Have Apple lost their mojo?

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dafman

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#189486 1-Jan-2016 12:05

Love them or hate them, you can’t deny Apple’s place in the world as past innovators of major world tech trends. After all, they created the MP3 player, touchscreen phone and the tablet phenomenon. And their kit was always beautifully designed. I still marvel at my (now retired) little square nano ipod.

But since Steve Jobs shuffled off, have Apple now well and truly lost their mojo? They haven’t released any new ground breaking tech since the ipad. In fact, they are now pretty much followers – take their last two releases - iPad Pro followed Surface Pro, Apple watch followed Android wear.

And with the exception of force touch, their phones are pretty much under-spec’d relative to other flagships competition (resolution, battery, waterproofing, expandable storage etc).

I see a few Apple watches on peoples wrists, but not many.

iTunes is looking tired.

I don't hear many raving over Apple music.

And their beautiful design ethos is now starting to well and truly show cracks, with some really woeful offerings of recent – the following youtube sums this up nicely: https://youtu.be/yOwlR74rC5Q

Yes, as one of the world’s biggest companies, Apple still have mountains of cash and plenty of punters still prepared to pay over the odds for an iphone, but are Apple’s glory days now well and truly behind them?

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#1459784 1-Jan-2016 12:16

An article came out this morning on what to expect from Apple in 2016. The list is impressive, regardless of any views on individual products, it's a hell of a lot of stuff:

-iPhone 7 and 7+
-Apple Watch 2
-iPad Air 3
-watchOS 3
-Skylake Mac's
-iPhone 6c
-iOS 10
-OS X 10.12

I don't think they've lost their mojo at all. I think they're just warming up.

I will concede I'm not pleased with some of their app designs at the moment, but these things change quickly enough to not be a big deal. I'd still rather work inside OS X than Windows if that counts for anything.

scuwp

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#1459786 1-Jan-2016 12:21

Yes, kind-of. Poor design and decision making have seen a lack luster 2015. To much reliance on the dedicated fan base to buy anything with an Apple logo on it. Hopefully this year brings some innovative thinking.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

PoHq

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#1459787 1-Jan-2016 12:32

Their hardware and core OS in my opinion is way ahead of the competition. Their services, iCloud, iCloud Photo's, Apple Music etc etc in my opinion are at this point in time just terrible.

I Can't see me changing platforms, OSX and iOS are still easily the best options for me as they have been for a number of years but I avoid Apple's other software offerings these days.

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#1459790 1-Jan-2016 12:41

When I saw the iPhone 6s case with the ugly big battery hump, Which Steve would never have allowed to be released, I think it shows the has been a shift in culture and the bean counters now rule. Also it is basically admitting the 6s battery wasn't large enough. It is such an odd product for them the release in so many ways. Likewise they have released a number of cases, which aren't up to apples normal design quality. The new 6 s case for example covers the LED light, and you can't use other headphones due to the hole being too small, without an adapter.

macuser

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#1459791 1-Jan-2016 12:43

They should just close it down and give their money back to their shareholders

tdgeek

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#1459792 1-Jan-2016 12:48

dafman: Love them or hate them, you can’t deny Apple’s place in the world as past innovators of major world tech trends. After all, they created the MP3 player, touchscreen phone and the tablet phenomenon. And their kit was always beautifully designed. I still marvel at my (now retired) little square nano ipod.

But since Steve Jobs shuffled off, have Apple now well and truly lost their mojo? They haven’t released any new ground breaking tech since the ipad. In fact, they are now pretty much followers – take their last two releases - iPad Pro followed Surface Pro, Apple watch followed Android wear.

And with the exception of force touch, their phones are pretty much under-spec’d relative to other flagships competition (resolution, battery, waterproofing, expandable storage etc).

I see a few Apple watches on peoples wrists, but not many.

iTunes is looking tired.

I don't hear many raving over Apple music.

And their beautiful design ethos is now starting to well and truly show cracks, with some really woeful offerings of recent – the following youtube sums this up nicely: https://youtu.be/yOwlR74rC5Q

Yes, as one of the world’s biggest companies, Apple still have mountains of cash and plenty of punters still prepared to pay over the odds for an iphone, but are Apple’s glory days now well and truly behind them?

I think they have.

Its hard to create new tech, its been done. When SJ left, I felt that helped as regards finally getting features added, it largely has feature parity now but back in the day it was missing a lot. What I see, is disenchantment. There are regular threads on Macrumors that are about dropping quality. Bugs and issues are one thing but these days its becoming a tradition, and these non minor bugs and issues that to me show a lack of testing. Rushed out is a phrase I read often. The board demanded innovation, but in reality its all about the money. The money used to be secondary to design, that has changed. The share price has plummuted 20% and thats big in the stockmarket.

I had never seen them as under specced as the custom SoC meant that they didn't need octa cores of high CPU speed etc, but my 6 Plus aint the most responsive phone on town, although the 6 was fine. Thats under specced and rushed out. Bring out the phablet quick please, we will finish it in the S year.

But the faithful rule. I am on a Yahoo forum, and thats been vibrant lately as some of us put forward our less than stellar thoughts and the fanboys react. So sales will be good no matter what, but they need to be better than good, and I can see them levelling.

Along as I don't have to listen to "they wont do it first but it will be better" and "Apple knows what you want, you don't" I'm happy enough. Its losing its aura but its a good ecosystem.

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tdgeek

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#1459794 1-Jan-2016 12:51

mattwnz: When I saw the iPhone 6s case with the ugly big battery hump, Which Steve would never have allowed to be released, I think it shows the has been a shift in culture and the bean counters now rule. Also it is basically admitting the 6s battery wasn't large enough. It is such an odd product for them the release in so many ways. Likewise they have released a number of cases, which aren't up to apples normal design quality. The new 6 s case for example covers the LED light, and you can't use other headphones due to the hole being too small, without an adapter.

The board, not the bean counters. But your overall point is correct. Before it was design and no doubt head banging from the board, now its money and Jonny Ive has to do what he can within that end of year result demand. Sales wins over design. But unreality they must go together, as at some point users will dig their toes in, as many no doubt have. I bet the S sales are way way down.

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#1459804 1-Jan-2016 13:40

People seem to think that a revolutionary product like the first iPhone is something that they can expect every couple of years. Every 10-15 years would be a more realistic expectation in my view.

Apple can afford to be mediocre because their competition is mediocre - or worse. I would happily buy something other than Apple but I don't currently see a credible alternative because there is noone else who can supply me with a simple easy to use high end laptop as well as a sophisticated phone to accompany it. Maybe that could change if or when high end Chromebooks become available in NZ.

Someone like Samsung or Sony probably could shake things up if they were to start producing their own operating systems, but I guess the business case for that doesn't stack up.

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#1459807 1-Jan-2016 14:00

I do think that some of the "magic" has gone, at least in terms of OS X. Things probably began when Bertrand Serlet left; he was a "power user" and pushed for things like better multithreading and automatic tiered storage. Now we have a lot of "consumer" features and a number of idiotic design decisions (for example, a fresh install of 10.11 on new hardware will put the system to sleep after two minutes of inactivity, with no UI to disable it*). Saving energy is one thing, but booting you off chat apps or halting downloads just because you went to the toilet is quite another. That reminds me; it's nice to be able to get notifications of phone calls, but is it really necessary to kick me out of YouTube and back to the desktop when it happens?

The other issue isn't with Apple itself, but rather the community. There is a surprisingly large number of people out there that aren't satisfied unless you're doing everything "the Apple way". For example, I was recently criticised for having not yet installed 10.11 on my personal machine. I was still on 10.10 due to hardware incompatibility with my USB headset, but that didn't deter the criticiser. "Just buy a new headset".

* "sudo pmset -a sleep 0" will get around this!

reven

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#1459813 1-Jan-2016 14:44

gehenna: An article came out this morning on what to expect from Apple in 2016. The list is impressive, regardless of any views on individual products, it's a hell of a lot of stuff:

-iPhone 7 and 7+
-Apple Watch 2
-iPad Air 3
-watchOS 3
-Skylake Mac's
-iPhone 6c
-iOS 10
-OS X 10.12

I don't think they've lost their mojo at all. I think they're just warming up.

I will concede I'm not pleased with some of their app designs at the moment, but these things change quickly enough to not be a big deal. I'd still rather work inside OS X than Windows if that counts for anything.

errr i wouldnt call that list impressive at all.. its just newer versions of their current stuff. how is that impressive?

this years impressive stuff IMO is occulus rift, steam vr, microsoft hololens. hopefully more and more android auto, apple carplay, etc.

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#1459816 1-Jan-2016 14:49

reven:

errr i wouldnt call that list impressive at all.. its just newer versions of their current stuff. how is that impressive?

this years impressive stuff IMO is occulus rift, steam vr, microsoft hololens. hopefully more and more android auto, apple carplay, etc.

Impressive in the sense that it shows the breadth of products from a company that 9 years ago only really had a focus on desktop and laptop computers and personal music players. I agree those other products you've mentioned are very impressive, but that's not really the point.

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reven

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#1459818 1-Jan-2016 14:54

Still not impressive. What impressed me about apple 5 years ago was their innovation now all they do is iteration. They charge the same expensive price for stuff that should be getting cheaper but isn't. So all that impresses me about them is how they can keep getting suckers to buy it year after year.

They use to do great things, I agree with that, but they haven't in a long time. They might once again in the future, but that list doesn't make me think it will be this year.

khull

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#1459820 1-Jan-2016 15:02

Apple has ever touted the spec or features game. Many other manufacturers often have better specs (resolution, camera, connectivity etc) but that isn't the point. It is more about the user experience. Many people I come across seem to think cramming everything in a device that tries to be everything for everyone is the best measure of innovation or 'magic'. Often this would be at the expense of user experience.

As for the hump on the case, just use it, and then rotate it to landscape view as if you were to watch a movie. You have to experience it for it to make sense.

Even if their glory days are over, think about the cash reserves they have - Apple could afford to not release anything new and send all their staff on annual leave for the next 5 years and still be in the green.

tdgeek

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#1459873 1-Jan-2016 16:03

Take Handoff. Just a boring software thing, who cares. But having an rMBP that can deal with calls and texts and iMessage is great. Same for my iPad Air . That's a user experience example that is virtually cost free. That's where Apple needs to go, the user experience. I don't need a titanium phone with a gorilla 6 glass. Gimme the experience as the hardware is now ubiquitous

tdgeek

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#1459875 1-Jan-2016 16:05

The pseudo whatever it was for icons and the OS. Gimme that back as that is the cream on top. Not pastel yellow thanks!

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