What does Apple need to do in 2017 to win you back over

[AidenShaw]

You wear your headphones all day long. Wow. That's hardcore. Impressive

AirPods probably aren't for you then. What do you use, if I may ask?

Bose QuietComfort with 25 hour replaceable batteries (keep a spare, almost instant upgrade to 50 hour - if you brought the charger, infinite lifetime with a few seconds a day of interruption). I've done an SFO -> NRT -> SFO trip on one charge. SFO -> DPS -> SFO does need a recharge or battery swap at DPS.

 

[trifid]

Allow rollback to previous ios platforms. Everyone has old ipads/phones that they can pass on to relatives who wouldnt purchase new, but the older machines are crippled under the newer ios. Virtually unusable, if not an appalling UX in some cases.

Great point, that'd be a nice sign of a more receptive, more open Apple.

 

[Phoenixx]

What does Apple do to win me back? Where do I even start? There are so many things they need to do that I am in the process of writing a letter of complaint with one suggestion after another. Every time I think I've finished it, they make another stupid mistake. So far my letter is more than 5,000 words long, and I'm still adding to it!!!!

Every single one of their products has serious issues at the moment, from software screw-ups to hardware faults. You can't even install an update on your watch without the risk of bricking it, and even the look of Apple products has fallen to their bonehead decisions and incompetence.

The real question to me isn't just what they need to do to win back their customers, but whether they are even CAPABLE of getting back to the standards and design competence they used to have.

 

[Arran]

Bose QuietComfort with 25 hour replaceable batteries (keep a spare, almost instant upgrade to 50 hour - if you brought the charger, infinite lifetime with a few seconds a day of interruption). I've done an SFO -> NRT -> SFO trip on one charge. SFO -> DPS -> SFO does need a recharge or battery swap at DPS.

Yeah, there's nothing to beat over-ear, noise cancelling cans on a plane. No argument.

Thing is, I've tried mine a few times on flights, and while I love the comfort and sound isolation, the physical bulk annoys me. So I usually fall back on my tiny plantronics bluetooth set (noise isolating, pocketable and with a tiny charging case). I mostly do domestic commutes (~2 hrs) so battery isn't a problem.

 

[tampageek]

Fire Angela.
Stop trying to turn Apple stores into whatever Angela is trying to turn them into.
Take all the spyware off MacOS. (start with killing 'optimized' storage)
Get rid of SIP/rootless and let us use our machines the way we want. Malware wasn't a problem an update couldn't fix.
Make laptops with legacy ports & USB-C
Bring back MagSafe
Stop discontinuing products that enhance the ecosystem experience. I like my AirPort Extreme. It just works.
Make fatter computers with batteries that last longer than 3 hrs - and fire whoever is responsible for Apple anorexia.
Stop sending out updates that create more problems than they fix

STOP GLUING AND SOLDERING EVERYTHING DOWN!

 

[trifid]

For me, here is a simple thing that Apple could do to show that they still care about its customers:

Stop soldergate. There 0% reason for soldering RAM in a Mac Mini or iMac other than evil greed. Period.

 

[Phoenixx]

They make some fabulous products and have unparalleled build quality/aftercare support.

Yep, much of their fabulous product range has a list of features from 2013; build quality is SO good that we have Bendgate, Screen Disease and battery issues on the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s and 6s Plus, along with screen issues on Macbook Pros; and their product service is so good, they are expecting customers to pay $149 to fix a problem that Apple themselves created with bad design decisions.

 

[kazmac]

When has Apple been involved in politics?

Or do you consider that standing up for basic human rights for your employees is "politics".

You'd have to be from somewhere like Iowa to not understand that the Silicon Valley job market is extremely competitive, and the best people tend to support basic human rights for everyone. If you want to hire the best here, a pro human rights stance is an important factor.

At my company, participation at Pride events and other LGBT outreach events are funded under "talent acquisition". Before marriage equality, my company not only treated domestic partners like spouses with full health and other benefits - but it add an equalization payment to cover the federal tax on the DP benefit. (For married people, partner benefits were not taxed. For unmarried, the value of the benefit was counted as income subject to tax. The company added a contribution to the paycheck so that it covered the unfair tax.)

View attachment 678408​

The post election letter was a bit much. My company champions LGBT and diversity too. I'm all for the best person for the job and equal rights for all. The political agendas appear to take precedence over quality and sound decisions at Apple. Do this in tandem with releasing great products, sure. It seems like Cook has his priorities wrong so that is my issue with this.

 

[ardchoille50]

Since 2016 was such a bad year for Apple in terms of innovation and products.

What do you want Apple to do in 2017 to come back and amaze you?

Bad year? I have been using iOS and OS X products since 2012 and am still quite happy with Apple. And, do you know why I'm still happy? Because I don't have pre-conceived expectations with any tool. Pre-conceived expectations are a breeding ground for disappointment.

I'm extremely grateful to have these products, this type of thing didn't exist when I was growing up. Maybe that's the problem.. lack of gratitude and/or feelings of entitlement.

But, as with any community, there will always be those who aren't truly happy until they find fault in something. Their lives aren't perfect so they look to place blame on something or someone because that relieves them of the possibility that they created their own storms.

"That which holds no truth, holds no power"

 

[Easttime]

Since 2016 was such a bad year for Apple in terms of innovation and products. What do you want Apple to do in 2017 to come back and amaze you?

I'd be amazed and happy if Apple made repairable, affordable, user-upgradable Macs and kept them current. Especially Mac Minis.

 

[vkd]

Then need to release an iMac that has an infra-red bluetooth sensor like the mid-2011 model had, and to be user-configurable/maintainable in that it is not held together by glue.

 

[ScottishCaptain]

Since 2016 was such a bad year for Apple in terms of innovation and products.

What do you want Apple to do in 2017 to come back and amaze you?

Stop making thin products that are held together with glue.

Start making devices that actually feel like they're worth the premium they're charging.

Un-flatten the UI, bring back some semblance of depth and important visual cues like buttons (rather than clickable text). Don't need to go back to 10.6.x/iOS 6 styled GUIs, but something that's easier to look at would be nice (less white space, better fonts, etc).

Stop soldering in the RAM and disk drives on all computers (at a minimum). Replaceable batteries would be great for longevity and ultimately the environment, but they're not required.

Bring back a tower machine with PCI-e slots and space for more than 1 disk drive/SSD, or license some other company to make OS X booting workstations instead.

Bring back the XServe, or license some other company to make OS X booting servers instead.

Kill Metal. Announce full backing of OpenGL and Vulkan instead.

Bring back NVIDIA GPU options for all systems (or just dump ATI entirely).

Ditch the yearly release cycle ********. Release products when they're finished and actually warrant a major release. Not before.

Get rid of all the stupid tacked on security **** in OS X like SIP, Gatekeeper path randomization, etc. Ditch that horrible sandbox implementation and build something that covers everything more properly, kinda like SELinux does (yes, I know that's for Linux and not OS X). While you're at it, stop assuming all applications are glorified goddam word processors, and stop purposefully gimping everything that's submitted to the app store.

Allow iTunes account merging.

Allow iOS downgrading. Since each successive iOS version typically slows down older devices, it should be up to the user if they want to accept responsibility for running an older OS if that's what runs best on their device.

-SC

 

[ardent73]

"Designed by Doofuses in California"

http://www.slate.com/articles/busin...ifornia_ad_campaign_why_it_s_so_terrible.html

Three years old but even more relevant today... I don't use Apple products in California, do they 'magically' work better there?

 

[Rob_2811]

It will never happen but update the Mac Pro, preferably to something that resembles the old "Cheesegrater" design. Make it easily upgradeable. I would be happy enough with that but obviously expecting a computer from Apple that isn't glued together is a bit futile.

Bring back the headphone jack or move to USB C on the iPhone and stop offering up proprietary solutions for Audio.

Do something interesting with iOS which actually makes it in any way a viable productivity tool maybe?

There is practically no chance of the first two.

 

[Rob_2811]

Stop making thin products that are held together with glue.

Start making devices that actually feel like they're worth the premium they're charging.

Un-flatten the UI, bring back some semblance of depth and important visual cues like buttons (rather than clickable text). Don't need to go back to 10.6.x/iOS 6 styled GUIs, but something that's easier to look at would be nice (less white space, better fonts, etc).

Stop soldering in the RAM and disk drives on all computers (at a minimum). Replaceable batteries would be great for longevity and ultimately the environment, but they're not required.

Bring back a tower machine with PCI-e slots and space for more than 1 disk drive/SSD, or license some other company to make OS X booting workstations instead.

Bring back the XServe, or license some other company to make OS X booting servers instead.

Kill Metal. Announce full backing of OpenGL and Vulkan instead.

Bring back NVIDIA GPU options for all systems (or just dump ATI entirely).

Ditch the yearly release cycle ********. Release products when they're finished and actually warrant a major release. Not before.

Get rid of all the stupid tacked on security **** in OS X like SIP, Gatekeeper path randomization, etc. Ditch that horrible sandbox implementation and build something that covers everything more properly, kinda like SELinux does (yes, I know that's for Linux and not OS X). While you're at it, stop assuming all applications are glorified goddam word processors, and stop purposefully gimping everything that's submitted to the app store.

Allow iTunes account merging.

Allow iOS downgrading. Since each successive iOS version typically slows down older devices, it should be up to the user if they want to accept responsibility for running an older OS if that's what runs best on their device.

-SC

On this would you compromise on a magenta watch band and iPad Pro 12 inch with wide color gamut?

 

[triptolemus]

What do you want Apple to do in 2017 to come back and amaze you?

Put the solder away.

 

[AidenShaw]

"Designed by Doofuses in California"

http://www.slate.com/articles/busin...ifornia_ad_campaign_why_it_s_so_terrible.html

Three years old but even more relevant today... I don't use Apple products in California, do they 'magically' work better there?

No, they don't. There's no "California discount" to help with all of the dongles that you need to connect the latest MacBook Pro to the devices that you already have.

 

[Tech198]

We wanna go in one direction, yet we don't like the transitions...

umm... How do u get from A to C if i cannot go through B ?

 

[lowendlinux]

We wanna go in one direction, yet we don't like the transitions...

umm... How do u get from A to C if i cannot go through B ?

Get a USB C to female type B then you can go A -> B -> C

 

[nighthawk67]

First and foremost the iPad Pro needs some kind of update via iOS hopefully we get that with 10.3 and if not by 11 then I may lose hope for iPad's altogether. - it's not bad, it's just not as good as possible.

Everyone on this site doesn't understand that Apple has no incentive to keep making Mac pro's and Mac mini's - they make up such a meniscal amount of Apples revenue that they might as well stop making them and use the time and resources working on other products - which is what I actually hope they do. "Never half*** 2 things, whole*** one thing." - Ron Swanson

This 10th anniversary iPhone better be something impressive - however they can make that happen. Personally I think edge to edge display would be enough to wow the average consumer.

 

[Ebenezum]

Most of my points have already been made (soldered components, no user upgrades, OS released too early etc.).

However one thing hasn't been said, the direction of OS X (macOS).

At the moment I wonder if Apple has any real plan how to improve if or is everything "throw things at it and see what sticks"?

I don't see much real improvements in the latest OS X versions compared to Mavericks.

Some of the disappointments in the latest OS versions:

UI. Why flatten everything which makes everything hard to see compared to Mavericks. At the moment its hard to recognise if elements are buttons or just decoration. Usability should always be first before looks.

METAL? Nice theory but relatively few developers are using it. Why not support OpenGL or Vulcan which are supported in other vendors?

iCloud Drive. I would trust Apple to manage my files in the cloud and not messing things? No thanks, I'm not a masochist.

SIP. Nice theory but in practice it just creates headache if one uses rarer software.

Mac App Store. I have a hard time imagining anything that could be more broken or buggy. Given the number of restrictions just means most of the software I need can't be sold there so I only open it install OS/ security updates. Apparently its way too hard to code software update that works reliably...

Photos. Who genius had the bright idea handicap it compared to iPhoto and to add insult to injury tie it to OS? While it can be removed via Terminal that is bad design. Separate software would allow benefits such as updates to older OS, user could choose not to install it etc. Same could be said for iWork which is sadly lacking compared to 09 version...

Removal of features in software such as Disk Utility, System Preferences, Console, ColorSync etc. Is Apple serious about keeping its professional users? At the moment I'm very sceptical given the number of features removed or moved to Terminal. It seems macOS is going to be downgraded into a "toy OS" if the current trend continues...

Do not under any circumstances limit the installation of older OS to a Mac that has been updated to newer version. If that happens I will move to another OS because I can't trust company that limits what the customer can do with a computer he/she owns. One of the reasons why I don't use iOS devices is this foolish restriction.

APFS is the only bright spot but I'm very afraid that Apple releases it way too soon and using it without problems would be like winning a lottery...

 

[rhett7660]

They need to do something that has folks queueing-up round the block again. Something new and innovative.

They're still producing good, solid products, for sure. But their old "sparkle" has gone completely flat.

Prior to the iPhone did people line up around the block? I ask, because I do not remember that.

 

[plexdk]

Stop making thin products that are held together with glue.

Start making devices that actually feel like they're worth the premium they're charging.

Un-flatten the UI, bring back some semblance of depth and important visual cues like buttons (rather than clickable text). Don't need to go back to 10.6.x/iOS 6 styled GUIs, but something that's easier to look at would be nice (less white space, better fonts, etc).

Stop soldering in the RAM and disk drives on all computers (at a minimum). Replaceable batteries would be great for longevity and ultimately the environment, but they're not required.

Bring back a tower machine with PCI-e slots and space for more than 1 disk drive/SSD, or license some other company to make OS X booting workstations instead.

Bring back the XServe, or license some other company to make OS X booting servers instead.

Kill Metal. Announce full backing of OpenGL and Vulkan instead.

Bring back NVIDIA GPU options for all systems (or just dump ATI entirely).

Ditch the yearly release cycle ********. Release products when they're finished and actually warrant a major release. Not before.

Get rid of all the stupid tacked on security **** in OS X like SIP, Gatekeeper path randomization, etc. Ditch that horrible sandbox implementation and build something that covers everything more properly, kinda like SELinux does (yes, I know that's for Linux and not OS X). While you're at it, stop assuming all applications are glorified goddam word processors, and stop purposefully gimping everything that's submitted to the app store.

Allow iTunes account merging.

Allow iOS downgrading. Since each successive iOS version typically slows down older devices, it should be up to the user if they want to accept responsibility for running an older OS if that's what runs best on their device.

-SC

So basically you want a PC?

 

[Arran]

Prior to the iPhone did people line up around the block? I ask, because I do not remember that.

I remember a lot buzz in store for the original iPod nano (I got one!). And before that, there was a big rush for the gold iPod mini as a must-have Christmas gift (2004 I think).

Before that, not so much. Of course there were not as many Apple stores in malls back then, so it was harder to generate buzz because consumers didn't come into regular contact with the product. If they did see Apple products, it was often in tired and sometimes broken displays in big-box places like CompUSA.

 

[rhett7660]

I remember a lot buzz in store for the original iPod nano (I got one!). And before that, there was a big rush for the gold iPod mini as a must-have Christmas gift (2004 I think).

Before that, not so much. Of course there were not as many Apple stores in malls back then, so it was harder to generate buzz because consumers didn't come into regular contact with the product. If they did see Apple products, it was often in tired and sometimes broken displays in big-box places like CompUSA.

Yup that is where I purchased most if not all of my apple supply stuff. Heck I remember the U2 iPod, yet there wasn't really a line for it, but it was a hot item.