Whatever happened to Apple's beautifully utilitarian designed products that innovated and just worked?
Still holds true for all my Apple Gear - Late 2011 MacBook, Apple Watch Sport, 9.7" iPad Pro and iPhone 6.
Do I have some problems from time to time - sure. Just Like I always have. Apple stuff has never "just worked". Nobody's stuff has ever "just worked". I've been using Apple Gear for over 20 years and it has always had problems. Don't get sucked into the marketing.
Instead, iPhone 7 will be a spec-bumped rehash of the 6/6 Plus.
Why do you think that?
The 6S had Force Touch, the 6 had a new form factor, The 5S had Touch ID etc., etc.
But you have certainty that the 7 will only be spec bumped? How do you come to this conclusion?
No new MacBook Pro to speak of.
They will come. Why the rush? Would you rather they rushed them out in a buggy state?
Apple Watch only a glorified notification system.
Start working out, get back to me. I love my Watch - payments, tracking workouts, directions (taps are so intuitive for direction when walking and cycling rather than looking at my phone screen). And yes it even makes notifications better, I can completely silence my iPhone. Finally it's great as a watch, the biggest downside is my nicer analogue watches never get used now (and I've actually been debating selling them).
Internal development teams fueding.
Good, I've never worked anywhere without arguments. Passion is important. I have no idea what the "feuding" is specifically about, but I'd be more worried if they were all just getting along. Steve Jobs himself was highly abrasive.
As a whole Apple is down 11% year-to-date, sliding 27% over the past year alone. The brand is still profitable, but not at the rates that we've grown accustomed too. Perhaps their momentum was unsustainable, but it seems Apple is busy resting on its laurels and past successes, being reactionary to market trends only when it is most profitable to them.
Resting on their laurels? Not from my seat, in the last year or so:
- A new line of iPads in 2 sizes with the addition of highly regarded stylus. This product has made the biggest change to my working life in the last 5 years (completely ditched paper - all notes now taken digitally).
- New True Tone display - massive difference when using iPad outdoors (hope this tech filters to other iOS devices).
- The A9 and A9X: designed in house, well regarded performance.
- iPhone with 3D Touch - something else which has made working life quicker (can get through dozens of emails in a much smaller amount of time).
- Research Kit: fingers crossed this leads to some good.
- A completely new MacBook line (Retina 2015), introduces several firsts for Apple - USB-C, new Butterfly mechanism keyboard, fanless, custom shaped battery, individual LED backlit keys (as opposed to an array previously), Force Touch trackpad.
- The 2105 MacBook (Retina) has also just received an internal upgrade with some decent performance boosts.
- Expanded Transit directions in Maps to new cities.
- A new Apple TV with a much requested App Store.
- Roll-out of Apple Pay to new countries.
- Released 2 operating system updates (OS X 10.11, iOS 9) and 2 new Operating systems (watchOS and tvOS).
Like you say the growth was never going to continue forever. I'd sit and watch. If the overall decline continues for a number of years then maybe worry. As a shareholder I'm not worried one bit. The Icahn sale has allowed me to buy more at IMO a good price. The points he Icahn about China are valid - and something to keep an eye on.
Besides, Apple has always been slow. Rarely are they first to market. And even when they do, they release products which to most people are "lacking". It has worked well for a long time:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1151235/apple_rolls.html
(OLED iPhone screens, etc.) This approach can only last for so long. Didn't we learn anything from watching a once market-leading Blackberry self destruct from ineptitude?
OLED will come. You can just go to a supplier and ask for 200 million+ of something a year. That's one of the sad parts of success. Some things take longer to procure. Just like Touch ID sensors, very limited at the start and were a bottle neck. Also maybe there were waiting for the technology to mature OLED is fairly new (and has been improving a lot over the last few years). Ive himself has spoken of the benefits of the OLED technology on phones. From the rumours it appears they are lining up something for 2017.
On the other side I don't really see a huge difference between the OLED on my Watch and the LED on the iPhone. Both are good. Tap to wake would be nice. But I'm not going to worry if they stick to LED.
