdrop and that didn't even work half the time between my iPhone and Mac mini. Sidecar is a cool feature to have built in, but apps like Duet and Astropad do the same thing...
And I don't think it's a bad thing that MS doesn't Sherlock devs either...