Everything we see and hear and read these days seems to be oversized, sensational, criminal and scandalous. The new norm is everything going wrong at the same time. I don’t know about you, but I have fatigue.
The 2016 election was full of fatigue. New fatigue. Hillary fatigue. Here we are a couple of years later and I have fatigue for anything to do with the government. What about Apple? Sorry, there’s fatigue there, too. I want something to bore me for awhile.
Upgrades And Bugs
Color me jaded if you wish, but I’ve grown tired of hearing about Apple’s tremendous riches and the hundreds of billions of dollars doled to shareholders (not given back to shareholders– they didn’t give any money to Apple for Apple to be in a position to give something back), while Apple’s customers suffer.
Suffer? MacBook Pro keyboard scandal where a faulty keyboard can cost half the price of a new Mac notebook. Then, there’s Mac product upgrade crisis where half the product line is older than Microsoft’s Surface PCs.
Suffer? iPhones– Apple must officially be referred to as ‘the iPhone company‘ now that the Mac has been downgraded to relic status– get updated every year on a seemingly tight schedule, and the product line is broader now than ever. The Mac has become an afterthought.
The Mac? Suffer, folks. Apple could upgrade the Mac every year. The company sells about 20-million Macs a year– far more than in decades past, but chooses to sell old products to customers as if what’s in the box is new. Mac mini? Not new. MacBook Air? Not new. Mac notebooks? Perhaps newer, but with keyboards from some other universe.
As much as analysts talk about Apple as a Services company, a few things have not changed. Apple is a hardware company. iPhone, iPad, Mac, and now Watch, AirPod (both really accessories to iPhone), Beats headphones, et al.
Hardware. Hardware. Hardware.
What about Services? Where would Services revenue be without hardware.
In the approximately 10 year period before Steve Jobs death in 2011, Apple launched Apple Store, iPod, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, moved the Mac to Intel, introduced iPhone and the iOS App Store, launched the iPad, and created the Mac App Store.
Since Jobs died, Tim Cook’s Apple has upgraded everything, bought Beats, and launched Apple Pay, Watch, Apple Music, AirPods, and Pencil. All on an R&D budget 10 times what Jobs used to remake a few industries.
See? This is all drama I don’t need and don’t want anymore and Tim Cook could fix it fast. Launch a few new products and upgrade the product line more frequently. Yes, that might be boring, but that’s exactly what we want to prevent another outbreak of Apple fatigue.
joe says
Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 3:23 PMI was worried when Steve died this would happen to Apple. The only thing that stops from jumping ship is the Mac OS and my 25 years of using Apple products. My 2012 MacBookPro is just a little slower and screen resolution just a little less the current ones. Plus I still have the MagSafe power port and HDMI built in with out a dongle. The MagSafe power port has saved my Mac many times from flying off table while plugged in.
Problem with usbC and the use of dongles is that you have to carry the darn things around with you. I usually grab the mac book and run out the door. With new ones I have grab the 2 or 3 dongles and then stick in my pocket or carry a bag, etc. All of them around $25 and are easy to loose.
Someone should start a petition about lack of upgrades on the net to get Apples attention.
gberger says
Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 8:40 PMFor me, the essential part of an iPhone is – The Phone.
Boring to others, it’s a lifeline for many us who live in areas not supplied with the wired POTS.
I just wish Apple would spend a few R&D dollars to get the best possible receive and transmit capability in the “one bar” and “two bar”cell coverage locations.
With more homes dropping wire and converting to wireless, the Phone part of iPhone should be an R&D priority. A Wonderful camera and increased computing power won’t help when a 911 call has to get through.