Apple

In short: American technology company, known for a tightly integrated ecosystem of its own hardware (Mac, iPhone) and its own operating system (macOS, iOS).

In more detail: Unlike Windows (runs on hardware from many manufacturers), Apple develops hardware and software together, allowing tighter optimisation, but limiting choice to its own devices. Also operates its own browser, Safari.

In Depth

Since 2020, Apple has also designed the main processors of its computers itself (Apple Silicon chips like the M1/M2/M3, ARM-based instead of the x86 processors from Intel previously used) — a further step in vertical integration, allowing hardware and operating system to be tuned to each other exactly. This shows up, for example, in above-average laptop battery life, because the chip is specifically optimised for macOS instead of being a generic building block for many operating systems.

The same strategy runs through Apple’s entire product portfolio: iPhone (iOS), iPad (iPadOS), Mac (macOS) and Apple Watch (watchOS) share many underlying technologies and are deliberately closely interlinked (e.g. Handoff, to seamlessly continue a task from one device on another). The price of this tight integration is a more closed ecosystem: software distribution runs (apart from newer EU exceptions) primarily through Apple’s own app stores, with corresponding control and fees.

Brief history

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, and was instrumental in popularising the graphical user interface (Macintosh, 1984) and later in establishing the modern smartphone (iPhone, 2007). After a difficult period in the 1990s, when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, Jobs’s return in 1997 and the focus on a few, consistently well-designed products instead of many variants led to today’s success — a strategy still reflected today in the manageable model range (compared to Android manufacturers).

App Store control and regulatory pressure

Apple’s strict App Store control (a review process before every release, mandatory 15-30% commission on digital purchases) was long seen as the price of greater security and quality, but increasingly came under antitrust pressure. The EU Digital Markets Act has forced Apple, since 2024, to allow alternative app stores and sideloading in the EU — a break from the previous “walled garden” philosophy, which Apple implements only reluctantly and with additional hurdles (notarisation, core-technology fees).

Hardware-software integration as a competitive advantage

The central advantage of tight coupling shows up most clearly, technically, with the Apple Silicon chips: because Apple controls both the chip architecture and macOS/iOS, it can build features like the “Neural Engine” (specialised AI acceleration) or shared memory between the CPU and GPU (“unified memory”) directly into operating-system APIs, without relying on generic driver interfaces, as is necessary for Windows PCs with hardware from a wide range of manufacturers.

See also: Apple Safari, Windows, iOS