> Theoretically, the best way to get rid of hardware is to move as much as possible to "the cloud"[1]
An alternative view is that Apple’s biggest product puts enough compute in your pocket to make “cloud” unnecessary in a lot of cases. My phone is somewhere between a t3.medium and a t3.2xlarge (based on ram and cpu cores respectively). That can provide a lot of local compute for my wearables. And those wearables are gonna need network anyway, so either that all end up with 5G cellular radios (and 4/3G fallback) and enough battery to run that, or one device provides the network hub and the tiny things in your ears and the glasses sitting on your nose can have lower power radios and smaller batteries.
I reckon watches/glasses/earbuds(/cars/tvs/etc) all relying on a phone is a reasonably sensible model, rather than each of those devices having completely stand alone capabilities.
(And, the idea of Google tapping into my nervous system??? No thanks... I’ll proudly be a data center smashing neo-Luddite before that happens to me...)
I really enjoy the data addons for IPad and Apple Watch because they allow me to be connected without having a phone in my pocket. What I desire is connectivity (be able to see messages, make calls, etc), but iPhone often encourages disconnection via mindless scrolling. I enjoy the times I can get away from my iPhone, and I am not excited about this hub future you describe.
An alternative view is that Apple’s biggest product puts enough compute in your pocket to make “cloud” unnecessary in a lot of cases. My phone is somewhere between a t3.medium and a t3.2xlarge (based on ram and cpu cores respectively). That can provide a lot of local compute for my wearables. And those wearables are gonna need network anyway, so either that all end up with 5G cellular radios (and 4/3G fallback) and enough battery to run that, or one device provides the network hub and the tiny things in your ears and the glasses sitting on your nose can have lower power radios and smaller batteries.
I reckon watches/glasses/earbuds(/cars/tvs/etc) all relying on a phone is a reasonably sensible model, rather than each of those devices having completely stand alone capabilities.
(And, the idea of Google tapping into my nervous system??? No thanks... I’ll proudly be a data center smashing neo-Luddite before that happens to me...)