. . . . You detest Apple for daring to neglect the Mac which you hold so dear, and believe that Apple is doomed because of this? Is it ignorance which leads people to not see, much less acknowledge Apple’s successes, or spite, or an inflated sense of worth? . . . .
Nope, not even close. I see parallels between how Apple handles all products. Macs were the first major Apple product to become a commodity. Now iPhones are becoming a commodity. Apple TV is already a commodity. See a trend here. Commodities have a much narrower range of competition whether it be price or functionality. When the competition heats up, Apple drops out.
Apple breaks the mold, has skyrocketing success, then completely fails to support its older products. For example, Apple laptops were, at one time, the best or so close to the best it did not matter in terms of functionality. Not any more. Apple is in the process of dropping Macs because they don't understand how to profit from a commodity and because it is not sexy (provides growth). They already dropped out the networking gear even though it gave them a clear win with ease of installation and use. In short, I'm pissed at Apple because I cannot depend on them to keep gear around that I use and have the highest respect for.
Before long they'll be forced to either drop the iPhone or change, but the mac will be gone by then and i'll have moved to a different technology provider. Once I switch to a non-Apple computer, I have no need for an iPhone. I'll use the phone that is closer in technology to my computer. Now I do get it, most of the young people (the new markets) are going to be on government assistance and won't be doing anything other that making animated emojis. And for that they don't need a computer or a tech supplier with anything other than marketing bought popularity.
My point is that Apple is aiming so low these days that it is an insult to Apple's previous evangelists. Right now they could have had the professional market for video and audio locked up solid, and that would have directly led to a huge lead in the VR and AI market. All they had to do was keep the macs at the latest technology, nothing more. No keynotes, no big splashes, no revolution, no risks, no failures, no huge costs, etc. It was dead simple strategy.
Siri is another product they just dropped after introduction. No innovation after 4 years and now they are not even close to the competition.
Apple's current strategy is to throw **** at the wall and see if anything sticks. Will most of it today doesn't stick, it stinks. Like Siri, it took Google and Amazon to make it popular, then Apple took notice.
Apple will never say, here is our product and as long as we sell it it will be the best you can buy. Instead we get here is our great product, please buy it, because we have now moved on and won't be upgrading it or fixing the bugs. We see this in most of the software but also in hardware. It is now a clear strategy and it is not a strategy I want to support.
If I buy tech, for example macOS, and the manufacturer just drops it years later for no reason, then why should I buy it in the first place, In Apple's case its more expensive and easier to use, but the competitors gear, at the end of the day, gets the job done just fine.
I need a phone to make calls on, not animated emojis. I need computer to create on, not to be hamstringed by lack of ports (macs, iphone, iPad), lack of upgradeability (macs), lack of choice (MacBook screen size), lack of being able to install any software I want (iPad), lack of pens or mouse (iPad), etc.
Apple has great products that with just a little bit more could easily allow me to extol their value, as I did to everyone I know in years past. But Apple has left me and I no longer recommend Apple products to friends, relatives, or work mates. They don't need Apple's high priced, buggy, flashy functionality toys, they can get by just fine with other products.
