Apple's Product Design Team Reportedly Focused More on Costs in Recent Years

[darngooddesign]

The iPhone 4 for Verizon and later iPhone 4S had 4 antenna breaks instead of the original 3. They didn’t just shift the breaks. Technically, that’s not the same design per se. That was a revision of that antenna design.

The exposed perimeter antenna was the design; changing the gaps (adding an additional gap as you said) was the revision to the antenna design.

 

[geartau]

well you can do both and just profit

or increase prices even more while the design team can design new products instead

 

[darngooddesign]

Well that explains the cheap quality displays for the iPad mini 6 and the cheap quality aluminum on the iPad Air 5. I know some of Jony Ive designs weren't great, but he has a great design philosophy. Please start consulting with Jony Ive again. Obviously allow more collaboration between design and engineering.

You mean like my Ive-designed bendable iPhone 6 which dented when I put pressure on the back to remove a case?

 

[AgentElliot007]

This is obvious to anyone using the products over the last 5 years.

 

[richinaus]

Sounds to me like Tim has not kept Apple like Steve wanted it to be.

This could be a big problem for them in a few years if they dont sort it out.

 

[richinaus]

Let’s not forget it was Steve Jobs who pulled the OG MBA from a manila envelope and spent a good chuck of the presentation on how thin the laptop was. This focus on thinness started well before Steve died.

People have short memories and always like to pin the blame on an individual [Ive].

 

[dgdosen]

So on a grading system:

- Apple Silicon designers (Jony Srouji?): A+
- Everyone else: U (for uninspired)

Penny pinching on SSDs seemed to have been the most obvious. I wonder how much money (as in pennies per laptop) Apple saved by moving to the 256GB SSD chip in the default MBA. I'd bet it was shockingly low.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

Focusing on cost reduction isn’t a bad thing. I enjoy not needing to pay $2000 for an iPhone.

Apple will still charge you $2000 with the cost cutting and cheap parts. This is the greedy company they have become without Steve Jobs.

Could see Apple heading in this direction the moment they decided to increase the price of iPhones £450 when they switched from iPhone 7 to iPhone X.

 

[I7guy]

Know that Apple is a public traded company whose priorities are making profits and its shareholders?

The goal of a company is to provide a service. Through that service there will be revenue. If the service falls flat and customers don't like the service it will be seen through the lens of revenue. Not all corporations have as their priorities making a profit such as section 501(c)(3).

Many people already stated that fact, despite you downvoting people because you dislike it.

It's a fact if Apple's revenue falls they are not successful in providing said service. Even if it's due to acts of God.

Apple will continue in making products for its consumers, many of whom will pay the Apple Tax for its products.

Yes. People who see value in Apple products and services.

But if you don't think companies won't pass down any cost increases to consumers, take any course in business or accounting, or even try running your own company, which some posters do.

Of course businesses pass along cost increases. Never said otherwise.

I mean, Apple obviously has to keep customers at least somewhat happy to remain profitable, but being profitable is still their primary goal given that, as a publicly traded company, they have a legal responsibility to do everything feasible to improve the value of their shareholder's investments.

If people didn't like Apple products their revenues would fall. Or if people didn't see the value to price ratio they were looking for revenues will fall. In order to earn revenue, Apple has to sell products and services people will buy.

While it's nice that usually this means Apple wants to provide value to customers, as a customer it's important to keep in mind that you technically aren't Apple's first priority, and if ever your priorities don't align with what's profitable for the company, it's you that'll be cut, not the profits.

Customers are Apples first priority. If you as a customer don't like the products Apple is making you have choices. If enough vote with their $$$, Apple will feel the pinch.

TL;DR - don't ever get so embedded in an ecosystem that you can't shop somewhere else.

Tell that to Windows.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

I can only assume you haven't seen any previous iMacs. Even saying the 24" looks the same as the G5 iMac is debatable except for both being rectangular with a screen, stand, and chin.

Not debatable. They are the same design just slightly tweaked. Just like rounded edge iPhones became flat edged, then rounded again and now we’re back to flat edges. Round edges will be back soon.

 

[840quadra]

Do you really think it was the industrial designers who made the call on how many ports a Mac laptop had? I would be shocked if they got to make that decision.

Yes.

I don't think any of these departments operate in a total vacuum.

If they did, why would the 14" M1 Pro and higher Laptops be thick enough to support a full HDMI port, versus the previous generation that was just thick enough for USB-C / Thunderbolt?

Past

Current

 

[UK-MacAddict]

I mean, Apple obviously has to keep customers at least somewhat happy to remain profitable, but being profitable is still their primary goal given that, as a publicly traded company, they have a legal responsibility to do everything feasible to improve the value of their shareholder's investments. While it's nice that usually this means Apple wants to provide value to customers, as a customer it's important to keep in mind that you technically aren't Apple's first priority, and if ever your priorities don't align with what's profitable for the company, it's you that'll be cut, not the profits.

TL;DR - don't ever get so embedded in an ecosystem that you can't shop somewhere else.

Under Steve Jobs dividends were not paid to shareholders. It was all about products that consumers would like.

Let product design lead the company as it once did and which saved the company from oblivion. Apple is only where it is now because their products were great.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

If cost cutting and unjustified price hikes continue Apple will be in trouble in the next 5 years or so. Sales will decline in across all products.

 

[nt5672]

They have a large design team, yet they come out with basically the same products year after year and take no chances on anything.

It's just kind of funny.

That is what the leadership wants. So it is not funny at all. When you market innovation, but shut everybody down internally this is what you get.

 

[nt5672]

They should have cut costs for their campus.

With all of the work from home, shouldn't they just close the campus. You know to boost profits for shareholders and protect the children.

 

[turbineseaplane]

We've noticed

 

[_Spinn_]

There are definitely pros and cons to this.

 

[Vazor]

No surprise. Say what you want about Ive, thinness obsession, Jobs, the G4 Cube, etc. The design department never felt as under-funded or under-staffed as it does today. The new iMac is the same as the old iMac is the same as the iMac from 18 years ago. The iPhone, iPad, and watch designs are very stale, just iteratively recycled (still nice but more industrial than interesting). The Mac Studio, MacBook, AirPods, and Apple TV designs are functionally great but just plain boring.

A product design team that is focused on costs above actual product design is no design team at all. Apple needs a new lavish “halo” design product or two. Something that reminds us of the days of thinking different. Bring back the glowing apple logo. Heck, bring back some Ive-like form over function in one or two products to show that you’re still daring enough to try it.

Nothing daring about those horrible 2016-2019 era Macbooks. Please never go back to the Ive era, I’d rather have something that works.

 

[Flash1420]

Please bring back Jony Ive or at least the original designers. The current product lineup is messy. Build quality on everything is going down. 90% of the Apple product I bought in the last 3 years, had some sort of blemish out of the box.

 

[Flash1420]

Nothing daring about those horrible 2016-2019 era Macbooks. Please never go back to the Ive era, I’d rather have something that works.

The only thing that was wrong with them were the keyboards, other than that the design was beautiful. Blame Intel for those super hot processors. When they designed those, Intel promised they would make the processors more efficient but they failed to do that. I loved the design and even the touch bar. People had the option to make the touch bar just display the function row.

 

[Flash1420]

Not just costs. Since Ive left we got practical designs again. All the form over function designs Ive made that crippled so many products finally got reversed and they're now better than ever (except the mouse. For some reason they haven't reverted that one yet.)

Plus we're getting cheaper machines as a result. Hope we get some more cheaper Macs because of this, and maybe a monitor that isn't absurdly overpriced lmao.

Could you name 1 "cheaper machine". They even increased the price of the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The 2019 model started at $2399 while the new one starts at $2499.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Could you name 1 "cheaper machine". They even increased the price of the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The 2019 model started at $2399 while the new one starts at $2499.

The M1 Mac Mini's MSRP dropped down from $800 to $700. Most of the time it's not even found at that price and found usually around $550-600. Amazon now sells M1 Macbook Airs for $800-900 brand new now. There's also the Mac Studio which is a Mac Pro for the average consumer.

 

[RiverOak]

Nothing daring about those horrible 2016-2019 era Macbooks. Please never go back to the Ive era, I’d rather have something that works.

While I agree that those laptops were poorly designed in many ways, I think that it's unfair to rate his whole body of work off those alone. He was involved in designing the original unibody MacBook for example, which is highly regarded still. He contributed to much of the design language that we identify as Apple. He did a lot of great work at the company. But he did favour form over function in many cases, which resulted in some quite poor designs.

 

[Flash1420]

While I agree that those laptops were poorly designed in many ways, I think that it's unfair to rate his whole body of work off those alone. He was involved in designing the original unibody MacBook for example, which is highly regarded still. He contributed to much of the design language that we identify as Apple. He did a lot of great work at the company. But he did favour form over function in many cases, which resulted in some quite poor designs.

It was mostly Intel's fault and yes the butterfly design wasn't great. But the rest of the design wa phenomenal.

 

[Spock]

The M1 Mac Mini's MSRP dropped down from $800 to $700. Most of the time it's not even found at that price and found usually around $550-600. Amazon now sells M1 Macbook Airs for $800-900 brand new now. There's also the Mac Studio which is a Mac Pro for the average consumer.

I still think the Mac mini is overpriced. I don't fully understand why they can sell the iPad Air with the M1, 256 gigs of storage, a touchscreen, cameras, battery etc. for the same price as the Mac mini. I think they should make the Mac mini about the size of the Apple TV and sell it for $499 like the OG mini.