A Note on Ecosystems

 
I’m a lot of things; a friend, a classmate, a son; but most importantly of all, I am a green bubble. It’s a small detail, and honestly, it shouldn’t mean anything. But it does. And unfortunately, I have to agree with Kermit the Frog on this one: It’s not easy being green.

You don’t realize it, but you’re a part of an ecosystem. I’m not talking about trees, or food chains or pollination here. But rather about Macs vs PCs, iOS vs Android, Windows Phone vs the World. All of these systems have their own unique quirks, features and tweaks that separate them from the pack and convinces consumers to use their platform.

Whether it was for school, or work, or pleasure, somewhere along the line you chose a company to buy a product from, and it stuck. The next thing you knew, you owned a Macbook, an Apple TV, three iPhones, two old iPods, an Apple Music Subscription and a partridge in an Apple tree.

Regardless of the company, the story is the same. People get hooked on a platform, drawn in by its convenience. Over time, however, they develop a dependence. You can’t buy that shiny new Galaxy S6 Edge because it doesn’t have iMessage. You’d really like to try out a Mac sometime, but you already learned all the shortcuts for Windows.

As easy as it is to blame the consumer for all of this, companies play a large role. This isn’t unintentional. The industry knows how restrictive ecosystems can be, and they try to make it as hard as possible to leave their platform.

Up until recently, individuals switching from iPhones to Android devices noticed a lack of texts coming to their new phones. Apple iMessage was rerouting all the messages from their friends to their old phones before the new one could even receive them.

It’s a double edged sword. On one end, companies purposely border off their systems from the competition to draw exclusivity. On the other, consumers are drawn in by the convenience of falling into an ecosystem. This leads to small divides, and forces a wedge between people.

I hate to think of the times I haven’t been invited to an event because I wasn’t in a group-chat, and no one thought to text me the details. It’s annoying to think I’m boxed into a platform because I’ve already invested a lump sum into their app store. It’s even worse to know people won’t text me because of the color of  a text box.

There are third party solutions out there, sure, but people are too lazy to use them. Until both companies and consumers start to move toward more open solutions, this problem will only get worse. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a green bubble.