I’m surprised MacRumors haven’t retracted this article. 🤔
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Apple Broke a 13-Year Hardware Streak in 2024
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its a pretty embarassing article. there are plenty of meaningful industry trends that could be discussed, and they decided to put out a poorly thought out and essentially meaningless piece to get clicks. but hey we're all here calling them out, and engagement is engagement, so if anything this probably proves that low-effort stuff is worth it. sigh. 🫠
This is patently false. In the last 3 months, Apple released the ALL NEW iPhone 16, the ALL NEW iPhone 16 Pros, the ALL NEW Apple Watch Series 10, the ALL NEW Apple Watch Ultra 2, the ALL NEW M4 Mac mini, the ALL NEW M4 iMac, the ALL NEW M4 MacBook Pro, the ALL NEW iPad mini 7, and the ALL NEW AirPods 4. None of these products have EVER been released before. This was Apple's strongest release schedule ever and the pipeline has never been stronger!
Ah ok , I got it. I don’t know how that could improve privacy, since you still are the only user to have access to the phone 🤔
Really the definition of 'all-new hardware product lines' for this article is just 'hardware with new name' since, as others have pointed out, there were some continuations of earlier product lines that were just renamed (e.g. Thunderbolt Display from Cinema Display). So if 'hardware with new name' is the definition then 2024 continued that streak with the Apple Pencil Pro...
"iPhone XS Max" is "an all-new hardware product line"? It's just the iPhone X, one generation newer, in a different size. By that logic, the 15-inch MacBook Air qualifies?
The Thunderbolt Display was also almost identical to the 2008 LED Cinema Display, except for adding Thunderbolt. Daisy chaining, a hub, etc. Sure, that's nice, but is it "an all-new hardware product line"?
If Apple Watch Ultra and iPhone SE qualify, why doesn't Apple Watch SE? If the Apple Card does, does the Cleaning Cloth, too?
I get the author's point of "not much happened in 2024", but this list feels too "things I care about are significant, and things I don't care about aren't listed". And the flip side is that the M4 was a big upgrade, and the 2024 Mac mini was an all-new design. Plus, I know they're going by announcement dates, but the Vision Pro actually launched in 2024, not 2023, and the Apple Watch in 2015, not 2014.
15-inch MBA and Apple Watch SE should definitely qualify IMO.
I agree with this take. The only thing I would add to your bottom list is Apple Silicon for Mac. That was a pretty big thing overall. But otherwise That's pretty much it.
Agreed + I would add AirPods or AirPods Pro/2 - one of Apple's biggest and most influential products at this point.
The only thing that matters is if Apple calls the product ALL NEW. If they do, then it is an all-new hardware product.
Don't forget that there is now a "regular" Apple Pencil as well, much like how the iPad Air 2 became the iPad Pro and Apple then revived regular iPads from the iPad 5. I'd say either the USB C Apple Pencil or the Apple Pencil Pro qualifies as a new product line even if it's just based on naming scheme alone.
While I agree the list is ridiculously arbitrary I think it is valid to include Apple Pencil, AirPods, HomePod, AirTag, and Apple Silicon as legit individual hardware products.
