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When do you think the decline of Apple started?
- Thread starter retta283
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Well.. I started to feel angry about Apple about 3 years ago because their “making things shiny and thinner” habit started to turn into “making always shiny and thinner and also underpowered” and they started to cut on the quality of some little internal parts while increasing the price. Total greediness..
All those keyboard failures is a result of making MacBook Pro only 3mm thinner. Same might be said for overheating issues. They were totally aware of new intel cpus run hot but they didn’t even dare to change the cooling system. I even don’t want to mention about T2 chip.
They messed up with Mac line-up. Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook Air haven’t been updated.
New MacBook Air seems totally useless. There is simply no reason to buy it when you can get 13” nTB Pro with an additional 100$. It provides better cpu, gpu, screen and much better webcam. Even old Air has better webcam. Really Apple? Cutting on the webcam earns you a lot of money??
They put the Y class cpu in the new Air that normally we see in 12” macbook and U class cpu on the 13” nTB Pro that should be in MacBook Air. Which one is going to be killed?
What about the recent stage light issues on MacBook Pro? They used cheaper ribbon cable maybe to earn a few dollars on a laptop costs thousands of dollars.
What about their silly response on iPad Pro bending issues?...
It stinks Apple, just stinks...
All those keyboard failures is a result of making MacBook Pro only 3mm thinner. Same might be said for overheating issues. They were totally aware of new intel cpus run hot but they didn’t even dare to change the cooling system. I even don’t want to mention about T2 chip.
They messed up with Mac line-up. Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook Air haven’t been updated.
New MacBook Air seems totally useless. There is simply no reason to buy it when you can get 13” nTB Pro with an additional 100$. It provides better cpu, gpu, screen and much better webcam. Even old Air has better webcam. Really Apple? Cutting on the webcam earns you a lot of money??
They put the Y class cpu in the new Air that normally we see in 12” macbook and U class cpu on the 13” nTB Pro that should be in MacBook Air. Which one is going to be killed?
What about the recent stage light issues on MacBook Pro? They used cheaper ribbon cable maybe to earn a few dollars on a laptop costs thousands of dollars.
What about their silly response on iPad Pro bending issues?...
It stinks Apple, just stinks...
I'm not sure when the decline started, but I'm sure the Apple Mac Mini 2018 ( a desktop computer ) with 128gb of storage won't help matters 
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5. Angela Ahrendts
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5. Angela Ahrendts
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In September 2015 I bought my son a mid-range (i5, 8gb RAM, 1TB HDD) Mac Mini for his 10th birthday. It cost £539 here in the UK. The equivalent current model (i5, 8Gb, 256Gb SSD), 3 years later, costs £1099. Inflation in the UK (even with our Brexit-related currency issues) has not more than doubled prices.
You could argue the (non-upgradeable) SSD is an improvement over the spinner in the old model, but that was solved with an external USB 3.0 SSD anyway. The price difference is astonishing. Even the base model has switched from an anemic £399 2014 model to a much better but compromised (i3, non-upgradeable 128gb storage) version at a whopping £799. Again, double the price at the entry point.
My son now has a 6-core Ryzen 5 desktop with Nvidia graphics and all the storage and power he needs for school and gaming. He, and I, loved macOS but when it was time to upgrade, Apple's prices were just laughable. Like most kids, he has seamlessly switched to Windows and a potential lifetime Mac user has, sadly, been lost.
April 1, 1976.
I'm joking.
There was a decline in many areas in the early to mid 90's.
But ever since they bought NeXT and got Steve Jobs back, Apple has been getting better and better at almost everything they do. That didn't change at all after Jobs' death.
That doesn't mean there's nothing to criticize. But there's always been.
first4:
lol, Scoot "Apple Maps" Forstall? Scott "Skeumorphic" Forstall?
please.
1 and 2 together formed a super strong music service that is every bit as successful as original iPod was.
second4:
1. agreed
2. yes and no. they bought 2 or 3 audio software companies, just recently worked closely with Celemony and were the first DAW to support Melodyne ARA2... And FCPX at its current
3. meh
4. there's bound to be some halts tho, you cannot just cram stuff in if there's no technology that would make use of any new stuff.
2026 when Tim retired, our new CEO is just worried about the bottom line and getting Apple to be the first 5 Trillion dollar company.
-Tig
-Tig
The severe decline started when cheap measures were applied to the assembly of all computers, MacOS team was eliminated to work on iOS and Apple began charging way more to make up for selling less. If the hardware was still rock solid (ditto the software and customer service), I'd have far less to complain about in terms of price points.
My decline with Apple started in November 2013.
If I stick with them, I'll buy computers/iDevices using older casings/builds until they get serious about quality control, customer service, and stop doing things like passing off manufacturing defects as normal.
I cannot stand that I have to think about my Apple stuff rather than just using it and not thinking about it.
My decline with Apple started in November 2013.
If I stick with them, I'll buy computers/iDevices using older casings/builds until they get serious about quality control, customer service, and stop doing things like passing off manufacturing defects as normal.
I cannot stand that I have to think about my Apple stuff rather than just using it and not thinking about it.
One thing I see a lot of on these forums is people saying pro devices are 'overpriced'. Then they go compare a Windows PC with consumer processors and memory and show how cheap it is.
Pro devices are expensive. I used to work for HP in the R&D lab for the workstation division. Workstations <> PCs. They have Xeon processors, ECC memory, SAS controllers, multiple power supplies, etc etc etc. When I worked there, the Mac Pro wasn't overpriced at all when compared to similar hardware. In fact, it was a little less expensive.
The people who buy workstations need them for things like rendering, production, and vast mathematical computations that require lots of power and tons of uptime.
If you think an iMac Pro is too much money, chances are you don't need one. When the new Mac Pro comes out, people will be shouting from the heavens at how horrendously expensive it is without realizing it actually isn't. These aren't gaming rigs.
Pro devices are expensive. I used to work for HP in the R&D lab for the workstation division. Workstations <> PCs. They have Xeon processors, ECC memory, SAS controllers, multiple power supplies, etc etc etc. When I worked there, the Mac Pro wasn't overpriced at all when compared to similar hardware. In fact, it was a little less expensive.
The people who buy workstations need them for things like rendering, production, and vast mathematical computations that require lots of power and tons of uptime.
If you think an iMac Pro is too much money, chances are you don't need one. When the new Mac Pro comes out, people will be shouting from the heavens at how horrendously expensive it is without realizing it actually isn't. These aren't gaming rigs.
Pro Machines also come with pro support, often offer no downtime options, and work for their intended professional purpose out of the box. They also have sufficient cooling to help the CPU be healthy and at full power all that uptime...
MacBook Pro's for audio don't check any of these boxes... T2 audio issues have been dragging on for more than half a year.
Some professional windows laptops actually do.
I have two 2018 Macs, the returned 15" was overpriced for what it was, and it was garbage and it took me 2 months with apple on the phone to acknowledge the problem.
You know how long it takes other professional audio companies? One day.
"It's our fault? Replacement is on the way, please pack your unit and send it to use when your new one arrives!"
I must preface this with the usual IMO and that I have no insider knowledge, but I think 'decline' here should be treated as a relative term, and it's more noticeable with some aspects/ product lines than others. Basically I now think they're trying to keep too many plates spinning on too many poles, with an inadequate corporate structure to deal with this many products. It's been great that they've largely kept a startup-like organisation, but it seems more and more doing things this way is stretching people too thin. They're trying to keep that integrated product development thing going within product lines and between them, but as things get more complex, as they take on more and more (chip design, new technologies and services etc) it's more and more difficult for the individuals in charge to keep track of everything. This results in Apple not being able to do everything at once, and now and then this comes to the surface (generally buggy and unoptimised iOS 11; various examples of stagnating products that go years without updates; delays to the launch of products and services; products being launched without the extra coat of spit and polish that previously set Apple apart).
The other thing I would say here though is the cure is potentially worse than the affliction. They'd have to ruthlessly prune all their lineups (outside iPhone) back to a bare minimum again. They'd probably need to slash mac options down to iMac (desktop) and MacBook (similar to current pro notebooks). Just 2-3 models they can be laser focused on. Side projects like HomePod, AirPods, AirPower etc would probably have to be jettisoned, with third party options filling in here. The only alternative is trying to reorganise, but then it would become a lot harder to maintain a lot of the interoperability across Apple's various product lines.
tl;dr: Apple's been branching out producing more and more products and services, and taking more and more design in house. It's getting increasingly difficult for a largely static executive team to keep track of everything adequately and make the best decisions for each product and service. But you can't unwind a lot of what's been built up without Apple's 'ecosystem' melting down, and reorganising would also create huge issues.
The other thing I would say here though is the cure is potentially worse than the affliction. They'd have to ruthlessly prune all their lineups (outside iPhone) back to a bare minimum again. They'd probably need to slash mac options down to iMac (desktop) and MacBook (similar to current pro notebooks). Just 2-3 models they can be laser focused on. Side projects like HomePod, AirPods, AirPower etc would probably have to be jettisoned, with third party options filling in here. The only alternative is trying to reorganise, but then it would become a lot harder to maintain a lot of the interoperability across Apple's various product lines.
tl;dr: Apple's been branching out producing more and more products and services, and taking more and more design in house. It's getting increasingly difficult for a largely static executive team to keep track of everything adequately and make the best decisions for each product and service. But you can't unwind a lot of what's been built up without Apple's 'ecosystem' melting down, and reorganising would also create huge issues.
When the future of apples llgs was selved for the Macintosh.
They day they don't scrap the current keyboard design. Sometimes you have to recognize that you've really put form over function to the detriment of your product. I'm not sure if that day has already passed, is in the future, or doesn't happen.
I don't care if over 50% of their sales are iPhones and only 1/4th require a keyboard. I'm talking about the soul of the company. I hope they turn it around.
(I really hate the new keyboard.)
I don't care if over 50% of their sales are iPhones and only 1/4th require a keyboard. I'm talking about the soul of the company. I hope they turn it around.
(I really hate the new keyboard.)
The decline of apple started when a women took one off from a tree and ate it.
I would say sometime around 2011 when Jobs left and Cook took over. Jobs' legacy still powered the company for a while but now that's pretty much done and over with and new products are really lacking. As somebody who deals with Apple hardware for a living (Macs) I'm very disappointed with the current crop of Macbook Pros.
Nobody was complaining about the weight and size of Retina models, yet Apple decided to go thinner at the cost of reliability and design robustness. Current machines overheat, keyboards get plugged (recall) and screens still peel (another recall). The upgradeability which was already nearly non-existent on previous machines is a total 0 now meaning you have to install a new logic board to upgrade any component of the machine.
I get it, they're trying to kill the DIY and secondary (used) market with their design. So that you can't upgrade anything by yourself without Apple's help. And then there is the Device Enrollment Program for company machines which also helps destroy the secondary market. And it amuses me that a multi-billion dollar company such as Apple has turned so incredibly greedy as to attempt to squeeze the used machines market out. Personally I believe it has a lot to do with Mr Cook and his incredible greed as I see this trend happening in most current Apple products. I sincerely hope he steps down soon and someone more innovative and less greedy takes over to make Apple great again.
Nobody was complaining about the weight and size of Retina models, yet Apple decided to go thinner at the cost of reliability and design robustness. Current machines overheat, keyboards get plugged (recall) and screens still peel (another recall). The upgradeability which was already nearly non-existent on previous machines is a total 0 now meaning you have to install a new logic board to upgrade any component of the machine.
I get it, they're trying to kill the DIY and secondary (used) market with their design. So that you can't upgrade anything by yourself without Apple's help. And then there is the Device Enrollment Program for company machines which also helps destroy the secondary market. And it amuses me that a multi-billion dollar company such as Apple has turned so incredibly greedy as to attempt to squeeze the used machines market out. Personally I believe it has a lot to do with Mr Cook and his incredible greed as I see this trend happening in most current Apple products. I sincerely hope he steps down soon and someone more innovative and less greedy takes over to make Apple great again.
This has been going for a long time now with other products for example: shortwave radios and ham equipment, hobbiests used to get seperate parts like a new dial or speaker and now they can’t and special tools are needed to fix anything on the circuit board.
It started with the iPhone. The Mac was pilfered to complete it and never recovered. "At least the hardware is still good" we told ourselves of the Mac, except now it's not good with dust-krytonite keyboards and touchbars and oversized trackpads. macOS is built to service iOS instead of being its own project. Apple is The iPhone Company with enough money to distract them from caring about the Mac or their customers.
If analyised on a software level than it’s because apple did not promote gaming while wintel boxes did.
You could point to that as the most impact that Apple ever had on the world.
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You tried to return a $2500 computer because “it was garbage” and you’re surprised the company didn’t want to oblige you?