Is anybody else a bit disappointed in Apple's lineup?

[iHorseHead]

Hello,
I was curious if there's anybody else that's a little disappointed in Apple's current lineup? I mean they're currently selling so many iPads and iPhones and when I found out that only iPhone 15 Pro and later will support all of the AI features I realised how displeased I am with Apple's lineup.
They're still selling iPhone 13 and over here in Europe many resellers are still selling the iPhone 11 (for $500, I might add). It used to be way simpler and I think it was beautiful. It was nice when there was only iPhone 5 and iPhone 4. There was no iPhone 5 Pro Max, iPhone 5 Pro Ultra Max, iPhone 5 plus and to make matters worse is that the base model is always one generation behind. You get an older chip in iPhone 15 than in iPhone 15 pro.

Thank god they're not selling MacBooks with Intel processor at least, but Apple is turning into what I hated the most about Samsung and other manufactures. Before I was laughing, because Samsung provides AI features on their high end phones and I thought to myself: "Apple would never do this" and then yesterday I found out that only iPhone 15 pro supports all of the AI features. I mean I get it, there was iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, but it wasn't that bad as it is now. It's honestly just getting out of hand and I'm afraid that Apple will turn into Samsung, especially when it comes to the software updates in the future. I guess more choice means more money, but yeah… I feel like Apple has lost its 'magic' it once had. Even with Macs, I mean what's the difference between Mac Studio and Mac Pro? What's the difference between the iPad and iPad mini and other iPads? I just checked, at least in my country iPad mini 64GB costs as much as the iPad 10th generation 256GB and I'm not joking. We've come to the point where a consumer really has to make their research before buying something. Before it was a lot easier and I think it was beautiful. Buying Apple devices today is like buying Samsung devices. I mean what's the difference between Samsung Galaxy A 55 and Samsung Galaxy M 55 etc? You see my point. Usually the A-series has been supported for longer than the M-series even though the price is pretty similar and I'm afraid that Apple will go down the same path in the future.

 

[Flowstates]

You should reconsider having para-social relations with electronics inventory.

Anyways, segmentation and add-ons are as hugely lucrative. Nothing new under the sun.

 

[Nermal]

I'm disappointed, but for different reasons. Yes, Apple's using the "confusion as a marketing tool" strategy, but it seems to be effective.

My disappointment comes more from charging premium prices for products that are no longer premium. I know some people will be along to say that they personally don't have issues, but I find the number of bugs in modern Apple software to be astounding, and they rarely get fixed. My Mac is nearing four years old and some of the bugs I reported in the first month have yet to be fixed. Why should I pay a premium if there's no software support?

 

[bousozoku]

I wouldn't even consider buying into any AI functionality at this time. I will likely stay on the current releases for quite a while. Of course, my phone is two years old, but there is nothing compelling for me to buy right now. I have an M1 MacBook Air and that is fine still, and there is no compelling substitute for it at this point.

I want Apple to fix bugs, not to add new features that come with even more bugs. They continue to develop their software the way Adobe has been doing for years and that's not good.

I'm not sure that Apple cares about satisfied customers or a positive reputation, as long as they stay out of the news for problems.

 

[avro707]

Not really bothered by their current computer line up - just wish they'd bring driver support for GPUs like Radeon Pro W7x00 series. Also annoyed by the NVME PCI-E storage bug in Sonoma (and evidently also Sequoia).

Don't intend on buying any new Apple desktop machines if I can avoid it. I do intend on increasing the RAM on the 7,1 machine. Not much else to do with it, that machine is still very powerful.

 

[wonderings]

Sounds like upgrade anxiety. Your phone was fine till you saw the announcement and then you heard that you would need to get a top tier expensive iPhone. I do think Apple's lineup of laptops and phones is pretty convoluted. Naming conventions are horrible, and the variety of options specifically in the computers is a bit confusing, though I think that is partially due to the new silicon and having to think differently about computer specs.

 

[DaveEcc]

I find the number of bugs in modern Apple software to be astounding, and they rarely get fixed.

Have you reported them? No matter how obvious they are, I've worked places where things won't get fixed unless a customer raises an issue, management would rather you work on something new.

People complained here about the 1-pixel gap between the menu bar and the highest a window could go... said it has been like that for years and Apple didn't care. It *was* annoying, so I reported it, noting that it was an obvious distracting line, even with the default wallpaper. It's now fixed. Perhaps coincidence, or perhaps actually reporting defects to Apple helps.

edit to note that, as pointed out below, while it may have become more subtle in many cases, the issue definitely still persists.

 

[iStorm]

Have you reported them? No matter how obvious they are, I've worked places where things won't get fixed unless a customer raises an issue, management would rather you work on something new.

People complained here about the 1-pixel gap between the menu bar and the highest a window could go... said it has been like that for years and Apple didn't care. It *was* annoying, so I reported it, noting that it was an obvious distracting line, even with the default wallpaper. It's now fixed. Perhaps coincidence, or perhaps actually reporting defects to Apple helps.

Are you referring to this? It's definitely still there in Sonoma 14.5 (and in the Sequoia beta). I, and many others, have reported this in the past as well. It's much more noticeable when you turn transparency off, but it can still be seen with certain wallpapers when transparency is on.

 

[Nermal]

Have you reported them?

Yes. Every time a new update comes along I go and bulk-update my dozens of reports with "problem still occurs in version x.y.z" (after checking that it does, of course).

 

[DaveEcc]

Are you referring to this? It's definitely still there in Sonoma 14.5 (and in the Sequoia beta). I, and many others, have reported this in the past as well. It's much more noticeable when you turn transparency off, but it can still be seen with certain wallpapers when transparency is on.

View attachment 2388309

View attachment 2388312

Sigh. Yeah. I noticed it was gone, tried a half dozen wallpapers, and was happy... But checking again now, yeah, with certain wallpapers it's still clearly there. Only on one of my own photos... all the rest are fine, but it's definitely still there with several of the built-ins (Hello Metallica Yellow, and Radial Green are both quite obvious).

 

[basdeninard]

Yes. Every time a new update comes along I go and bulk-update my dozens of reports with "problem still occurs in version x.y.z" (after checking that it does, of course).

You are wasting your time doing that.

 

[decafjava]

Ok myself, only looking to upgrade my Mac this year, probably to a Mac Mini as the current iMac line leaves me a bit cold.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Why should I pay a premium if there's no software support?

Agreed

It's one of many reasons I continue to soldier on with my Hackintosh and 2015 15" MBP

They keep releasing things that I find to be overpriced and lacking value and flexibility

Sadly, Apple keeps just rearranging the deck chairs with most of the product releases as opposed to fundamentally changing the overall approach.

I'm probably alone on this, but I'd rather be back to paid macOS releases if it would mean better polish and bug fixes

 

[steve123]

I'm probably alone on this, but I'd rather be back to paid macOS releases if it would mean better polish and bug fixes

Not alone.

 

[basdeninard]

I'm probably alone on this, but I'd rather be back to paid macOS releases if it would mean better polish and bug fixes

The issue is not the lack of money, as we can clearly see from Apple's financial performance, but the desire (and now the expectation) for Apple to release major new versions of macOS every year.

If they stop doing that and return to a 2 or 3 year release cycle – the longer the better – that will give Apple enough time between releases to better maintain software quality.

In any case I wouldn't object to paying for new releases if they stopped releasing new versions of macOS every year.

 

[steve123]

I'd rather be back to paid macOS releases if it would mean better polish and bug fixes

If OS updates were paid it would be a positive game changer. I bet in the current environment most people would choose not to update because the cost/benefit ratio would no longer have a denominator that is asymptotically approaching zero and a zero in the numerator. Apple looses useful market feedback when they give it a value of zero. We should still get free point and security updates and those should continue for as long as the machines are used, not some arbitrary time limit set by Apple.

 

[leifp]

Your poll and headline are in conflict. If I answer your headline “no” then I must answer your question “yes”… Not sure if that’s your goal.

Regardless, I am not disappointed in Apple’s lineup nor am I disappointed in their general approach to hardware and software. I am merely not in the market for present Mac offerings and my heart wanted a new Mac Studio but my wallet is content. My M1Max still generally outperforms at any use I put it to.

Does that mean I don’t think Apple could (and should) do better? Of course not. But I use a Win11 machine regularly and occasionally dip my toes into Linux and neither works better than macOS for my own workflows and foibles.

 

[huge_apple_fangirl]

If you’re in Europe you aren’t getting the new AI features anyways. So what’s wrong with and iPhone 13?