1. Apple product line used to be much smaller hence the company had much more focus.
Disagree, its still small, not hard to manage
2. Where Steve demanded "end user experience" perfection, the board/stock holders demand quick profits (at all cost)
Agree, its about the stock price, the profits, and they have excessively loyal user base to rely on.
3. The original Apple team were hard core geeks who REALLY understood HW and SW. They are all but gone now.
Could well be, or the focus is too much on profits. Sad, as making the HW/SW excellent, will get those profits
4. The quality of education has declined and the SW engineers of today simply don't (overall) measure up as well.
5. Work ethic has declined (more diddling around during work)
6. By hiring from other companies where the standards are more lax, the Apple culture starts to mimic these other companies (e.g. MS model of letting YOU test the SW)
? Well, we Apple users have been buying buggy SW and HW with [insert name here]-gate for a while now
7. Fat Roman Empire syndrome - the hunger and drive that SJ infused into his workforce when Apple was up and coming is gone. They have conquered the world and the fire is gone.
Profits now
8. The "pace" has picked up due to competition and constant HW advances, but due to all the above this just magnifies the cracks in the company
Yep
Bottom line is Apple is still a great SW/HW company, but the "magic" is gone. They still seem ok only because the competition is even worse. But for long time Apple users, the decline is painfully obvious. What used to be "it just works" is now "I hope it works but I'll wait for version .3".
