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Apple continues to regress, and that's kind of sad. The post-Steve-Jobs Apple has continued to produce superb products. And it has scaled to a truly impressive

Apple continues to regress, and that's kind of sad. The post-Steve-Jobs Apple has continued to produce superb products. And it has scaled to a truly impressive level while maintaining quality and financial statement success. However, at this point it's an old story to say that Apple has recently failed to capture our imagination and "show us the magic" the way it did throughout the 2000s. I remember being blown away by the early iMacs and Macbooks, the early-gen iPods, iPhone, iPad (don't forget how impressive the iPad was when it first came out), and the Macbook Air. When people speculate that the next generation of Apple products may be ceramic, I think I know why: they want the magic. Ceramic? That's sounds new and interesting. Maybe it's environmentally friendly. Reading Koenig's article, the case seems pretty strong for Apple's disincentive to make such a significant change. It's the same disincentive that all large, successful companies face: they do pretty well with the status quo, so why incur the massive expense to do something new and risky? I can't really blame Apple. But I also can't help but be a little sad. The same way I can't help but be a little sad when a talented movie director goes mainstream. It's a reminder that we all have to face reality and make practical decisions; we all contribute to the massive pile of human ambition and pass our excrement to the level below us; and we all are getting older.

pjmlp 10y ago
I don't know where Apple will go, but those of us that were around can certainly remember how the old Apple without Steve Jobs used to be and I have a feeling that is going on the same direction. However, given the amount of money on the bank they still have lots of time available still, so I still look forward to whatever they might think of doing next.
dcfun 10y ago
The thing is, it's easy to say this, but doesn't it ignore the fundamentals of what's behind the magic in the first place. All of their major breakthrough products (Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad) came at a time when the technology that made them possible had just reached maturity. Add on top of that, their undoubted refinement of UI and industrial design and they created some major winners. What I think Apple lacks at the moment, is any new just-mature technology on which to base its 'next big thing'. That's not to say Steve Jobs didn't have a huge roll in making all their previous products a big hit, just that there is nothing new on the scene at the moment with which to craft a break through tech hit.
- kpwagner 10y ago
  Interesting thoughts. I don't wholly disagree. You are right that the maturity of solid-state drives and multi-touch displays played a big role in the timing of new Apple products in the past. Though, I could point to VR and Electric Vehicles as just-mature technologies where Apple could have made a big investment. How excited would people be if Apple released an electric car... or just bought Tesla.
  - oddevan 10y ago
    I know Tim Cook has mentioned VR as something "interesting" in the recent past, so they may be waiting for it to become a little more mainstream.
    - monk_e_boy 10y ago
      Amazing new graphics cards from Nvidia, Apple have all the bits to make a nice VR headset and laptop / ipad that will drive it. I'm surprised they haven't dropped any hints yet. So, they've thought it through and decided now is not the time... why? Why not get in there while Playstation is getting in there. I guess they aren't really a games company, yet the iPhone and iPad are both great for casual games. So maybe that's not the reason. Could be that there is something better in the pipeline (hololens) or that VR isn't consumer ready yet.
      - erikpukinskis 10y ago
        There's no way Apple would make a VR headset tethered to another device. To be on-brand it has to be elegant, which means all-in-one. It probably needs a new OS... certainly none of the UI from iOS can be reused, and it needs VR-specific heat and power optimizations, probably with a new low level graphics toolkit. From Tim Cook's statement it seems pretty clear that they're going to wait until they can do AR glasses, which also fits their anti-nerd brand strategy. AR is more social, more human. Although when the standalone Google/Oculus headsets hit next year I suspect people will be surprised how well they sell. The mobile VR app ecosystem should hit puberty around then. Assuming Oculus/Google can hit a $600 price point I think we'll see an iPod-like growth curve in that category, which would lure Apple into the market for sure.
tajen 10y ago
No-one really expects new magic in iPhones - We just hope there will be some incremental improvements and the rest stays as cool as it is. What the people expect is rather a magic new product. The watch is merely a gadget. The iPod was a revolution. The Macbooks still are unreproduced on the market. The iPhone changed humanity (or at least it was the first to do so). Each wasn't an incremental improvement but a complete new line of products. Each didn't eclipse the previous line (the iPad didn't replace the Macbooks) but multiplied Apple's publicity. At the level of Apple, innovation could be a VR tool that encompasses our life, a car, a teaching tool, or they might go to services and launch a global platform for press, privacy, work or start-ups. But the only reason I watch each keynote is that I don't want to miss the next time they innovate.
- emilsedgh 10y ago
  The iPhone changed humanity It seems a but off-topic, but I have to say it. I have a problem with this. I know iPhone's changed the industry. But seriously, it was only a phone. A few years ahead of its time. You know what did change humanity? Internet. Cell Phones. Not iPhones..
  - nilkn 10y ago
    To be fair, it wasn't just a phone. This has been beaten to death at this point, but the innovation of the iPhone was all the stuff it could do that had nothing to do with making phone calls.
    - emilsedgh 10y ago
      Fair enough. And thanks to iphone all that functionality is now taken as a grant on a phone. But none of that functionality is as important and effective as phone calls. And almost all of that is based on the foundation of The Internet.
      - macintux 10y ago
        > But none of that functionality is as important and effective as phone calls. Wait, what? Making phone calls is almost always the least efficient last resort. > And almost all of that is based on the foundation of The Internet. Absolutely, but the Internet is dramatically more useful when it's always on, and always with you, and tied into sensors that help decide what you need. BlackBerry gave us smart pagers. Microsoft gave us a microscopic desktop with all the charm and utility that implies. Neither were successful with the mass market because neither were particularly relevant to consumers. The problem with saying iPhone was a few years ahead of its time is that iPhone defined the future. Without it we might still be divided between 10-20% of the user base with stylii and physical keyboards and WAP web browsers and the rest of us with feature phones.
jordache 10y ago
yep.. i can't overstate how annoying the change is in iOS 10 from swipe to unlock to pressing the home button. I understand they are desperate to introduce "widget" type interface, but that's only because the normal iOS experience is just mindless grids of app icons... ugh. I have to support iOS at work, but use Android personally. Once you go Android, you don't go back.
- yardie 10y ago
  > Once you go Android, you don't go back. I've been a user of Android since Eclair. It wasn't good the. So I went back to iOS. I have many friends who are android only or iOS only. I prefer to use whatever is best at the time. I'm currently typing this from a 6S+. I was looking forward to the Pixel but I'm not impressed. So I'll see what happens after the Pixel. I really wanted the Note 7 but you know the story...
  - jordache 10y ago
    i'm speaking in contemporary times of course, the current versions of android including the previous couple of major versions, have greatly surpassed iOS in terms of flexibility in usability.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  I use Android and hate every moment of it.
  - bitmapbrother 10y ago
    I also hate iPhones. I used to use one for work because I wanted to try it out. I switched to the Nexus 6p this year. I still keep the iPhone around, though, just to remind me why I hate iOS so much.
    - 10y ago
nilkn 10y ago
Apple has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in their car project which they just cut back on significantly, so I'm not sure I buy the argument here that they're not wiling to try something new and risky because it's expensive. Just because their R&D failures aren't very publicly visible doesn't mean they don't exist. I'm also not sure in what way they continue to regress. Back when Jobs was alive, the only Apple product I liked enough to buy was a MacBook Pro. I greatly preferred Android phones back at that time; the early iPads weren't that great; the original MacBook Air was incredibly expensive for the hardware you got; I could never even take the old colorful iMacs seriously. Now with Cook at the helm, in addition to the MacBook I also have an iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch, Apple TV (4th gen.), I subscribe to Apple Music, I use and love a 5K iMac at work, and I'll probably be getting the new MBP whenever it's finally available. To me, Apple's product line is far stronger than it's ever been before.
- zyb09 10y ago
  I think at this point the mobile hard- and software industry is simply much further developed and it's harder for everyone to innovate, not just for Apple. We can't expect that magic of 2007 to come back on a year to year basis. That said Apples products continue to be very solid. For me personally, MacBook Pros are in amazing state right now and OSX feels and looks great on high-dpi displays.
  - adevine 10y ago
    While I agree with the gist of what you've said, MacBook Pros are the one area that definitely DO feel stale to me. I think this article says it pretty well: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2016/10/16/how-dire-is-the-state-of-the-macbook-in-2016-i-asked-around http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2016/10/16/how-di... . For a long period no other laptop manufacturer could top Apple when it came to build quality and durability. The MacBook Pros have definitely fallen behind in the past 4 years. I'm really looking forward to the rumored refresh at the end of the month.
    - pmcjones 10y ago
macintux 10y ago
Besides all of the other counter-arguments presented here, remember the article isn't arguing that Apple won't create a ceramic iPhone, just says that it'd be impossible to hide such a massive manufacturing shift so it effectively can't be the next one.
developer2 10y ago
I just want something other than this aluminum garbage. My iPhone 4 lasted four years (still fully functional in a drawer), all the while never accumulating a single dent. I owned my iPhone 6 for 3 days; dropped it once from less than 3 feet off the ground (was actually sitting, not standing), an act which completely destroyed the outer case. Their aluminum build is utter Chinese trash, built to the lowest common denominator of pennies per square inch. Yes, the iPhone 4 was smaller and a heavy clunker; but it was a sturdy device compared to their pathetically fragile materials as of late. And it's done to save maybe $10-20 on what could have been a quality build. Apple used to be about good hardware, but they've fallen into the same unapologetic Chinese manufacturing bullshit as everyone else.

pjmlp 10y ago

I don't know where Apple will go, but those of us that were around can certainly remember how the old Apple without Steve Jobs used to be and I have a feeling that is going on the same direction. However, given the amount of money on the bank they still have lots of time available still, so I still look forward to whatever they might think of doing next.

dcfun 10y ago

The thing is, it's easy to say this, but doesn't it ignore the fundamentals of what's behind the magic in the first place. All of their major breakthrough products (Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad) came at a time when the technology that made them possible had just reached maturity. Add on top of that, their undoubted refinement of UI and industrial design and they created some major winners. What I think Apple lacks at the moment, is any new just-mature technology on which to base its 'next big thing'. That's not to say Steve Jobs didn't have a huge roll in making all their previous products a big hit, just that there is nothing new on the scene at the moment with which to craft a break through tech hit.

kpwagner 10y ago
Interesting thoughts. I don't wholly disagree. You are right that the maturity of solid-state drives and multi-touch displays played a big role in the timing of new Apple products in the past. Though, I could point to VR and Electric Vehicles as just-mature technologies where Apple could have made a big investment. How excited would people be if Apple released an electric car... or just bought Tesla.
- oddevan 10y ago
  I know Tim Cook has mentioned VR as something "interesting" in the recent past, so they may be waiting for it to become a little more mainstream.
  - monk_e_boy 10y ago
    Amazing new graphics cards from Nvidia, Apple have all the bits to make a nice VR headset and laptop / ipad that will drive it. I'm surprised they haven't dropped any hints yet. So, they've thought it through and decided now is not the time... why? Why not get in there while Playstation is getting in there. I guess they aren't really a games company, yet the iPhone and iPad are both great for casual games. So maybe that's not the reason. Could be that there is something better in the pipeline (hololens) or that VR isn't consumer ready yet.
    - erikpukinskis 10y ago
      There's no way Apple would make a VR headset tethered to another device. To be on-brand it has to be elegant, which means all-in-one. It probably needs a new OS... certainly none of the UI from iOS can be reused, and it needs VR-specific heat and power optimizations, probably with a new low level graphics toolkit. From Tim Cook's statement it seems pretty clear that they're going to wait until they can do AR glasses, which also fits their anti-nerd brand strategy. AR is more social, more human. Although when the standalone Google/Oculus headsets hit next year I suspect people will be surprised how well they sell. The mobile VR app ecosystem should hit puberty around then. Assuming Oculus/Google can hit a $600 price point I think we'll see an iPod-like growth curve in that category, which would lure Apple into the market for sure.

tajen 10y ago

No-one really expects new magic in iPhones - We just hope there will be some incremental improvements and the rest stays as cool as it is. What the people expect is rather a magic new product. The watch is merely a gadget. The iPod was a revolution. The Macbooks still are unreproduced on the market. The iPhone changed humanity (or at least it was the first to do so). Each wasn't an incremental improvement but a complete new line of products. Each didn't eclipse the previous line (the iPad didn't replace the Macbooks) but multiplied Apple's publicity. At the level of Apple, innovation could be a VR tool that encompasses our life, a car, a teaching tool, or they might go to services and launch a global platform for press, privacy, work or start-ups. But the only reason I watch each keynote is that I don't want to miss the next time they innovate.

emilsedgh 10y ago
The iPhone changed humanity It seems a but off-topic, but I have to say it. I have a problem with this. I know iPhone's changed the industry. But seriously, it was only a phone. A few years ahead of its time. You know what did change humanity? Internet. Cell Phones. Not iPhones..
- nilkn 10y ago
  To be fair, it wasn't just a phone. This has been beaten to death at this point, but the innovation of the iPhone was all the stuff it could do that had nothing to do with making phone calls.
  - emilsedgh 10y ago
    Fair enough. And thanks to iphone all that functionality is now taken as a grant on a phone. But none of that functionality is as important and effective as phone calls. And almost all of that is based on the foundation of The Internet.
    - macintux 10y ago
      > But none of that functionality is as important and effective as phone calls. Wait, what? Making phone calls is almost always the least efficient last resort. > And almost all of that is based on the foundation of The Internet. Absolutely, but the Internet is dramatically more useful when it's always on, and always with you, and tied into sensors that help decide what you need. BlackBerry gave us smart pagers. Microsoft gave us a microscopic desktop with all the charm and utility that implies. Neither were successful with the mass market because neither were particularly relevant to consumers. The problem with saying iPhone was a few years ahead of its time is that iPhone defined the future. Without it we might still be divided between 10-20% of the user base with stylii and physical keyboards and WAP web browsers and the rest of us with feature phones.

jordache 10y ago

yep.. i can't overstate how annoying the change is in iOS 10 from swipe to unlock to pressing the home button. I understand they are desperate to introduce "widget" type interface, but that's only because the normal iOS experience is just mindless grids of app icons... ugh. I have to support iOS at work, but use Android personally. Once you go Android, you don't go back.

yardie 10y ago
> Once you go Android, you don't go back. I've been a user of Android since Eclair. It wasn't good the. So I went back to iOS. I have many friends who are android only or iOS only. I prefer to use whatever is best at the time. I'm currently typing this from a 6S+. I was looking forward to the Pixel but I'm not impressed. So I'll see what happens after the Pixel. I really wanted the Note 7 but you know the story...
- jordache 10y ago
  i'm speaking in contemporary times of course, the current versions of android including the previous couple of major versions, have greatly surpassed iOS in terms of flexibility in usability.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
dredmorbius 10y ago
I use Android and hate every moment of it.
- bitmapbrother 10y ago
  I also hate iPhones. I used to use one for work because I wanted to try it out. I switched to the Nexus 6p this year. I still keep the iPhone around, though, just to remind me why I hate iOS so much.
  - 10y ago

nilkn 10y ago

Apple has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in their car project which they just cut back on significantly, so I'm not sure I buy the argument here that they're not wiling to try something new and risky because it's expensive. Just because their R&D failures aren't very publicly visible doesn't mean they don't exist. I'm also not sure in what way they continue to regress. Back when Jobs was alive, the only Apple product I liked enough to buy was a MacBook Pro. I greatly preferred Android phones back at that time; the early iPads weren't that great; the original MacBook Air was incredibly expensive for the hardware you got; I could never even take the old colorful iMacs seriously. Now with Cook at the helm, in addition to the MacBook I also have an iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch, Apple TV (4th gen.), I subscribe to Apple Music, I use and love a 5K iMac at work, and I'll probably be getting the new MBP whenever it's finally available. To me, Apple's product line is far stronger than it's ever been before.

zyb09 10y ago
I think at this point the mobile hard- and software industry is simply much further developed and it's harder for everyone to innovate, not just for Apple. We can't expect that magic of 2007 to come back on a year to year basis. That said Apples products continue to be very solid. For me personally, MacBook Pros are in amazing state right now and OSX feels and looks great on high-dpi displays.
- adevine 10y ago
  While I agree with the gist of what you've said, MacBook Pros are the one area that definitely DO feel stale to me. I think this article says it pretty well: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2016/10/16/how-dire-is-the-state-of-the-macbook-in-2016-i-asked-around http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2016/10/16/how-di... . For a long period no other laptop manufacturer could top Apple when it came to build quality and durability. The MacBook Pros have definitely fallen behind in the past 4 years. I'm really looking forward to the rumored refresh at the end of the month.
  - pmcjones 10y ago

macintux 10y ago

Besides all of the other counter-arguments presented here, remember the article isn't arguing that Apple won't create a ceramic iPhone, just says that it'd be impossible to hide such a massive manufacturing shift so it effectively can't be the next one.

developer2 10y ago

I just want something other than this aluminum garbage. My iPhone 4 lasted four years (still fully functional in a drawer), all the while never accumulating a single dent. I owned my iPhone 6 for 3 days; dropped it once from less than 3 feet off the ground (was actually sitting, not standing), an act which completely destroyed the outer case. Their aluminum build is utter Chinese trash, built to the lowest common denominator of pennies per square inch. Yes, the iPhone 4 was smaller and a heavy clunker; but it was a sturdy device compared to their pathetically fragile materials as of late. And it's done to save maybe $10-20 on what could have been a quality build. Apple used to be about good hardware, but they've fallen into the same unapologetic Chinese manufacturing bullshit as everyone else.