@mjtsai Contrast the Studio Displays with Airpods. If you pair a new Airpods model with an older Apple OS or non-Apple device they will work as generic Bluetooth headphones, and all you miss out on is the fancy nonstandard features that are layered on top. To borrow a web dev term, it's a great example of progressive enhancement.

@mjtsai The Studio Displays are the basically the complete opposite – absolutely nothing on a non-updated or non-Apple device.

At the very least they should work as a generic monitor with any device, with the webcam/speakers/whatever requiring specific support on the other end.

Realistically, though, there shouldn't need to be any proprietary stuff layered on top. Plenty of other monitors have speakers and webcams and USB-C/TB ports and work with any device that supports USB-C displays.