Is the Magic of Apple Fading or Are We Just Chasing Nostalgia?

[theluggage]

I had the first generation iPod with FireWire port. I was amazed at having 1000 songs in my pocket. But, I was 19 years old back then.

1960s - “I can have a radio in my pocket and, for the first time, listen to music wherever I am!!!”
1980s - “I can have a cassette player in my pocket and carry around enough C90s to hold a couple of my favourite LPs!!”
2000s - “I can have an iPod in my pocket and carry around my entire record collection!”
2020s - “I can have an iPhone in my pocket and listen to my Apple Music library online which contains what would have been in my record collection…”

Note the slow decay from “!!!” to “…” - each of those steps is important progress, but none of them are as jaw-droppingly impressive as the preceding step. (You can back track to the beginnings of recorded music and radio and “there’s a tiny orchestra hiding in this coffin-sized box!!!!!” if you like).

It’s even 18 years since Spotify popularised/legitimised the idea that you could listen to a huge library of songs on demand rather than just your personal collection.

So I’m not sure what the “jaw dropper” of the last decade or two is supposed to be. LLM/Duffusion “AI”wants to be that - and it is kinda magical if you squint and pretend that it actually works - but has “doom” and “bubble” written all over it.

 

[Eric Idle]

Most products are in a maturity phase and the other part of the answer can be found in two dates:
2011: Steve Jobs dies
2019: Jony Ive leaves

Ives was worthless, nothing more than a thinness fetishist. Scott Forestall was the heart and soul of Apple next to Jobs. He should have been given the reigns, not the feckless Tim Cook.

 

[Eric Idle]

1960s - “I can have a radio in my pocket and, for the first time, listen to music wherever I am!!!”
1980s - “I can have a cassette player in my pocket and carry around enough C90s to hold a couple of my favourite LPs!!”
2000s - “I can have an iPod in my pocket and carry around my entire record collection!”
2020s - “I can have an iPhone in my pocket and listen to my Apple Music library online which contains what would have been in my record collection…”

Note the slow decay from “!!!” to “…” - each of those steps is important progress, but none of them are as jaw-droppingly impressive as the preceding step. (You can back track to the beginnings of recorded music and radio and “there’s a tiny orchestra hiding in this coffin-sized box!!!!!” if you like).

It’s even 18 years since Spotify popularised/legitimised the idea that you could listen to a huge library of songs on demand rather than just your personal collection.

So I’m not sure what the “jaw dropper” of the last decade or two is supposed to be. LLM/Duffusion “AI”wants to be that - and it is kinda magical if you squint and pretend that it actually works - but has “doom” and “bubble” written all over it.

2020 should read "I have an iPhone in my pocket and can listen to virtually every tune ever recorded".

 

[SpotOnT]

I never cared about Apple because they were “cool”, and quite frankly, think it is silly that anyone does.

That “exclusive club” period you are talking about? I remember that. It kind of sucked, since there was so little software support on the Mac.

Now that Apple is more mainstream, we get way better software support. I consider that a plus.

Happy to loose any “cool” factor for real world gains.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Ives was worthless, nothing more than a thinness fetishist.

I have often complained that Apple prioritizes “form over function” way too often. Years after his departure, his influence in decision-making remains.

From low-profile butterfly keyboards, to weird camera bumps that made it harder to just thrown your phone on a wireless charger, to notches-to-holes on displays that they then had to sell us a reason for with “Dynamic Island” because “bezels are bad, mkay”, Apple is still pretending their devices should be works of art rather than tools. In reality, I doubt anyone in this forum would have decided to abandon Apple had they made different choices any more than I did when they made them.

 

[Mainsail]

I have never been happier with my Apple products. My M2 MBA is smooth as butter on the latest version of Sequoia. The M processor sips power. Fan less operation is dead quiet. My iPhone 16+ is a delight to use. The camera is terrific. I love writing tools, which I use primarily to make emails and text more concise.

With my phone and laptop, all my tech needs are met. I can do everything from managing the family real estate business to writing the annual Xmas letter. No complaints here. All of my documents, notes, photos are safely tucked away and synced across devices on iCloud. The whole thing feels magical to me, but I am almost 65 y.o…..I remember using a rotary dialing phone when landline was the only option.

 

[mode11]

I never cared about Apple because they were “cool”, and quite frankly, think it is silly that anyone does.

That “exclusive club” period you are talking about? I remember that. It kind of sucked, since there was so little software support on the Mac.

Now that Apple is more mainstream, we get way better software support. I consider that a plus.

Happy to loose any “cool” factor for real world gains.

When people talk about Apple being "cool" in the 90's I think they mean 'special' rather than 'trendy'. In the pre-iPod days, having a Mac was only really appreciated by other Mac users; most people couldn't see the appeal. As you say, it had less software support (including hardly any games), they were expensive (as in 'over priced', not aspirational) and people were much more familiar with Windows. The average person just thought everything was in the wrong place on a Mac, and the single button mouse was stupid.

Apple finding mass market success with the iPod was a bit of a 'deal with the devil' type situation. On one hand it finally ensured the financial stability of our favourite computing platform. But it also began the transition from 'Apple Computer' to 'Apple Inc'.

My personal disappointment with Apple is their almost exclusive focus on laptops (and sealed desktops that are very laptop-adjacent). Though that would likely have happened regardless, for various reasons.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

I dont think Apple is doing this. I am sre cynical conspiracy theorists will insist otherwise but the greatest thing (or worst depending on how you look at it) that happened to Apple was the celebrity icloud hack because it committed Apple to protecting customer data and privacy.

Tbe reason Siri sucks is because it doesn't share data. Its the reason Apple Intelligence will probably suck, because Apple won't take the leap that everyone else is.

If they were mining data Siri and everything else would be so much easier.

Perhaps you are correct, but I too am a skeptic. In my view Apple is not necessarily protecting its customers, but itself. The customer's data protection is just a byproduct of its (Apple's) actions. The protecting measures Apple Takes are to avoid costly litigations. See...Apple is not doing anything wrong just because it is protection itself. What Apple does is to lock the data for you, and give you the key. In this case a great potion of the data's security depends on what the customer does with the key. All kinds of data about yourself are collected by Apple and others, when you surf the net, and even depending on the settings you choose in your iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC and so on.

Apple protects itself so much that even communication between android and Apple devices is not secure (encrypted). If you have family and friends who text to you (your iPhone), these texts aren't secure any longer (it is all over the news). However, WhatsApp and a couple of other apps, used between the iPhone and Android devices are encrypted. In addition, iMessage and FaceTime are encrypted, but not available for Android devices.

 

[navaira]

I doubt anyone in this forum would have decided to abandon Apple had they made different choices any more than I did when they made them.

I abandoned Apple between 2017-2020 after I ruined four MBPs with butterfly keyboards over the course of three weeks by doing a thing called ‘typing’. (Curiously, a 2016 rMB survived me, I sold it a few weeks ago, the keyboard has not been replaced.) I hackintoshed a Lenovo instead. I was already on Android for a while. Two things got me back on board in 2021: Samsung stopping security updates for my perfectly fine S9 because buy a new one and the M1 Macbook Air with a non-butterfly keyboard.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

Apple protects itself so much that even communication between android and Apple devices is not secure (encrypted). If you have family and friends who text to you (your iPhone), these texts aren't secure any longer (it is all over the news). However, WhatsApp and a couple of other apps, used between the iPhone and Android devices are encrypted. In addition, iMessage and FaceTime are encrypted, but not available for Android devices.

Texts were never secured, they always could have been read by anyone (including the cell phone company).

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Texts were never secured, they always could have been read by anyone (including the cell phone company).

True for SMS texting, but iMessage texting is encrypted, and WhatsApp too. Also 2FA which is done with SMS text is not secure. But what I don't know enough at the moment is that...if my communication between my iPhone and the Android devises family and friends, makes my iPhone less secure (?)

 

[Mr. Heckles]

True for SMS texting, but iMessage texting is encrypted, and WhatsApp too. Also 2FA which is done with SMS text is not secure. But what I don't know enough at the moment is that...if my communication between my iPhone and the Android devises family and friends, makes my iPhone less secure (?)

iMessage is encrypted. I was just replying to the part. Eventually RCS will be e2ee between Android and iPhone.

these texts aren't secure any longer

You saying any longer make it seems like they were at one point, and I’m just saying text/sms were never secured.

I hate that banks (well, mine) used SMS for 2FA.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

iMessage is encrypted. I was just replying to the part

You saying any longer make it seems like they were at one point, and I’m just saying text/sms were never secured.

I hate that banks (well, mine) used SMS for 2FA.

We are "saying" the same thing

I agree that SMS texting has never been secure, and that iMessage is 😀

My question was something like this: "does my iPhone texting SMS to my friends and family's Android devices makes my iPhone's less secure?" I don't know if it is the message itself, or the security of my iPhone-or even the security of the receiving phone that is being intersected at the moment (what is being broadcasted on the news channels).
This:

FBI Warns iPhone, Android Users—Change WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal Apps

FBI warns all users to stop texting—but secure messaging apps must also be changed. Here’s what you need to know.

www.forbes.com

 

[Rainbow Apple]

1960s - “I can have a radio in my pocket and, for the first time, listen to music wherever I am!!!”
[...]
2020s - “I can have an iPhone in my pocket and listen to my Apple Music library online which contains what would have been in my record collection…”

Ironic that the iPhone can't even do what the 60s radio can do. The iPhone is dependent on having an Internet connection, or already having the music (or talk show or whatever) downloaded and saved to the iPhone. It'd be nice if the iPhone were also a radio, so that we could listen to music whenever! While Apple's at it: Let us put an SD card into the iPhone, so that we can have far more music saved to it.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

I haven’t had a chance to watch that properly, but I did skim it.

Sure. If you only look at the bad parts of Apple Intelligence of course it’s going to look bad! The first iteration is not the strongest, sure. Image Playground is essentially a toy as far as I'm concerned. I've played with it a bit, and I reckon my niece will like it, but it's a big 'meh' from me. Having said that, I came to the same conclusion about Stable Diffusion (and Flux, and all the various other image gen AI) after playing with Draw Things. I will steer clear of Genmoji, the same as I did with Memoji. It was the Writing Tools that made me see, and specifically the proofreading. In ten years, LLMs, diffusion models, and gen AI in general will just be like other technologies, like machine learning and blockchain. They'll just be another option for programmers to use to achieve their goals, and there will be a new Flavour of the Month for the tech industry to hype.

Having used macOS 15 in beta through to 15.2 so I could see for myself what this AI hype was about, I have found myself reaching for the proofreading tool on my iPhone many times now. Except I use an iPhone 14 which is otherwise a perfectly fine phone.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I kind of see what you are saying, OP. It used to be so friggin cool to get the new Mac OS, or the first Unibody Intel Macbook Pro. Heck I remember my iBook. It was so great.

My first iPod, iPad, and iPhone. All so cool! And now it's just refinement on the same existing hardware. And it does kind of seem stale. No need to really get anything new until you have to--whether it is a Macbook, Mac Mini, iPhone, iPad, etc.,

The software is the same, honestly. Not really much difference.

Two counter points to myself here that I also believe. The software on Macs (and apps on iPad and iPhone) are still so much more creative and "boutique" feeling. DEVONThink, Tinderbox, Scrivener/Scapple. Ulysses, BBEdit, Notability, Readkit, Omnifocus (and all the Omni products). Heck I wanted a way to move virtual notecards around and found that a German dude (I think?) made Card Buddy. EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED.

Try finding this same level of attention to detail and creativity in Windows software. There isn't any. I have a Surface Pro 9. The software sucks for it. There is nothing as polished as Notability for instance. Same with the rest of that software on my gaming laptop. It just isn't the same. So now I am back to my M1 Macbook Pro 13" and the rest of my Apple stuff because the software is just better.

And finally we have privacy. I use Advanced Data Protection, so pretty much everything I do is encrypted. Including my cloud storage in iCloud Drive. Android doesn't care about privacy and we know Microsoft doesn't either.

So while it can be easy to take this all for granted, and we definitely could benefit from a "fix the bugs" year next year rather than new OS releases, everything is still better in the Apple world than everywhere else....



Which sucks haha.

 

[Eric Idle]

Ironic that the iPhone can't even do what the 60s radio can do. The iPhone is dependent on having an Internet connection, or already having the music (or talk show or whatever) downloaded and saved to the iPhone. It'd be nice if the iPhone were also a radio, so that we could listen to music whenever! While Apple's at it: Let us put an SD card into the iPhone, so that we can have far more music saved to it.

Who the hell listens to radio anymore? I don't know a single person who listens to regular, not Sirrius XM radio. Not one person.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Who the hell listens to radio anymore? I don't know a single person who listens to regular, not Sirrius XM radio. Not one person.

Ha with a user name like that I bet we are in a similar demographic, and I mostly agree. There are a few people I know that love Sirius XM for some bizarre reason, but yeah, maybe in my old car when I am too lazy to pair with my bluetooth receiver.

 

[nathansz]

Who the hell listens to radio anymore? I don't know a single person who listens to regular, not Sirrius XM radio. Not one person.

What the people you know do or do not do doesn’t tell you anything about the rest of the world

 

[dk001]

Perhaps you are correct, but I too am a skeptic. In my view Apple is not necessarily protecting its customers, but itself. The customer's data protection is just a byproduct of its (Apple's) actions. The protecting measures Apple Takes are to avoid costly litigations. See...Apple is not doing anything wrong just because it is protection itself. What Apple does is to lock the data for you, and give you the key. In this case a great potion of the data's security depends on what the customer does with the key. All kinds of data about yourself are collected by Apple and others, when you surf the net, and even depending on the settings you choose in your iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC and so on.

Apple protects itself so much that even communication between android and Apple devices is not secure (encrypted). If you have family and friends who text to you (your iPhone), these texts aren't secure any longer (it is all over the news). However, WhatsApp and a couple of other apps, used between the iPhone and Android devices are encrypted. In addition, iMessage and FaceTime are encrypted, but not available for Android devices.

Good post!
Couple of questions …
1. What does Apple do with all the data it collects? Note that iOS phones home more than Android.
2. “Secure” apps that Meta owns are E2EE but as they pass through Meta’s servers? I could not find a clear answer on that.

For Apple, they could have easily made all “default” texting E2EE if they would use RCS with it turned on or allow others to license iMessage.

 

[smulji]

Even when Microsoft was doing its world-changing innovation

Such as? Please do tell because I don't consider world-changing and MS to be in the same sentence.

 

[SouthPalito]

Their products are also less interesting than they've ever been. More incremental. More play-it-safe.

Once your userbase is in the order of billions of people. you cannot be anything other than play-it-safe.

 

[webkit]

in fact Apple was never more expensive than it is today.

Based on what? When the 128K Macintosh launched in 1984, it was priced at $2,495 (around $7,800 in today's dollars) which was a lot more expensive than various other home computers available at the time. Today's far better iMacs can be had starting at just $1,299.

When the original iPhone launched in 2007, it had a starting price of $499 with an AT&T 2-year contract (around $760 in today's dollars) which was a lot more expensive than various other smartphones available at the time with carrier contracts. Today's far better iPhone 16 Plus can be had for just $396 ($10.99/month x 36) through AT&T.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Good post!
Couple of questions …
1. What does Apple do with all the data it collects? Note that iOS phones home more than Android.
2. “Secure” apps that Meta owns are E2EE but as they pass through Meta’s servers? I could not find a clear answer on that.

For Apple, they could have easily made all “default” texting E2EE if they would use RCS with it turned on or allow others to license iMessage.

I have no idea what data is collected, but assume that it relates to developing profiles from the user that aids in the development of devices or features the near future consumer desires. Everything will soon be analyzed-if not done already-by AI. More than likely Apple and Google aren't interested in our "encrypted data," but data that has marketable value. The police and such would be interested in the illegal things the consumer "may be" involved with, but Apple would lose revenue if the consumer is not able to "lock" his or her data and instead give a key to the police.

~Keep in mind that those above are my assumptions. When it comes to money, there is not a company that is interested in the "feelings" of the consumer, just in revenue

 

[bd700pilot]

Let me start by saying this: I am an unapologetic Apple fanatic. I’m talking all in — products, design, marketing, stores, history, the whole ecosystem. If it’s Apple, I’m interested. And if you’re here on MacRumors, I’m guessing you might feel the same way.

But as we approach the end of 2024, I can’t help but ask a question that’s been on my mind for a while:

Is the “Apple magic” gone? Or are we just chasing the nostalgia of the old days?

I’m talking about the era of Steve Jobs’ keynotes, Jonny Ive’s “aluminum unibody” monologues, and Tony Fadell’s iPod magic wheel. The era of “Hello, I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” commercials and overnight campouts outside the Apple Store to get your hands on the newest product. Back when seeing someone with a clamshell iBook (shoutout to Elle Woods in Legally Blonde) was like spotting a unicorn in a sea of dull, black, plastic IBMs.

Back then, Apple felt exclusive. It had this it factor — a cultural cachet that was hard to put into words. To own an Apple product was to signal that you got it — that you saw something others didn’t. You weren’t just using a “computer,” you were tapping into an experience, a lifestyle. MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones were cool in a way that was undeniable.

But where do we stand now?

Apple is still a leader in design, functionality, and that coveted hardware-software integration that just works. Their products are arguably better than ever, with the M-series chips blowing minds, AirPods becoming a cultural icon, and the Apple Watch quietly dominating the wearables market. From a technical perspective, you could argue the magic is still there.

But is it cool anymore?

I’m not so sure. Seeing someone with an iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t feel the same as spotting someone with a first-gen iPhone in 2007. AirPods used to be instantly recognizable (and a bit of a flex), but now, every other tech company has its own knockoff version. The “cool factor” that used to come with owning an Apple product feels… commonplace. Ubiquity has its downsides.

Have we reached “Peak Apple” culturally?

Maybe it’s just me being nostalgic, but it feels like Apple is less of a “rebel brand” and more of an industry mainstay — the safe, dominant choice. It’s become expected that people have an iPhone. MacBooks aren’t revolutionary anymore; they’re just good laptops. Nobody’s camping outside stores anymore (well, maybe for an iPhone launch, but even that’s more spectacle than necessity now). And where are the “I’m a Mac” ads of today? Tim Cook doesn’t have the same showmanship as Jobs did, and while Craig Federighi is fun, he’s more “likable uncle” than “cult-like visionary.”

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying Apple is bad. In fact, I think they’re putting out some of the best products they’ve ever made. But the feeling of owning an Apple product is different. It used to feel like you were part of a movement. Now it just feels like… you own a phone.

So, I’m putting it to the MacRumors family:

• Do you think the “Apple magic” is gone?

• Are we just being nostalgic for the Steve Jobs days?

• If you were an Apple fan in the ’80s, ’90s, or early 2000s, do you feel like the “vibe” is different now compared to the era of 2018 and beyond?

• Is it possible for a company this successful to ever feel countercultural again?

I’d love to hear your thoughts — especially if you grew up in the Apple golden years and have watched the shift happen in real-time. Are we living in Apple’s best era yet, or have we lost something intangible along the way?

Fading