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I miss old Apple
- Thread starter dexapini
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Thanks for your insight. I didn't ignore your comment, but unfortunatelly I don't have time to reply for all of them.
Thanks. Maybe you're right... I am getting older, but I don't like the direction where "modern thinking" is going. I see my young neighbours, collegues spending more time on a phone doing sh*t, than actually talking face to face. New emojis, memojis etc. and all that stuff is to think you are conversating with someone on the same level as in real life.How nice that you made an account here, specifically or this "thought"
It's not apple that changed...it is you, you are getting older and that changes your perspective on many things.
Apple just goes with the flow of modern thinking and fabricating, to...yes, make money.
I think Apple is doing great, and not mass manufacturing many same devices at the same time, with very minor differences, that are difficult to tell apart, or release a new product every 2 months.
I was born in early 90s and I remember iPod, which was a revolutionary device. I had few of them, and I spent a lot of time searching for music, new artists, listening to them etc. but I knew it's a hobby, entertainment and you have to get back to real life, your obligations. So, the direction where all big companies are going is to became more addictive, to spend more time in virtual life than real. It's sad, that Apple is taking part in this for making more money.
I miss the old Apple too - the Apple from 1999 - 2010 that was brave, took a lot of risks, and made statements. It came with a few critical mistakes, but so many more great things came from it. Fun, creative industrial design. New product that defined their categories like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. Pushing UI design to new territories with the release of Mac OS X. And if it weren't for Ive's push for thinner and thiner devices, we wouldn't have the slim, unbelievably tiny computers we have today.
But you know what? Tim Cook has done a great job in his own right. The Apple Silicon Macs are now objectively the most efficient computers in the world and they are even cheaper than their PC equivalents. Apple has pushed their services and accessories industry into territory that Steve Jobs repeatedly attempted (and failed) to achieve. We've gotten more choice than ever before in every single product for every price point, screen size, and device color.
It's not all bad. A comforting fact is that the Apple of yesteryear just wouldn't fit in today's world; Apple will continue to grow and evolve.
But you know what? Tim Cook has done a great job in his own right. The Apple Silicon Macs are now objectively the most efficient computers in the world and they are even cheaper than their PC equivalents. Apple has pushed their services and accessories industry into territory that Steve Jobs repeatedly attempted (and failed) to achieve. We've gotten more choice than ever before in every single product for every price point, screen size, and device color.
It's not all bad. A comforting fact is that the Apple of yesteryear just wouldn't fit in today's world; Apple will continue to grow and evolve.
FWIW, I still have an old iPad mini 2 (2013) running iOS12. Surprised to see that a software update came out for it in August 2022. (security).
You're absolutely right! I remember the older Apple when they were fighting HARD for marketshare and release MacOS versions and new apps as point updates even because they were hungry for that marketshare. Unfortunately this is what tends to happen when a company has the sales and corner a market. Wish it was a simplified line up. I am very impressed with Apple Silicon though compared to 680x0/PPC/Intel.
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If you ever listen to the original iPhone keynote from Macworld, listen to Tim Cook’s voicemail to Steve when he was demoing the visual voicemail that’s all you will ever need to know about his leadership style 🤣.
Granted Apple could make a killing on the niched Re-issue market like limited edition iPod classics with modern hardware, just how Sony still sells walkmans, but to each their own, I just fixed up and sideloaded my old apps from my library in iTunes when you could download them from iTunes and to use it as it was, made me wish I saved all my old apple devices, but I am having a blast on my old iPhone 4s.
Iddk, if you are feeling nostalgic head on to Archive.gov the internet’s archive on old websites and you can reminisce or how apple.com used to look when Steve was alive versus recent and now, a completely different beast all together, their ads were the best of the best for sure 🤣
Granted Apple could make a killing on the niched Re-issue market like limited edition iPod classics with modern hardware, just how Sony still sells walkmans, but to each their own, I just fixed up and sideloaded my old apps from my library in iTunes when you could download them from iTunes and to use it as it was, made me wish I saved all my old apple devices, but I am having a blast on my old iPhone 4s.
Iddk, if you are feeling nostalgic head on to Archive.gov the internet’s archive on old websites and you can reminisce or how apple.com used to look when Steve was alive versus recent and now, a completely different beast all together, their ads were the best of the best for sure 🤣
Apple was like this well before Cook. The requirements for Mac OS X after its first version basically meant that a lot of computers that were just a few years old wouldn't update, Apple did everything they could to accelerate OS 9's death, and Apple definitely did whatever they thought possible to kill off PowerPC, even if you had very capable PowerMac G5s, Apple just flat out wouldn't make a PPC OS X after Leopard, which came out only a year after the Intel switch.
Also a lot of the complaining about too many choices, people were doing with Apple as early as 1998-1999, when there would be the "four quadrants" strategy but yet they would have an iMac, iMac DV, iMac DV SE, etc, etc. None of these are new concerns people have had.
I agree about too many models but I also remember those dreadful plastic MacBooks that used to crack at the corners. My wife and I suffered the 2011 debacle of faulty GPUs but both our high spec pros failed outside of the repair offer. I was pretty fed up at having the 2016 MacBook Pro once I started to hear about the keyboard issues but mine has been fine. I actually like the Touch Bar so maybe I'm a bit odd!
My main issue with Apple is that they withhold straightforward elements ( I wouldn't even call them features) like more I/O in order to sell you a more expensive option with these in place a few months later. For me this means they are not customer-focussed they are focussed primarily on their profits and shareholders just like every other company - like they really need to screw customers because they're doing so badly!
All the while we all wait for things to come right in just one product but they never do - there's always something lagging that could be there .. and we all go on falling for it ... every time.
Don't get me wrong .. I love most of my Apple stuff but I choose very carefully these days. I actually feel I have more control building a desktop PC so I still have one of those and it works very well .. I probably use it more than my laptop and iPad. There's the satisfaction that you made it yourself just how you wanted it with no compromise!
My main issue with Apple is that they withhold straightforward elements ( I wouldn't even call them features) like more I/O in order to sell you a more expensive option with these in place a few months later. For me this means they are not customer-focussed they are focussed primarily on their profits and shareholders just like every other company - like they really need to screw customers because they're doing so badly!
All the while we all wait for things to come right in just one product but they never do - there's always something lagging that could be there .. and we all go on falling for it ... every time.
Don't get me wrong .. I love most of my Apple stuff but I choose very carefully these days. I actually feel I have more control building a desktop PC so I still have one of those and it works very well .. I probably use it more than my laptop and iPad. There's the satisfaction that you made it yourself just how you wanted it with no compromise!
Yeah, let's keep Apple lean and mean, on the edge of bankruptcy and with a tiny-but-loyal customer base. Steve did what he did (slashing the number of SKUs) because there were so few being sold of each of them. That's simply Business Economics 101. Sell enough units to cover their costs and turn a good profit and all is well.
When you look at the numbers of units sold of today's Apple products you'll find little reason to worry whether the R&D costs have been absorbed or whether the company is profitable. And the number of SKUs... producing the same product in multiple colors and/or with variations in a small number of features (storage, RAM, cellular connectivity, choice of two sizes) that have little to no bearing on the overall cost of manufacture... Again, so long as there are enough units sold of each variant there's no problem at all. Those variations help close sales to more customers than might choose a one-size-fits-all version. "I want a bigger display!" "I want a smaller/lighter unit!" Can you really satisfy both interests with a single product?
Memory is a funny thing. We tend to remember the good stuff and forget the bad. Back in the days of Classic Mac OS I used to say, "Apple's dirty secret is that Macs crash." The crashes were frequent but generally gentle, so folks would just reboot and get on with life. I'd take the stability of any of today's Apple computing products over the past (any past); the continual up-time is astounding. In many cases I'd wager the only time many people reboot their iOS device is when they install an OS update. Same goes for Macs. My "Golden Age" Macs needed daily (or even more frequent) reboots just to deal with memory leakage. Today? Short of an occasional power outage or OS update my Macs can run for months between reboots.
Meantime, Apple has more than what, 140,000 direct employees and how many others employed by its contractors? There's no way a Steve Jobs could micro-manage/breathe down the necks of a staff that size. May Steve rest in peace! For me, his very early vision of putting the power of computing into every person's hands implied the desire to sell all those computing products - which would have made Apple a very, very large company. So to my way of thinking, today's Apple is the Apple of Steve's dreams.
When you look at the numbers of units sold of today's Apple products you'll find little reason to worry whether the R&D costs have been absorbed or whether the company is profitable. And the number of SKUs... producing the same product in multiple colors and/or with variations in a small number of features (storage, RAM, cellular connectivity, choice of two sizes) that have little to no bearing on the overall cost of manufacture... Again, so long as there are enough units sold of each variant there's no problem at all. Those variations help close sales to more customers than might choose a one-size-fits-all version. "I want a bigger display!" "I want a smaller/lighter unit!" Can you really satisfy both interests with a single product?
Memory is a funny thing. We tend to remember the good stuff and forget the bad. Back in the days of Classic Mac OS I used to say, "Apple's dirty secret is that Macs crash." The crashes were frequent but generally gentle, so folks would just reboot and get on with life. I'd take the stability of any of today's Apple computing products over the past (any past); the continual up-time is astounding. In many cases I'd wager the only time many people reboot their iOS device is when they install an OS update. Same goes for Macs. My "Golden Age" Macs needed daily (or even more frequent) reboots just to deal with memory leakage. Today? Short of an occasional power outage or OS update my Macs can run for months between reboots.
Meantime, Apple has more than what, 140,000 direct employees and how many others employed by its contractors? There's no way a Steve Jobs could micro-manage/breathe down the necks of a staff that size. May Steve rest in peace! For me, his very early vision of putting the power of computing into every person's hands implied the desire to sell all those computing products - which would have made Apple a very, very large company. So to my way of thinking, today's Apple is the Apple of Steve's dreams.
The amiable face of Apple is shedding to reveal it's more rapacious nature.
Soon the faithful will only be able to subscribe to the latest hardware, software, and services.
They are following the trend.
GM is also evolving a subscription model. They don't want you to own the car.
BMW want you to buy a subscription to use the heated seats that are already fitted to the car.
ownership will be a dirty word.
Soon the faithful will only be able to subscribe to the latest hardware, software, and services.
They are following the trend.
GM is also evolving a subscription model. They don't want you to own the car.
BMW want you to buy a subscription to use the heated seats that are already fitted to the car.
ownership will be a dirty word.