Is Apple now a chip company first and design second?

[dogface1956]

I only pointed to the design of the XPS 13, nothing else about the laptop.

Well if the product is crap, then the design is crap they follow each other.

 

[thv]

The iPhone is now all about the camera and the A-series chips. Not the design. The Mac and iPad line-ups are now all about the M-series chips. Not the design. If you watch Apple presentations on stage and the narrative around Apple in the media ... it's all about their chips. To me, Apple is now a chip company masquerading as a design company.

and here I thought they were a technology company...

 

[boss.king]

and here I thought they were a technology company...

This is also a great point. Apple isn’t a design company. They are a tech company that designs products. And even as their tech goes, Macs are some of their lower-volume products.

 

[gødspeed]

Apple doesn't even make its own chips, TSMC does. Apple "designs" its chips in a sense, but entirely subject to the advances and constraints of TSMC's process (currently 5nm) which TSMC "designs."

Re: the rest of the post, I personally think the latest iPad Air and iPad Pro are the best tablets on the market (not just the best looking ones), MacOS is the best platform for creative professionals, iOS/iPadOS is the best platform for mobile devices, and AirPods and AirPods Max are near the front of the pack for best wireless ANC headphones.

The Apple products I see lagging a bit behind are the Mac Pro (in terms of overpricing), and more subjectively: the MacBooks for lacking a touch-screen (definitely arguable), the Apple Watch (the rectangular profile looks outdated), and the latest iPhones for abandoning the vastly superior rounded case design of the X and 11.

edit - Apple Music is also the best music streaming platform, at least for folks who care about hi-fi and/or Dolby Atmos.

 

[lm57400]

Oh my God.

"Apple prioritizes design before function!!"

"Apple prioritizes technology before design!!"

People for true often want the opposite of what they get.

 

[Abazigal]

Apple does not make laptops with unique designs anymore. They recently redesigned the MacBook Air and Pro's and they went with a utilitarian and conservative look. They did not push any boundaries. They don't make the most bleeding edge phones anymore (Samsung is pushing the envelope with foldables). They don't make the best looking wireless earbuds. They don't make the best looking smartwatches. They don't make the best looking tablets. On the software front, Google has caught up on Android's UI and has the same polish as iOS. Apple is no longer the software design leader. The only area that Apple is truly ahead is in chip design. Does that mean Apple is now a chip company first and design second? Also, does that mean Apple no longer attracts the very best designers and instead attracts the best chip designers?

Apple has always been about minimalism and purity in hardware design. Rather than argue about whether Apple products are the "best looking", which is pretty subjective to begin with, I find that Apple is all about creating products that are cut down to their basic form, with nothing standing between the user and the device.

To achieve this, Apple designers attempt to cut out everything not absolutely required in the design (sometimes to a fault, but that's what makes Apple so polarising to begin with). It's like how the old iPod nano had no buttons. Sure, the design didn't really pan out (who wants a media player with no buttons?), but it was pure in terms of design in the eyes of Apple.

So rather than ask how Apple can make their products look better, you should be asking what more Apple could be removing from their products in the name of simplicity and minimalism, though it does seem that with Jony Ive's departure, their design team is starting to walk back on a number of his more controversial and unpopular design choices.

I like to think that somewhere out there, the design team (or at least Jony Ive) has this utopian vision of the end state of their hardware, however unattainable it may be. And every year, they find a way to remove something or make it just that little bit thinner and lighter and inch ever closer to that end result.

 

[jdb8167]

and more subjectively: the MacBooks for lacking a touch-screen (definitely arguable)

I was in a meeting last week and my boss was presenting. He tried to use the trackpad on his Surface to zoom in but it didn’t work. He then says, “Oh, I can use the touch screen.” He happily does the zoom to various parts of his documents over the next 30 minutes. I can see his screen at an oblique angle. It is literally covered in fingerprints.

So obviously he normally doesn’t use the touch screen since he was surprised that he could use it in this circumstance. And after 30 minutes his display was a mess. Not the most enticing demo.

All the people complaining about fingerprints on the case of a Midnight MacBook Air probably are not good candidates for a touch screen Mac.

 

[leman]

Apple doesn't even make its own chips, TSMC does. Apple "designs" its chips in a sense, but entirely subject to the advances and constraints of TSMC's process (currently 5nm) which TSMC "designs."

This is overly simplistic. It's not like Apple is passively waiting for TSMC to advance their methods and develop new products. Both companies cooperate on many aspects of R&D, pooling their research and coordinating directions. This is the only way how cutting edge semiconductor technology is possible. Other examples include Thunderbolt (owned by Intel but jointly developed by Intel and Apple), displays Apple uses (manufactured by third party but co-developed by Apple) or even the ARM64 instruction set (where industry insiders claim Apple made a significant contribution).

 

[boss.king]

I was in a meeting last week and my boss was presenting. He tried to use the trackpad on his Surface to zoom in but it didn’t work. He then says, “Oh, I can use the touch screen.” He happily does the zoom to various parts of his documents over the next 30 minutes. I can see his screen at an oblique angle. It is literally covered in fingerprints.

So obviously he normally doesn’t use the touch screen since he was surprised that he could use it in this circumstance. And after 30 minutes his display was a mess. Not the most enticing demo.

All the people complaining about fingerprints on the case of a Midnight MacBook Air probably are not good candidates for a touch screen Mac.

I don't know if you're aware but Apple actually sells a remarkable number of touchscreen products already. Why is it that touching an iPad display is okay but the thought of touching a laptop screen causes people to lose their minds?

 

[jdb8167]

I don't know if you're aware but Apple actually sells a remarkable number of touchscreen products already. Why is it that touching an iPad display is okay but the thought of touching a laptop screen causes people to lose their minds?

Trust me I know. With my iPad mini I have a collection of micro fiber towels all over my house and one always in my bag. I’m constantly wiping down the iPad screen. It is my least favorite thing about the iPad. (Well that and the dumb OS limitations). And I bought the Midnight M2 MBA because I’m not super concerned about fingerprints on the case. On the screen on the other hand…