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I'm also worried. At first, I rationalized weakness on the Mac front as a side-effect of a strategic prioritization of the mobile & cloud ecosystem. But then I

I'm also worried. At first, I rationalized weakness on the Mac front as a side-effect of a strategic prioritization of the mobile & cloud ecosystem. But then I got the new iPhone, and I've been surprised by my emotional reaction to it feeling buggy. It's all relatively minor in isolation; voicemail consistently fails to load messages multiple times before it succeeds, voicemail occasionally crashes, apps get stuck halfway down the screen after I swipe to check the notification screen, texts and iMessages sometimes show up hours or days late, notifications appear on the lock screen but are missing when I unlock the phone, the weather app sometimes displays a blank temperature, web sites have broken behavior with auto-playing, the state of the device when using volume controls changes unpredictably, and so on. Most of these are undoubtedly caused by my service provider, or a 3rd party app, or me fat-thumbing an interface, or my complete misperception of a UI paradigm, or are otherwise not Apple's fault. But that's entirely besides the point, because we're talking about my emotional reaction, not reality, and we're talking about something Apple used to bend over backwards to control. If the common narrative about Apple's modern successes being rooted in design sensibilities is correct, I don't see them being able to sustain leadership in the areas where they've been leading. The good news for Apple is that there still aren't better alternatives for customers who are heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem. The bad news is that there eventually will be, and also that there is material economic harm in keeping customers but losing their enthusiasm.

cicloid 10y ago
Do you feel those are issues with the hardware or iOS? For me the hardware feels solid. But I see the rough edges on iOS.
- joshklein 10y ago
  I think you're right that it's iOS rather than hardware, but Apple already has no competitive advantage in the mobile space when it comes to industrial design. Others caught up on the hardware and physical product design in the last couple years; it's now the software and service ecosystem which keep Apple customers buying iPhones.
cptskippy 10y ago
> cloud ecosystem. Apart from promoting the the App Store, has Apple done anything to promote or enhance it's cloud offerings? I don't recall hearing anything about iCloud in a very long time. > voicemail consistently fails to load messages AT&T? I've noticed this to be the case for AT&T users regardless of whether it's iOS or Android. Their visual voicemail is unreliable. > or me fat-thumbing an interface I routinely run into issues trying to use iOS on iPhone 5/SE test devices for work. The touch targets are so small I have cock my fingers at weird angles to be able to hit buttons. The App Store purchase buttons are some of the worst offenders. It's almost like Apple stopped testing their UI on small screens after the iPhone 6 came out.
- joshklein 10y ago
  > cloud ecosystem I only meant in the strategic sense. If the future of personal computing is to be lightweight terminals and hardware requirements pushed into the cloud, Mac hardware and macOS might provide less growth opportunity than other business units. This is completely debatable, but is at least plausible. > voicemail Verizon for me. > fat-thumbing an interface I should also mention I have it set to the largest interface settings, and I'm a 32 year old with 20/20 vision.
forgetsusername 10y ago
>I'm also worried. No worries here. I'm happy the landscape is getting more competitive.
spacehacker 10y ago
There certainly is regression at all corners: 1. Try finding a close-up of the keyboard of the function key model on the MacBook Pro website. It seems it is just not there or I'm failing to find it. Previously Apple used to have a design section where you could see the products from all angles. http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ 2. The online shop is just horrible. Even finding the store takes a while and the icons look like clip-art. Complete mess. http://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all-accessories http://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all-accessories 3. This is how the Apple Pencil and the Mighty Mouse are supposed to be charged: https://i.imgur.com/CvcaGze.jpg https://i.imgur.com/CvcaGze.jpg https://i.imgur.com/P8M8pqO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/P8M8pqO.jpg The Mighty Mouse is also an ergonomic disaster. 4. The iPhone case with battery pack has an aweful design. Who would ever let this pass? https://i.imgur.com/DyvTE3w.jpg https://i.imgur.com/DyvTE3w.jpg 5. It also feels like the "Designed by Apple in California" book was published 20 years early. It's just like the new Star Wars movie, all those recent sequels of the n-th iteration and Marvel comic adaptations. Nobody innovates anymore and people just replicate what worked well before or only improve it incrementally.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  Point 3 is incredible. It's like a selfie stick gone wrong (or perhaps, gone more wrong).
  - TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
    Actually there's an adaptor with the pencil that allows you to charge with it a standard lightning cable. You can plug it into an iPad, but you really don't have to.
- comex 10y ago
  The Mighty Mouse charge port is indeed a WTF, but what's wrong with the Apple Pencil? The charging setup looks ugly, but it allows the Pencil to be charged on the go without needing an extra cable that people would lose or leave behind. And it's fast enough (15 seconds of charging for 30 minutes of usage) that the awkwardness hardly matters.
Inthenameofmine 10y ago
I guess the grass really is always greener on the other side. Android and W10 people always complain about buggyness. I think we've reached the point where larger software has become too complex for today's development and testing methods.
- marcosdumay 10y ago
  Some phones are cheap, some have big screens, some as fast, some have extra battery or memory. Apple's differential has always been the UX. If they lose that, they'll need to be the best in something else.

cicloid 10y ago

Do you feel those are issues with the hardware or iOS? For me the hardware feels solid. But I see the rough edges on iOS.

joshklein 10y ago
I think you're right that it's iOS rather than hardware, but Apple already has no competitive advantage in the mobile space when it comes to industrial design. Others caught up on the hardware and physical product design in the last couple years; it's now the software and service ecosystem which keep Apple customers buying iPhones.

cptskippy 10y ago

> cloud ecosystem. Apart from promoting the the App Store, has Apple done anything to promote or enhance it's cloud offerings? I don't recall hearing anything about iCloud in a very long time. > voicemail consistently fails to load messages AT&T? I've noticed this to be the case for AT&T users regardless of whether it's iOS or Android. Their visual voicemail is unreliable. > or me fat-thumbing an interface I routinely run into issues trying to use iOS on iPhone 5/SE test devices for work. The touch targets are so small I have cock my fingers at weird angles to be able to hit buttons. The App Store purchase buttons are some of the worst offenders. It's almost like Apple stopped testing their UI on small screens after the iPhone 6 came out.

joshklein 10y ago
> cloud ecosystem I only meant in the strategic sense. If the future of personal computing is to be lightweight terminals and hardware requirements pushed into the cloud, Mac hardware and macOS might provide less growth opportunity than other business units. This is completely debatable, but is at least plausible. > voicemail Verizon for me. > fat-thumbing an interface I should also mention I have it set to the largest interface settings, and I'm a 32 year old with 20/20 vision.

forgetsusername 10y ago

>I'm also worried. No worries here. I'm happy the landscape is getting more competitive.

spacehacker 10y ago

There certainly is regression at all corners: 1. Try finding a close-up of the keyboard of the function key model on the MacBook Pro website. It seems it is just not there or I'm failing to find it. Previously Apple used to have a design section where you could see the products from all angles. http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ 2. The online shop is just horrible. Even finding the store takes a while and the icons look like clip-art. Complete mess. http://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all-accessories http://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all-accessories 3. This is how the Apple Pencil and the Mighty Mouse are supposed to be charged: https://i.imgur.com/CvcaGze.jpg https://i.imgur.com/CvcaGze.jpg https://i.imgur.com/P8M8pqO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/P8M8pqO.jpg The Mighty Mouse is also an ergonomic disaster. 4. The iPhone case with battery pack has an aweful design. Who would ever let this pass? https://i.imgur.com/DyvTE3w.jpg https://i.imgur.com/DyvTE3w.jpg 5. It also feels like the "Designed by Apple in California" book was published 20 years early. It's just like the new Star Wars movie, all those recent sequels of the n-th iteration and Marvel comic adaptations. Nobody innovates anymore and people just replicate what worked well before or only improve it incrementally.

lostlogin 10y ago
Point 3 is incredible. It's like a selfie stick gone wrong (or perhaps, gone more wrong).
- TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
  Actually there's an adaptor with the pencil that allows you to charge with it a standard lightning cable. You can plug it into an iPad, but you really don't have to.
comex 10y ago
The Mighty Mouse charge port is indeed a WTF, but what's wrong with the Apple Pencil? The charging setup looks ugly, but it allows the Pencil to be charged on the go without needing an extra cable that people would lose or leave behind. And it's fast enough (15 seconds of charging for 30 minutes of usage) that the awkwardness hardly matters.

Inthenameofmine 10y ago

I guess the grass really is always greener on the other side. Android and W10 people always complain about buggyness. I think we've reached the point where larger software has become too complex for today's development and testing methods.

marcosdumay 10y ago
Some phones are cheap, some have big screens, some as fast, some have extra battery or memory. Apple's differential has always been the UX. If they lose that, they'll need to be the best in something else.