Interesting case being made for the iPhone, and not iCloud, being the center of the coming universe.

With iOS 8, Apple encourages this trend by pushing nascent ecosystems to focus on mobile. Nearly every aspect of the “new” ecosystem Apple showed this week revolves around having the iPhone as the center of your digital experience:

Placing calls and sending SMS messages in Mac OS X Yosemite requires access to your iPhone.

HealthKit and the new Health app make your iPhone the main repository for information from all of your fitness and dietary apps and sensors, putting the iPhone at the center of an entire burgeoning ecosystem unto itself.

Similarly, HomeKit puts your iPhone in control of any smart device in your home. Notably, HomeKit is also the first time Apple has given developers a chance to expand Siri’s vocabulary themselves — users will be able to define rooms and “zones” in their homes in order to give Siri commands like “Siri, turn off all the lights in the kitchen” or “Siri, turn on the lights downstairs,” for example. CarPlay transforms the infotainment system in your car into a dumb interface for the iPhone to take over, with “Hey, Siri” making the entire experience hands-free when your device is charging. Touch ID will be available to third-party developers, making the iPhone the most secure way to access things like banking applications or private messages.

With Apple using peer-to-peer connections for AirPlay in iOS 8, pushing video or game content to the Apple TV won’t even require a Wi-Fi network.