9 ms·

The void left by Apple

68 points by theaeolist 10y ago

Retric 10y ago
It seems like the Echo is a repackaged Siri, with an optional wake word. The Echo Dot lets you buy stuff through it much like the Kindle which seems to be Amazon's thing.
- azinman2 10y ago
  Ya -- one that permanently has a place in your home so you don't have to worry where your phone is, one that integrates with popular 3rd party home-based IoT, is always listening/on, works better than Siri, and comes with better and free music integration (but is better if you're a prime member). The dot is just echo junior, there is no difference in utility of it. The result is a very meaningful improvement and a change to how you interact with technology in your home.
  - inopinatus 10y ago
    The Echo is terrific and (unlike Siri) I wouldn't be without it. Sadly, Amazon's management app for the Echo is an unstable, slow, buggy piece of unusable garbage that someone should be fired over.
    - azinman2 10y ago
      But luckily you don't really need to use the app much after initial setup.
      - inopinatus 10y ago
        Not so. It is how you access the to-do list and shopping lists. So I use it, or try to, almost everyday.
api 10y ago
In the end he nails it without fully realizing it. The problem is that the iPhone is now everything for Apple. Having one single mega cash cow tends to result in the whole company organizing itself around that cash cow. Microsoft did it for Windows and Office and missed a generation or two of developers as a result. This is why Apple is stagnating and only seems to care about phones and locking down that ecosystem. They are the new Nokia. Of course Amazon and Google have their cash cows too, so they are not much different. Their home speakers are ways for them to more aggressively market and capture customer buying behavior. Personally I consider them deeply creepy for this reason and will not get one. The true innovation is going to come from hungrier players: startups or older companies that are on the ropes like Apple once was. Microsoft is getting interesting again, and I'd also keep an eye on old PC vendors like Dell and HP or even old IBM. These companies now have nothing to lose.
- andrewclunn 10y ago
  Bingo. Also, let's not forget that Apple has a history of not releasing the first of something, but waiting until the market is there, and then releasing a much more user friendly product that redefines the market and grows it. They're not a tech first company so much as a UX first company.
  - jhatax 10y ago
    +1. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and the team building the Linux subsystem at Microsoft took note: https://jhatax.blogspot.com/2016/11/developers-windows-linux-subsystem-is.html https://jhatax.blogspot.com/2016/11/developers-windows-linux.... Microsoft is truly hungry to win back developers, and the team is willing to do what it takes to bring non-Windows developers into the fold. Apple seems to still be operating as if it can only focus on one core platform at any given time as opposed to two or three. The talk on HN is only about the core OSes -- macOS and iOS -- but what about their productivity apps? They haven't seen a meaningful update in years (Pages, Keynote, etc. in case you are unaware). With their huge cash reserves, Apple needs to recognize that it can build multiple platforms in parallel without sacrificing the quality of either. It could very well be that Jony Ive not being a core software guy is the issue. It could not. I don't have insider access. I will say this: Apple needs a hard core software leader and it doesn't seem to have one today. That's the 'real void'.
rufius 10y ago
While I do understand the author's point about the void - the particular example of the Amazon Echo and Google Home is something I really don't get. I find those devices invasive and irritating - I'm not sure I see the attraction. That being said, I also hate talking on the phone so this may be more of an issue at interacting vocally with a device. It's somewhat lessened when I use FaceTime with my phone but only because I can see who I'm talking to.
- ebbv 10y ago
  On top of that, calling them category defining and comparing them to the iPhone is kind of crazy since they are niche products so far. Nobody I know has an Echo. The few people I know that have Chromecasts bought them only because it was a cheap way to wirelessly stream video from their computer to a TV for presentations. They didn't buy it as a substitute for a Roku or Apple TV. I share the author's concerns about Apple's devices since about 2012 being underwhelming but I don't agree with their conclusion that Google and Amazon are filling the void. The distressing part for me is that as far as work computers go nobody is.
  - azinman2 10y ago
    I have an echo. My parents have an echo and I'm giving one to my sister and her family this xmas. It is absolutely a category, especially if you have a larger home where your phone isn't near you. Instead, you just speak to it and it responds without having to find a device instead. It's integration with an ecosystem in your home means it's the new remote -- one that's far more powerful.
    - rufius 10y ago
      WARNING: Snarky Response I just write it down on a notepad rather than buying a $150 device. That said, you do you. If y'all like it, have at it and I won't be one to criticize the way you spend your money.
      - sooheon 10y ago
jwr 10y ago
What's more worrying for me is that entire product categories are either left abandoned (Mac Pro) or updated with inferior products (latest MacBook Pro), and it seems that Jony Ive's form-over-function approach encounters no opposition within the company. We lose good functionality for no good reason, other than products become "simpler" and "more pure". This in itself would not be a problem for me, if it weren't for the lack of competition. Mac OS is so far ahead in terms of "getting things done" and "just working" that it isn't even funny. And yes, I do know, I also regularly use Windows (10) and Linux (Ubuntu 16 LTS). I feel locked in: both "competing" platforms are huge time-wasters for me. I know some people feel different — past discussions have shown that most people do fewer things with their computers than me (for example, if all you need is a web browser, Ubuntu is a great choice). Now that Apple is abandoning me as a customer (I'm not the mainstream), I feel squeezed: where do I go from here? What's even worse is that the cost of entry is now so high: developing an environment that works, and then convincing developers to embrace it is nearly impossible. And the only companies that have the resources to do it (Microsoft and Google) do it badly.
- beat 10y ago
  I'm clinging for dear life to my beloved five year old MBP. I don't know if my next laptop will even be Apple at all.
  - kenOfYugen 10y ago
    Same here. New battery, new secondary SSD, reconditioning of the MagSafe power supply and maxed out RAM are underway. Performance-wise it should be about the same as the latest Macbook, which doesn't feel like an upgrade for software development. Slow hardware helps one write good software after-all..
  - sofaofthedamned 10y ago
    Gave my Macbook Pro 13 (2013) to the missus a few months ago as I was looking forward to the new one. As it is, i've just spent £1400 on a XPS 13 fully loaded and instead of a iMac i'll be buying a Surface Tablet. The missus after having each iPhone since the first is going to be buying a Pixel. Apple have lost the plot and are taking the piss out of their users. We are voting with our wallets.
sxg 10y ago
The author says Apple's leaving a void because Google and Amazon are inventing new product categories instead of Apple, but Apple's successes haven't been new inventions. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the iPad wasn't the first tablet, and the MacBook wasn't the first laptop. What Apple does well is waiting to add enough incremental upgrades to products until it surpasses the "amazing" threshold. This ends up looking like Apple is either late to market (Apple TV) or so incredibly successful that it appears as if the market didn't even exist before Apple entered it (iPhone/iPad). Based on Apple's history, we should really be expecting them to crush the Echo and Chromecast sometime in the next few years.
- eximius 10y ago
  They've already had a stab at the Apple TV, so I doubt we're going to see a revolutionary chromecast-like competitor. An Echo competitor would be possible but has Siri made any noticeable revolutionary leaps recently?
  - jaegerpicker 10y ago
    You would not have seen the Siri leaps that matter, that's not how Apple operates. They develop things in secret and then drop them on the world. I'm not saying that's for sure what will happen with Siri but that's Apple's track record and mode of operation.
  - sxg 10y ago
    Siri does now have an API (although limited) on iOS, but I haven't seen many uses of it yet. As for the Apple TV and Chromecast, I've been using a Chromecast (1st gen) for the last few months since I gave my Apple TV to my parents, and I miss my Apple TV. The Chromecast is great when it works, but it's extremely hit or miss depending on the app you use to stream. YouTube and Netflix work perfectly, but HBO Now and FX are terrible. There's no option to scrub backward/forward, and often when you hit pause the app will disconnect. With HBO Now and the FX app, it usually takes a good 3-4 tries to connect and actually watch something. With the Apple TV, everything worked as expected. I think the major factor stopping the Apple TV from crushing the Chromecast is price. The old Apple TV is $70 - they should really be pushing for a much lower price point for this to compete with the Chromecast, but Apple doesn't even list this one on their site as far as I can tell.
informatimago 10y ago
Perhaps they're considering allowing third parties to produce Macintosh compatibles, and macOS would be sold thru OEMs like MS-Windows?
- grzm 10y ago
  I can't tell if you're joking or not. The first time around licensing the OS was part of the near bankruptcy of Apple. Apple is a hardware company that also makes software that makes the hardware compelling. I don't see it happening, but I think it would be more likely that Apple get rid of Macs and macOS entirely (relying on iOS products) rather than license macOS to third parties.
grzm 10y ago
Current article title: What happened to Apple?
- grzm 10y ago
  Since changed (reverted?) to "The void left by Apple"
Bud 10y ago
Moaning about Apple leaving a "void" because of Google Chromecast is pretty hilarious. Especially when Apple's version, the Apple TV, is a superior device. Chromecast is the best Google can do? Color me un-worried.
amelius 10y ago
It was always clear to me that the direction Apple was taking was not a good one for people outside the "2 sigma" chunk of the bell curve. Apple's focus has been on creating the smallest amount of products for the largest possible audience.
applethrowaway 10y ago
I'm not sure about hardware and design teams, but I'm noticing that the entire software org is going downhill at Apple fast. Budget cuts, delaying releases for arbitrary reasons, more and more technical debt on key portions of iOS seem to be the norm rather than the exception. Each subsequent release of iOS is more bloated than ever, and teams are reluctant to port their stuff over to Swift because of the aforementioned technical debt. Fundamentally, the problem is that the software org at Apple is a third class citizen. In order for that to change, there needs to be a shift in resources toward the SW org. But I don't see it happening any time soon :)
- curiouscats 10y ago
  I see this as a huge problem too. Apple just doesn't seem to have high level advocacy for software quality. This is driving me to Ubuntu at the desktop. I am sticking with my Macbook but on my next laptop purchase it will be a matter of if Apple hardware quality makes up for their software failings. I haven't looked closely in 2 years but back then I didn't see any hardware close to Apple's laptop quality. I do agree with those disappointed with the MacBook Pro (or whatever they call it now) but those disappointments are not as great as my disappointment with Apple software quality the last 5 years.
  - drvdevd 10y ago
    From experience (retina mbp 2015, 15"), I would highly recommend you do not try to run Ubuntu (or other Linux) on newer Apple hardware. Take the money you'll save by buying a "lower end" laptop/desktop x86 machine and put it toward buying more RAM, a better SSD, nice peripherals, etc...
- drvdevd 10y ago
  Actually, although I believe the hardware is overpriced, and personally have no gripes about new designs -- I just don't care about them -- I would agree this is where the core problem lies with Apple right now. Almost squarely in software. I could drone on about the reasons for this, but to me it feels like something fundamental is missing in that area now. Something that only Apple used to have.
ijidak 10y ago
Why do we say Apple came up with this and Apple came up with that? Steve Jobs came up with those things. The man left Apple, Apple tanked, requiring a bailout from Microsoft. Jobs comes back, very much Return of the King-esque, and Apple rises again. Meanwhile in his exile he helps start a little studio called Pixar. This is very much a "Built to Last" situation. Great book. Companies with Cult leader CEO's lose direction when that CEO leaves or dies. Cook is Apple's Ballmer. A great business man, not a great innovator. At some point, my guess is like Ballmer, Apple will fall far enough behind that someone else will get the job. Hopefully, Apple finds someone like Satya. But none of this has been surprising. You can't lose someone like Jobs and expect the progress to continue. The guy understood how to translate technology to the every day man woman and child like nobody else. These are the Ballmer years at Apple. Hopefully, they go by faster than they did at Microsoft.
- toyg 10y ago
  Pixar had started well before Jobs entered the picture. His role in Pixar was of a mercurial money-man who constantly threatened to shut down the whole operation, and almost killed the studio on the verge of their big break because he couldn't stand the thought of giving out shares to all workers they had been promised to. Not much of a help, more like a hindrance who was tolerated because of the money he brought to the table. He certainly did great at Apple but Pixar succeeded despite him rather than thanks to him.
  - slededit 10y ago
    They had been trying to find buyers for almost 2 years. It was going to be Jobs or nothing. Give the man credit for being the only one to see at least part of the vision.
jaxondu 10y ago
Many would agreed that the new MacBook Pro is overpriced. With its hugh profit margin, hardly anyone complain that iPhone is overpriced.
linguae 10y ago
I've been a Mac user for over ten years, drawn to the platform due to the combination of OS X and solid hardware. Since the disappointing MacBook Pro announcement, I've been preparing to transition myself back to the world of Windows and *nix. I bought myself a refurbished ThinkPad T430 to get myself used to Windows 10 and modern Linux desktop environments, as well as the software running on them. I'm trying to wean myself off OS X and the Mac ecosystem. If it turns out that I'll be able to transition to either Windows or Linux/BSD without too much pain, then sometime next year I plan to buy something like a ThinkPad P50, which has options for Xeon processors and 64 GB RAM. Apple sadly makes nothing like this. I love OS X and I still believe it's the best desktop OS out there, but I'm very disappointed in Apple's direction, and this experience has made me realized the dangers of being locked to a specific hardware platform: if Apple doesn't make the hardware you want, then there are no alternatives if you want to stay on OS X legally. It was a fun ride while Apple made the hardware I wanted. But Apple started changing direction from powerful, expandable, upgradeable Macs to non-upgradeable, disposable computers for those whose computational needs aren't very intensive. I considered jumping ship back in 2013, but due to the controversies of Windows 8, GNOME 3, and KDE 4 at the time, I held my nose and bought a MacBook Air despite its non-upgradeability. This time I plan to jump ship. I learned my lesson regarding relying on closed platforms for my computing needs; you're at the mercy of the provider of the platform. For this reason alone I'm interested in returning to Windows and Linux/BSD, although I wish they one day will have the same level of polish as OS X.
vogt 10y ago
How many more of these articles do we need? Yes, we understand that Apple is no longer innovating at all, much less at the clip that they used to.
joecasson 10y ago
He's not sure why they bought Beats? Is there any proof that this deal didn't work out for them? They clearly integrated some of the IP into iTunes Music and it seems like the products are still selling like hotcakes. I'm scratching my head.

68 points by theaeolist 10y ago

It seems like the Echo is a repackaged Siri, with an optional wake word. The Echo Dot lets you buy stuff through it much like the Kindle which seems to be Amazon's thing.

azinman2 10y ago
Ya -- one that permanently has a place in your home so you don't have to worry where your phone is, one that integrates with popular 3rd party home-based IoT, is always listening/on, works better than Siri, and comes with better and free music integration (but is better if you're a prime member). The dot is just echo junior, there is no difference in utility of it. The result is a very meaningful improvement and a change to how you interact with technology in your home.
- inopinatus 10y ago
  The Echo is terrific and (unlike Siri) I wouldn't be without it. Sadly, Amazon's management app for the Echo is an unstable, slow, buggy piece of unusable garbage that someone should be fired over.
  - azinman2 10y ago
    But luckily you don't really need to use the app much after initial setup.
    - inopinatus 10y ago
      Not so. It is how you access the to-do list and shopping lists. So I use it, or try to, almost everyday.

api 10y ago

In the end he nails it without fully realizing it. The problem is that the iPhone is now everything for Apple. Having one single mega cash cow tends to result in the whole company organizing itself around that cash cow. Microsoft did it for Windows and Office and missed a generation or two of developers as a result. This is why Apple is stagnating and only seems to care about phones and locking down that ecosystem. They are the new Nokia. Of course Amazon and Google have their cash cows too, so they are not much different. Their home speakers are ways for them to more aggressively market and capture customer buying behavior. Personally I consider them deeply creepy for this reason and will not get one. The true innovation is going to come from hungrier players: startups or older companies that are on the ropes like Apple once was. Microsoft is getting interesting again, and I'd also keep an eye on old PC vendors like Dell and HP or even old IBM. These companies now have nothing to lose.

andrewclunn 10y ago
Bingo. Also, let's not forget that Apple has a history of not releasing the first of something, but waiting until the market is there, and then releasing a much more user friendly product that redefines the market and grows it. They're not a tech first company so much as a UX first company.
- jhatax 10y ago
  +1. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and the team building the Linux subsystem at Microsoft took note: https://jhatax.blogspot.com/2016/11/developers-windows-linux-subsystem-is.html https://jhatax.blogspot.com/2016/11/developers-windows-linux.... Microsoft is truly hungry to win back developers, and the team is willing to do what it takes to bring non-Windows developers into the fold. Apple seems to still be operating as if it can only focus on one core platform at any given time as opposed to two or three. The talk on HN is only about the core OSes -- macOS and iOS -- but what about their productivity apps? They haven't seen a meaningful update in years (Pages, Keynote, etc. in case you are unaware). With their huge cash reserves, Apple needs to recognize that it can build multiple platforms in parallel without sacrificing the quality of either. It could very well be that Jony Ive not being a core software guy is the issue. It could not. I don't have insider access. I will say this: Apple needs a hard core software leader and it doesn't seem to have one today. That's the 'real void'.

rufius 10y ago

While I do understand the author's point about the void - the particular example of the Amazon Echo and Google Home is something I really don't get. I find those devices invasive and irritating - I'm not sure I see the attraction. That being said, I also hate talking on the phone so this may be more of an issue at interacting vocally with a device. It's somewhat lessened when I use FaceTime with my phone but only because I can see who I'm talking to.

ebbv 10y ago
On top of that, calling them category defining and comparing them to the iPhone is kind of crazy since they are niche products so far. Nobody I know has an Echo. The few people I know that have Chromecasts bought them only because it was a cheap way to wirelessly stream video from their computer to a TV for presentations. They didn't buy it as a substitute for a Roku or Apple TV. I share the author's concerns about Apple's devices since about 2012 being underwhelming but I don't agree with their conclusion that Google and Amazon are filling the void. The distressing part for me is that as far as work computers go nobody is.
- azinman2 10y ago
  I have an echo. My parents have an echo and I'm giving one to my sister and her family this xmas. It is absolutely a category, especially if you have a larger home where your phone isn't near you. Instead, you just speak to it and it responds without having to find a device instead. It's integration with an ecosystem in your home means it's the new remote -- one that's far more powerful.
  - rufius 10y ago
    WARNING: Snarky Response I just write it down on a notepad rather than buying a $150 device. That said, you do you. If y'all like it, have at it and I won't be one to criticize the way you spend your money.
    - sooheon 10y ago

jwr 10y ago

What's more worrying for me is that entire product categories are either left abandoned (Mac Pro) or updated with inferior products (latest MacBook Pro), and it seems that Jony Ive's form-over-function approach encounters no opposition within the company. We lose good functionality for no good reason, other than products become "simpler" and "more pure". This in itself would not be a problem for me, if it weren't for the lack of competition. Mac OS is so far ahead in terms of "getting things done" and "just working" that it isn't even funny. And yes, I do know, I also regularly use Windows (10) and Linux (Ubuntu 16 LTS). I feel locked in: both "competing" platforms are huge time-wasters for me. I know some people feel different — past discussions have shown that most people do fewer things with their computers than me (for example, if all you need is a web browser, Ubuntu is a great choice). Now that Apple is abandoning me as a customer (I'm not the mainstream), I feel squeezed: where do I go from here? What's even worse is that the cost of entry is now so high: developing an environment that works, and then convincing developers to embrace it is nearly impossible. And the only companies that have the resources to do it (Microsoft and Google) do it badly.

beat 10y ago
I'm clinging for dear life to my beloved five year old MBP. I don't know if my next laptop will even be Apple at all.
- kenOfYugen 10y ago
  Same here. New battery, new secondary SSD, reconditioning of the MagSafe power supply and maxed out RAM are underway. Performance-wise it should be about the same as the latest Macbook, which doesn't feel like an upgrade for software development. Slow hardware helps one write good software after-all..
- sofaofthedamned 10y ago
  Gave my Macbook Pro 13 (2013) to the missus a few months ago as I was looking forward to the new one. As it is, i've just spent £1400 on a XPS 13 fully loaded and instead of a iMac i'll be buying a Surface Tablet. The missus after having each iPhone since the first is going to be buying a Pixel. Apple have lost the plot and are taking the piss out of their users. We are voting with our wallets.

sxg 10y ago

The author says Apple's leaving a void because Google and Amazon are inventing new product categories instead of Apple, but Apple's successes haven't been new inventions. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the iPad wasn't the first tablet, and the MacBook wasn't the first laptop. What Apple does well is waiting to add enough incremental upgrades to products until it surpasses the "amazing" threshold. This ends up looking like Apple is either late to market (Apple TV) or so incredibly successful that it appears as if the market didn't even exist before Apple entered it (iPhone/iPad). Based on Apple's history, we should really be expecting them to crush the Echo and Chromecast sometime in the next few years.

eximius 10y ago
They've already had a stab at the Apple TV, so I doubt we're going to see a revolutionary chromecast-like competitor. An Echo competitor would be possible but has Siri made any noticeable revolutionary leaps recently?
- jaegerpicker 10y ago
  You would not have seen the Siri leaps that matter, that's not how Apple operates. They develop things in secret and then drop them on the world. I'm not saying that's for sure what will happen with Siri but that's Apple's track record and mode of operation.
- sxg 10y ago
  Siri does now have an API (although limited) on iOS, but I haven't seen many uses of it yet. As for the Apple TV and Chromecast, I've been using a Chromecast (1st gen) for the last few months since I gave my Apple TV to my parents, and I miss my Apple TV. The Chromecast is great when it works, but it's extremely hit or miss depending on the app you use to stream. YouTube and Netflix work perfectly, but HBO Now and FX are terrible. There's no option to scrub backward/forward, and often when you hit pause the app will disconnect. With HBO Now and the FX app, it usually takes a good 3-4 tries to connect and actually watch something. With the Apple TV, everything worked as expected. I think the major factor stopping the Apple TV from crushing the Chromecast is price. The old Apple TV is $70 - they should really be pushing for a much lower price point for this to compete with the Chromecast, but Apple doesn't even list this one on their site as far as I can tell.

informatimago 10y ago

Perhaps they're considering allowing third parties to produce Macintosh compatibles, and macOS would be sold thru OEMs like MS-Windows?

grzm 10y ago
I can't tell if you're joking or not. The first time around licensing the OS was part of the near bankruptcy of Apple. Apple is a hardware company that also makes software that makes the hardware compelling. I don't see it happening, but I think it would be more likely that Apple get rid of Macs and macOS entirely (relying on iOS products) rather than license macOS to third parties.

grzm 10y ago

Current article title: What happened to Apple?

grzm 10y ago
Since changed (reverted?) to "The void left by Apple"

Bud 10y ago

Moaning about Apple leaving a "void" because of Google Chromecast is pretty hilarious. Especially when Apple's version, the Apple TV, is a superior device. Chromecast is the best Google can do? Color me un-worried.

amelius 10y ago

It was always clear to me that the direction Apple was taking was not a good one for people outside the "2 sigma" chunk of the bell curve. Apple's focus has been on creating the smallest amount of products for the largest possible audience.

applethrowaway 10y ago

I'm not sure about hardware and design teams, but I'm noticing that the entire software org is going downhill at Apple fast. Budget cuts, delaying releases for arbitrary reasons, more and more technical debt on key portions of iOS seem to be the norm rather than the exception. Each subsequent release of iOS is more bloated than ever, and teams are reluctant to port their stuff over to Swift because of the aforementioned technical debt. Fundamentally, the problem is that the software org at Apple is a third class citizen. In order for that to change, there needs to be a shift in resources toward the SW org. But I don't see it happening any time soon :)

curiouscats 10y ago
I see this as a huge problem too. Apple just doesn't seem to have high level advocacy for software quality. This is driving me to Ubuntu at the desktop. I am sticking with my Macbook but on my next laptop purchase it will be a matter of if Apple hardware quality makes up for their software failings. I haven't looked closely in 2 years but back then I didn't see any hardware close to Apple's laptop quality. I do agree with those disappointed with the MacBook Pro (or whatever they call it now) but those disappointments are not as great as my disappointment with Apple software quality the last 5 years.
- drvdevd 10y ago
  From experience (retina mbp 2015, 15"), I would highly recommend you do not try to run Ubuntu (or other Linux) on newer Apple hardware. Take the money you'll save by buying a "lower end" laptop/desktop x86 machine and put it toward buying more RAM, a better SSD, nice peripherals, etc...
drvdevd 10y ago
Actually, although I believe the hardware is overpriced, and personally have no gripes about new designs -- I just don't care about them -- I would agree this is where the core problem lies with Apple right now. Almost squarely in software. I could drone on about the reasons for this, but to me it feels like something fundamental is missing in that area now. Something that only Apple used to have.

ijidak 10y ago

Why do we say Apple came up with this and Apple came up with that? Steve Jobs came up with those things. The man left Apple, Apple tanked, requiring a bailout from Microsoft. Jobs comes back, very much Return of the King-esque, and Apple rises again. Meanwhile in his exile he helps start a little studio called Pixar. This is very much a "Built to Last" situation. Great book. Companies with Cult leader CEO's lose direction when that CEO leaves or dies. Cook is Apple's Ballmer. A great business man, not a great innovator. At some point, my guess is like Ballmer, Apple will fall far enough behind that someone else will get the job. Hopefully, Apple finds someone like Satya. But none of this has been surprising. You can't lose someone like Jobs and expect the progress to continue. The guy understood how to translate technology to the every day man woman and child like nobody else. These are the Ballmer years at Apple. Hopefully, they go by faster than they did at Microsoft.

toyg 10y ago
Pixar had started well before Jobs entered the picture. His role in Pixar was of a mercurial money-man who constantly threatened to shut down the whole operation, and almost killed the studio on the verge of their big break because he couldn't stand the thought of giving out shares to all workers they had been promised to. Not much of a help, more like a hindrance who was tolerated because of the money he brought to the table. He certainly did great at Apple but Pixar succeeded despite him rather than thanks to him.
- slededit 10y ago
  They had been trying to find buyers for almost 2 years. It was going to be Jobs or nothing. Give the man credit for being the only one to see at least part of the vision.

jaxondu 10y ago

Many would agreed that the new MacBook Pro is overpriced. With its hugh profit margin, hardly anyone complain that iPhone is overpriced.

linguae 10y ago

I've been a Mac user for over ten years, drawn to the platform due to the combination of OS X and solid hardware. Since the disappointing MacBook Pro announcement, I've been preparing to transition myself back to the world of Windows and *nix. I bought myself a refurbished ThinkPad T430 to get myself used to Windows 10 and modern Linux desktop environments, as well as the software running on them. I'm trying to wean myself off OS X and the Mac ecosystem. If it turns out that I'll be able to transition to either Windows or Linux/BSD without too much pain, then sometime next year I plan to buy something like a ThinkPad P50, which has options for Xeon processors and 64 GB RAM. Apple sadly makes nothing like this. I love OS X and I still believe it's the best desktop OS out there, but I'm very disappointed in Apple's direction, and this experience has made me realized the dangers of being locked to a specific hardware platform: if Apple doesn't make the hardware you want, then there are no alternatives if you want to stay on OS X legally. It was a fun ride while Apple made the hardware I wanted. But Apple started changing direction from powerful, expandable, upgradeable Macs to non-upgradeable, disposable computers for those whose computational needs aren't very intensive. I considered jumping ship back in 2013, but due to the controversies of Windows 8, GNOME 3, and KDE 4 at the time, I held my nose and bought a MacBook Air despite its non-upgradeability. This time I plan to jump ship. I learned my lesson regarding relying on closed platforms for my computing needs; you're at the mercy of the provider of the platform. For this reason alone I'm interested in returning to Windows and Linux/BSD, although I wish they one day will have the same level of polish as OS X.

vogt 10y ago

How many more of these articles do we need? Yes, we understand that Apple is no longer innovating at all, much less at the clip that they used to.

joecasson 10y ago

He's not sure why they bought Beats? Is there any proof that this deal didn't work out for them? They clearly integrated some of the IP into iTunes Music and it seems like the products are still selling like hotcakes. I'm scratching my head.