I mentioned Apple’s obviating a beloved early Mac app when they introduced Sherlock on Mac OS X. It was such a phenomenon that the word “Sherlock” became a euphemism for any time Apple did this. The app, Watson, was published by the excellent Karelia software. At the time, Mac OS X was new and lacked many of the built-in solutions users needed. And to some degree, the web was still new, and Watson integrated web-based information into an app on your Mac.

Watson offered a feature set that existed in no other place on the Mac. And Watson was better than Sherlock… until it stopped working. Users vary in their willingness to purchase software, and in the case of good-enough free tools bundled with their device, probably will accept the reduced feature set.

This still happens, too. Apple likely tried to do the same thing with Masimo’s pulse-reading tech, a feature I am able to enjoy on my current Apple Watch, but which would disappear were I to upgrade my watch for some time until there’s an agreement between the two companies:

Masimo claims Apple held meetings with them about potentially incorporating Masimo’s pulse-reading technology onto iPhones. When the discussions broke down, Apple hired two executives away from Masimo and introduced a service that Masimo claims illegally duplicated its technology. Apple denies this.

I imagine the makers of password manager apps experienced a similar shiver when Apple announced their password app (although as Bradley Chambers points out, AgileBits is moving in a direction that Apple likely won’t follow).