I wouldn't hold my breath for that, they would like you to purchase new equipment. I'm still peeved that my older, brick-style AirportExpress won't work reliably with the post-iTunes10 versions of iTunes. And since I also have a TimeCapsule, my only intended use for the Express is AirPlay. Technical reasons, or planned obsolescence?
It's most likely planned obsolescence, which is a damn shame, but more on that later…
In keeping with Tim's obsession with profits, Apple is concentrating on the big moneymakers, and the Pro market being so small compared to the revenue generated by the iPhone and iOS ecosystem, only seems to get sporadic love nowadays. Even the consumer Mac lines, both desktops and laptops, sometimes seem to be treated like 'the ugly stepchild'.
Well… To call it an “ugly stepchild” might be somewhat of an exaggeration. There is still a lot of cross-polination, and macOS hasn't been completely gutted, bastardised or locked up. If anything, they aren't being bold enough (and no, I don't mean that Apple should produce a Surface Pro or Surface Studio clone, I just think that they could very well buy or Sherlock AstroPad and kill both Wacom and those Microsoft thingamajigs in one fell swoop, while also selling a metric crapton of iPads in the process), but abandoning the Mac they are not… But I absolutely get where you're coming from with that assumption, which you do address in further detail, as we'll see next.
And one cannot any longer blame this on Apple's earlier mantra of only doing updates when warranted by significant improvements, rather than upgrading for upgrade's sake. That model appears to have long since been abandoned, and Apple now claims they depend totally on the availability of new chips or suitable graphics cards, while we all know these parts are sometimes available months before being introduced in Apple products, and in some cases skipped altogether for the next gen.
I never got this, either. I am aware that they always made small redesigns (like different SATA cables, different board layouts, etc.) between different Revs, but are they actually required to do those when just changing chip families or even chip speeds? And are those the most expensive part of a product design? It seems really, really lazy and stupid, especially the Mac Pro. I mean, sure, waiting for the newfangled USB-C ports and latest DisplayPort standards is all well and good, but how many Xeon and GPU drop-in replacements did they skip during the last 1000+ days, again? All the while charging for old, outdated components as if they were brand-spanking-new? No wonder that they don't sell well, it's as if they are boycotting their own user base so they can drop them with a supposedly clear consciousness. Yeah, right! Like we will let them get away with it… Nearly all criticism of Apple in the media on this subject is warranted and well deserved, and I, for one, regret nothing.
Judging from the frequent comments on sites like these, many Mac users would like more frequent Mac updates, at the very least with the latest processors and graphics (so that if and when a user does decide to purchase new equipment, he/she doesn't have to choose between waiting and waiting and waiting, or paying premium prices for 6mos old tech), a return to post-purchase upgradeability, and minimized obsolescence, but none of the above is likely to happen. The industry trend is in the opposite direction.
This. I feel this is the single biggest reason for me, a [still] staunch Mac (nay, Apple) advocate, to be so mad at them at times. All their talk of environmentally-conscious policies just reeks of hypocrisy and bs. I mean, I never expected them to release PC-like towers again (yes, the PowerMac G5 and Mac Pro tower were still very conventional PCs), the much desired “headless iMac” or some Project ARA-like modular smartphone monstrosity, but at least I'd like them to offer a budget but high quality (as far as case builds and Q&A is concerned) range of Macs for the education market and developing/struggling countries/segments.
They would absolutely wipe out the entire PC market, without necessarily devaluing their brand, cannibalising their higher-end BTO models nor alienating the “nouveau-riche/fashion conscious” demographic who, besides actual pros, may buy them without really needing them. Those two approaches were *never* mutually exclusive (and the success of the MacBook Air line and even the iPads in their heyday alongside more conventional Macs is proof of that), and the fact that Apple eschewed that market by no longer offering equivalents to the original, non-Retina unibody MacBooks or the iMac G5 just shows how they don't really give a crap about those segments or the environment. And who cares if “the industry trend is in the opposite direction”? They are trying to fight on Apple's turf hardware-wise and, if Apple reacts quickly enough to Microsoft's onslaught and reduces their value proposition, they will get trounced. So Apple could very much go *both* directions and make a killing.
In spite of employing thousands upon thousands of employees (well over 100,000 if AppleStore employees are included), could it be that with the existing product line-up, the various Stores, the health initiative, HomeKit, Maps, AppleMusic, AI, AR, their TV ambitions, the Car initiative, self-driving Tech, and the new, nearly completed campus, Apple is just spreading itself too thin?
Well… nope! With this, I don't agree. It's not like if Apple is trying to become like Samsung (which appliances, consumer electronics, and sells insurance), Mitsubishi (which makes cars, air conditioners and writing instruments… Yes, there's a company named Uni Mitsubishi Pencil), Yamaha (which makes motorcycles, PWCs and concert pianos) or any of those companies which offer weird product mixes. AFAIK, all of their products still fit on a large table and do make sense together, and their services are getting better (and are the glue that binds the former) and aren't any more ambitions in scope (in fact, they seem to be more focused) than Google's. If they play their cards right, by improving them and [gasp!] offering cross-platform/agnostic versions when justified (Apple Music, which follows in the footsteps of the hell-freezing-over iTunes and then-iTMS for Windows is a great example of that), they might very well pull a Microsoft on Google et al. (but without doing any shady dealings or raising serious anti-trust concerns in the process… They are a bit above that and the well-deserved ongoing tension with the European Commission or the IRS is probably as far as they are going; besides, everybody else is doing it
).
I realize Apple can not be all things to all people, but sometimes I secretly miss the old Apple.
I think I do miss it, too, in some regards, but I especially miss Steve and his awesome keynotes… and all the anticipation that came with them. I'm not talking about the number of leaks or lack thereof, but the special way the build-up happened in our collective minds, and I'm pretty sure Steve was the differentiating factor, not the products themselves (which, mind you, are still very cool and warrant the best of our Kremlinology-like efforts, down to the subtle naming change of the latest MacBook Pros
).
All things considered, and even if I get mad at Apple sometimes or if their added smugness consistently rubs me off the wrong way, they do deliver as far as privacy protection, accessibility, etc. are concerned. Also, even if I feel that if I'm slowly being forced out of my platform of choice, it will be because of Apple's own hubristic decisions alone, which still might be halted or even reversed, depending on what they do. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean addressing all my concerns, it may very well result from some surprising development which we haven't even foreseen (and a switch to ARM-based Ax processors doesn't count, either, as that's probably inevitable, though it would, combined with Microsoft *also* offering Windows on ARM processors by Qualcomm, shake up the market a fair bit again). That will certainly give us all time to adapt and make the grief over a potential switch to the Dark Side™ or the F/OSS side (not really an option for me, alas) more bearable than a sad demise into bankruptcy and oblivion.
I'd rather be somewhat mad at Apple in the mid 2020s for killing me off as a Mac/PC customer (while still enticing me with shiny gadgets that do respect my privacy and which I'd probably still buy regardless) and find some solace using a somewhat lesser OS by Microsoft and a lesser (but more affordable) PC from some no-name manufacturer, than genuinely hating Microsoft for singlehandedly destroying all their competition back in the day (hey, I think they have been clearing up most of that bad Karma as of late) *and* be forced to use their products afterwards during the 1990s (which would've had to happen in an alternate reality, because while I did know Macs existed and that Windows 95 was a huge rip-off, I was always a PC user from 1992 right until Dec. 2003 and was fortunately spared from experiencing or even witnessing all that sadness, grief and/or stress induced by the fear of having – or by actually being forced – to jump ship… Conversely, getting pissed at Microsoft because of Longhorn was a walk in the park by comparison, because I had decided already to become a graphic designer and Macs were just taking off once again back then). Just my €0,02.
P.S.: This is my 500th post here since 2004 (I know, I'm mostly a lurker – especially when compared with other users with much larger posting averages – but I'm a *very* regular one at that and usually condense a lot of information in just a few posts… Sosumi aha)! I feel that this back-and-forth with a small retrospective included in the mix is very much fitting for the occasion.
