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How Apple lost its way: Steve Jobs’ love of simplicity is gone
- Thread starter smacrumon
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I misspoke, but my point is that Macs are more profitable then iPads as @OllyW more astutely put it. My point remains in that Apple doesn't want to endanger Mac sales by making an iPad more robust like a Surface Pro
Well, I think they're cutting off their nose to spite their face.
I have no interest in a touchscreen Mac. Artificially handicapping the iPad means that I have little incentive to upgrade to an iPad Pro. Even if the iPad featured a proper filing system, I would still have a Mac, as there are too many things that are better done on one, or can only be done on one. That's not going to change for many years.
And Apple used to be proud of cannibalising itself, notably with the iPod mini. If it were truly strong, it would not be afraid of seeing falling sales of Macs, but would adapt to the changing landscape. As it is, I see a frightened Apple that is trying to cling onto Mac sales by keeping the iPad restricted, and that was not Steve Jobs's way, and will backfire on Apple in the long term.
I don't see it as artificially handicapping the iPad. I think Apple has a philosophy with the iPad and they're maintaining that, where as the industry as a different idea. People seem to be preferring what the industry is moving too, but apple is (so far) sticking to its guns.
I haven't had many Apple products yet, but the ones I do have I could use intuitively without reading too many instructions or even any to use them! I wanted to upgrade my ipod touch 3g to the latest 6g one and after trying to use it for for over a week I returned it out of frustration. The hardware was beautiful but the software is a mess, it took four to five taps on the screen to play one single track where I only needed two on my old one?! Sliding screens from every which way that over complicated every little move. They should really get back to simplicity and "form follows function"!
Good point.
Remember the "pinnacle" of Apple prior to Steve? The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh with a $7499 price tag? I hope the Watch Edition isn't the other bookend to Steve's era.
How can it be a book end to his era when his era had come and gone by the time the apple watch was rolled out.
What has Ken Segall "who worked alongside the tech giant’s co-founder" done lately to even merit a foot note?
The TAM also happened outside Steve's tenure, several months prior to his entry back into the company and a few more before he actually took control again. The TAM design process actually started well over a year prior to his return. It seems to me to the Watch and the TAM were two identically conceived products with very similar schemes behind them.
The TAM was exorbitantly priced, with decent specs though not quite cutting edge. It was an ego project from the minds of people who thought that anything "Mac" should command a premium, so therefore a limited release anniversary model should basically require people to get help carrying in the big pile of cash Apple wanted for it.
The Edition Watch - despite having quite a bit of advanced technology in it - is exorbitantly priced, as Apple figured they'd create demand for the product by exclusivity - setting a high price tag for a Watch that was technically no different from the Sport model except for the case. I think thats the wrong way to establish a halo product when a company is entering a new category. The Edition would have been better received if it offered technology that far exceeded the Sport.
Despite Steve passing several years ago, Apple is still riding the caboose on a train of products that were designed under his auspices. Based on the rounded edges of the iPhone 6, I believe the iPhone 5s marked the last of of his design influences in the cellular phone area. Its unfortunate that Steve isn't here now - for many reasons - not the least of which is how new technology is going to be incorporated into the upcoming iPhone generations. I think Apple really does need to do something about borderless displays, audio quality, better cameras, and the like but I'm concerned that they're really going to commit some glaring errors on those designs without his overarching design guidance.
I am so used to Apple being so intuitive and just working that having to change my work flow for iTunes 12.4 is a little something of a first world shock.
The horse has already left the barn with respect to some of your commentary. If they commit glaring errors the market will let them know.
Indeed. I think in some ways it already has. The products seem to be in somewhat of a standstill, as Apple seems to be turning out ever more features but no underlying direction. During many of the Stevenotes I've ever watched, I always was left amazed at how much new stuff we would be able to do, followed by wondering just what was waiting for us next. It always seemed like taking steps into new frontiers, yet there was a rough map available. Now it seems like they just keep adding stuff with no plan. Tons of new emojis and a graffiti-laden iMessage are not advances. Those are distractions.
But my concerns aren't just with the products. My own design expectations could be affecting how I see that situation. The thread title starts with "how Apple lost its way..." and that points towards something much more fundamental.
Despite Steve Jobs being a registered Democrat, he very rarely made political comments and made only the occasional donation. Apple never got involved in politics and had a lobbying budget smaller than the annual operating costs of a neighborhood gas station. Jobs wisely stayed out of politics and kept his rather substantial personal charitable activities out of the public eye with all the operational security of a SEAL team.
With Jobs as CEO, Apple had a mission: deliver tools that people enjoyed using, tools that would help them create and communicate like nothing before. He wanted everyone to experience a sense of wonder while enabling them to accomplish things they never could have done before. He took that mission personally, and his concern was genuine. Whether the audience was a 10 year old child or the president of Russia, Jobs only cared if they bonded with the product, not if they just owned it.
Cook has traded that model for one that uses Apple's economic power to lobby and get involved with politics. Now the checkbook is going to be open, buying influence and trying to steer society instead of providing people tools for self-determination. What Cook doesn't understand - and Jobs did, believe me he did - was that anytime you do that, anytime you try to curry favor financially with the state, you actually are helping to empower it.
Jobs looked at government as an impediment, while Cook is cozying up to them. The products are no longer the focus, the power of the company is the focus. For that alone, Cook has lost my respect.
Yes, I believe Apple has lost its way.
Truly outstanding comment. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Why do you constantly insist on staying in the Past?
10 record breaking quarters is history.2 declining quarters is the here and now.Credit cards are a thing of the past.Apple Pay and Samsung Pay is here and now.DSLRs will eventually face extinction. S7 Edge already matches DALR quality yet you say DSLR is better
Disasterous quarters? I mean even pointing out that that is just pure hyperbole doesn't seem like enough. How could anything be taken seriously when the vast majority of it is just rhetorical absolutes, extremes, and/or hyperbole that is detached from reality and/or rationale?
In the last year Apple experienced it's first ever decline in iPhone sales
In the last year Apple was surpassed by Alphabet as the world most valuable company twice for the first time in a decade and trends point to Alphabet eventually takin that spot for good in the future
In he last year Apple's iPad sales continued their free fall
In the last year Apple's Macbook line has become so stale to the point all the Mac charts in the buyers guide are showing the Danger sign (And I really want a new retina Macbook)
In the last year Samsung Galaxy S7 outsold the iPhone 6s in the US
Now you mean to tell me this year wasn't a disaster?
@Radon87000 easy for me to find a few articles about free-fall of iPads but I shouldn't describe such things as disastrous.
Pft. I understand that many people will leap at any opportunity to discuss sales figures, finances, shareholdings and so on but honestly, things here seem to be way off from the subject of the opening post
More on topic:
I'm not sure about eras but Jobs died before Apple began work on the Watch. I seem to be in some kind of perpetual loop with that observation
Pft. I understand that many people will leap at any opportunity to discuss sales figures, finances, shareholdings and so on but honestly, things here seem to be way off from the subject of the opening post
More on topic:
I'm not sure about eras but Jobs died before Apple began work on the Watch. I seem to be in some kind of perpetual loop with that observation
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While still outselling Samsung.
An unusual thing to put in a post that otherwise related towards product disarray. Market cap is only one metric to judge a company by, and as it relates more towards investor perception you may consider using a different metric. Remember that back in the late nineties, it was a given that you could buy Apple stock at a discount after an earnings report - no matter how good the report was - and sell it immediately prior to a Keynote and make a decent profit. It was repeatable, and the subject of jokes in the fanbase press. It still goes on somewhat these days. Now does that mean the company isn't as good as another company that exceeds Apple's value? There were several hundred companies that exceeded Apple's value in 2001, but none of them turned out quality products up to Apple's standards. There are companies that have a higher share price, or employ more people, or have more buildings, or use more energy, or have gross sales that exceed most national budgets. It doesn't have any bearing on a discussion of the company's direction or its prospects. I think it more directly relates to that company's ability to use its shares as money to buy other companies. Apple has more cash in the bank than just about anyone else in the world besides the Vatican, so I think that coupled with market cap gives them a handy lead over Alphabet if thats what you're worried about. (Terrifying name for the new Google holding company, btw, on more than a few levels)
Note: this doesn't mean I think Apple is "safe", as in safe from attack, competition, mistakes, or outright disaster. I firmly believe that is the path they are headed down, though it will be more gradual than headlines would have you believe. Rather, I believe that Apple would be "safe" if they had competent leadership, which they do not. The staff is supremely competent -even brilliant - in their respective positions provided they have the right person in headship, which they don't. Inertia is going to serve them for a while, but then its going to crumble. Are they going to go the way of Borland and Novell, who remain as pale shadows of their former stature? Who knows? That massive cash pile is something neither of those two companies had, but it could work against Apple as much as for them. Recall that when Steve came back to Apple the situation was very bad and it was ripe for exactly his Zen mentality: less is more. Prune away everything that wasn't core, and make the core stuff really, really well. Now Apple is back to making more and more sub models, they're into more categories, but they have a large amount of cash. What incentive do they have to focus? Just fling money at the lab, its the Larry Tesler era all over again. (Nothing personal against Tesler, btw, he's a brilliant guy.)
Its a downtrend to be certain but I think "freefall" is more hyperbole than anything else. You sound like a headline-chasing blogger when you put things that way.
This I agree with. My biggest concern here is that Apple is getting ready to completely toss aside the existing design aesthetic, and that is the reason for the extremely long major product refresh. And I'm not talking about things just all being offered in the new, "innovative" rose gold finish. Imagine the iMac going away from the gorgeous tapered brushed aluminum that lies just at the threshold of our awareness and contributes so subtly to the overall user experience, and instead goes to a black metal like the Pro, with rounded edges like the iPhone 6. If I wanted Alienware, I would have bought it.
Again, the problem is that there is no benevolent despot running the company. Thats what it needs.
Other people have properly dissected this and proven it to be incorrect.
No, it was definitely a disaster, but for more reasons that the ones you cited.
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You have been trumpeting Apples downfall even as apple has had one record breaking quarter after another. Pure hyperbole is this. Samsung pay will be a thing of the past with chip and pin and is largely irrelevant. Credit cards are accepted in 100% of the world, where there is a swipe machine, and are virtually indestructible compared to your phone. As far as the camera DSLRs aren't going anywhere, because you can't get the same versatility as a phone camera. Try covering NASCAR and getting a close up freeze frame shot with a phone camera, to pick one example. Other examples, f stop less than 1, 400-600mm telephoto lenses, extreme wide angle lenses starting at 10mm.
Did you just compare the original 2010 iPad to a 2016 iPad and claim the one from 2010 was heavy and slow?
So any company in the world that has a down quarter is headed for disaster? More hyperbole. Ipads are still the best selling tablet in the world. Apple is the most valuable company in the world today. http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/ Why do you insist on going back in the past?
And no, this year wasn't a disaster, which is pure hyperbole...plain and simple.