The Apple Beat: Continuity features can transcend Mac and iOS functionality

A few years ago, I was introduced to the idea of the “Personal Cloud,” a small, secure and private cloud that followed one around from device to device. It was at a Lenovo demo at CES that I saw how a user’s files, applications, subscriptions and other pertinent info could be made accessible via a tablet, smartphone, desktop, notebook and smart TV.

As I look into Apple’s upcoming OS X Yosemite, iOS 8 and the new home, health and automotive features, it becomes even clearer than the new handoff features and the continuity focus of IOS and OS X are just the beginning of something bigger.

It’s the perfect storm for Apple customers. They have great hardware, innovative software and now faster file transfers plus the promise of an expanding device and software ecosystem that’s focused on functionality and intuitive features.

This puts Apple way ahead of the competition. Microsoft, who has Windows Phone and Windows 8.1, is the closest competitor in terms of having dual ecosystems that could feed into each other. But instead, Microsoft seems to be wanting an all-in-one solutions with Windows Phone approaching the functionality of Windows 8.1. Microsoft is also a player in the cloud game and Office 365 and OneDrive are great examples of personal storage and collaborative applications but they’re nowhere as smart or proactive as what Apple’s Handoff feature promises to be.

Google has a huge Cloud focus, it has Android and it also has Chrome but these are all disparate and largely disconnected ecosystems.

If Apple succeeds with the Continuity focus of its mobile and desktop products, it’s likely we will see this become a defining feature across all Apple products now and in the future.

This has already been in the works for some time. Just look at how iCloud works, how Messages sync between devices in realtime and how a lot of the complex functions happen without the user even knowing that they are taking place. For example, Photostream backing up photos and videos in the background, being able to get back to a missed FaceTime call from your iPhone using your Mac and many other cloud-powered features that ‘just work’ in the background.

So, there will be a lot to digest come this fall when iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite debut in their finished state. Other products, other categories of products, are all expected to feed into the stream yet bring more to the table. It is an exciting time to follow Apple and for Apple customers, it seems they’re getting a lot more functionality for free than ever before.