1. The computer is the hub. Your devices link to this.
2. The Cloud is the hub. We will pivot to a distributed system so all your devices can sync with/o wires.
3. The Phone is the hub. Your phone is a private mobile cloud-- an extension really; so you can still use the watch as a wallet and the phone camera and integrated sensors in upcoming devices to relay data to the cloud.
I am not going to comment on the strategy but the article says much of what I am saying in a different way. The phone is pretty damn good; but I think the heal is the cloud. It still has many issues and that costs user trust. The phone is a relay but the foundation is Shakey.
Also, Apple is going to lose users because the computer provides the lock in. I was priced out of Mac a month ago. Ubuntu is pretty great. I built a hackintosh that was on par with the 1999.99 iMac offering.
Sure it had no screen but included in the cost but it was $580 w/a Skylake i5.
The point is; shortly after I broke my phone. I just went Android. It's wayyy worse but I didn't need the iPhone to complete the relay because I have no Mac and because of the sync on iCloud "optimizing" storage it takes literally 8 days to copy the 16gb folder.
Tldr It's a foundation. The heal is iCloud.