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

[BC2009]

The 'fat' iPhone 14 Pro Max. How many think that could have happened with Ive in charge.

I think part of the increasing width with the iPhone since iPhone 12 was to incrementally make it larger to accommodate a USB-C port. Lightning has the benefit of accepting a prong connector with no housing -- making it rather thin. The lightning connector was perfect for Ive. But we have all experienced that over time the exposed prong of a male lightning connector eventually gets wear on the contact points and the cable becomes less reliable. USB-C has an exterior housing around its male connector with the "prong" actually residing in the female connector. This seems far more durable.

But it seems that starting with iPhone 12, Apple increased the width (and battery life) to accommodate the larger connector. USB-C and increased battery life are both good trade-offs if you ask me for getting a slightly thicker phone.

 

[Flash1420]

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.

 

[I7guy]

This is what happens when you have a glorified accountant as a ceo

May have missed it, but what happens? CEOs have to be concerned about costs? And revenues?

 

[diarbyrag]

That probably accounts for the total dogs dinner redesign of the System Prefs in Ventura, Cook and his profit led apple is not good !!! I understand the need for profits but a lot of the macos changes are just changes for changes sake.

 

[Rogifan]

Meh. There’s pros and cons to this. “Thinness at all costs” was not a good design philosophy. That said, the iPhone just keeps getting bigger and clunkier every year and now we have a useless plastic spacer inside. I’d like to see some middle ground between design vs. practical focus.

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.

 

[Rogifan]

That may be, however the result has caused an output of (somewhat) more useful devices than before. Nice bing back on a MacBook "pro" that actually has ports and is of a reasonable size / thickness that gives it reasonable durability.

They brought ports back when I was strongly considering jumping to windows for my main corporate computer, replacing my beloved 2015 Retina MacBook Pro that still had HDMI and other needed ports.

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.

 

[MrMojo1]

Know what happens with profits first companies? Enron and Bernie Madoff come to mind. You have to take care of your customers with your services. Evidently Apple customers see the value of the services and the price they pay for those services.

Know that Apple is a public traded company whose priorities are making profits and its shareholders?
Many people already stated that fact, despite you downvoting people because you dislike it.
Apple will continue in making products for its consumers, many of whom will pay the Apple Tax for its products.
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.

 

[GeneralChang]

Know what happens with profits first companies? Enron and Bernie Madoff come to mind. You have to take care of your customers with your services. Evidently Apple customers see the value of the services and the price they pay for those services.

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.

 

[webkit]

And so why did Apple increase prices across all its services in the US then? Because it had nothing to do with currency rates.. what's your excuse for that? Considering they made an extra 10 billion in profits over 2021 across its services.

Yes, Apple raised prices on Apple TV+ for the first time in THREE YEARS. It also has more content than it did in past years and is still cheaper than ad-free competitors.

We've had high inflation in the U.S. for over a year yet Apple didn't raise iPhone prices here. In fact, iPhone Pro and Pro Max models in the U.S. haven't seen price increases (256GB and 512GB versions are actually $50 cheaper) since they were introduced in 2019 despite various improvements.

The pre-VAT price of a 128GB iPhone 13 Pro at launch last year in Germany was around $1,124 in USD. The pre-VAT price of a 128GB iPhone 14 Pro at launch this year in Germany was around $1,053 in USD. The price in Germany is LOWER this year than it was last year in USD but is higher in euros. Why? The currency exchange rate! The stronger USD/weaker euro is behind the price increases, not so much inflation or Apple.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

Apple’s CEO is an accountant. The products became more and more soulless and the lack of innovation is as never before. It looks like the company is no more for us beloved fans it is now for stockholders.

 

[t0rqx]

Like a lot of people have discovered already when the marketing team leads its always about money. Cutting cost is cutting quality, everyone noticed this. Except the fanboys. In the meantime prices gone up with no solid reason and do not mention inflation or energy cost thats what everyone is using as an excuse. Companies cannot use that excuse especially giants like Apple. Everything is green btw.

The hole they digging is deeper and deeper...

 

[mandopicker101]

Wow. First world problems people… I really like my iterative Apple devices, whether Jony breathed on them or not.

 

[jbiggerovski]

This is of a subjective opinion, but I’ve enjoyed the post-Ive design period. My M1 MBP is probably my favorite Mac I’ve owned in 25 years. My last one with the Touch Bar was the worst. Ive is an iconic designer, but not without his flaws. Same with Steve and Tim, and every other human being. I certainly don’t want costs to be more important than design, but I have yet to really feel those effects on the hardware side. I think the iPad lineup needs to be simplified, but I’m overall happy with the current designs/costs. If the cost savings aren’t passed on to the customers, that is unacceptable. But sometimes I feel like they can’t be making huge profits on several products and try to supplement with cut corners on others.

Conversely, I don’t know where to begin on the entire Apple OS lineup. Their software implementation feels like an unmoored ship. It’s so disheartening. Keep the current designs coming and send all your profits to your poor software teams. The head is not operating with the body.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

then there's no point in cost cutting measures when they can just increase prices even more to make up for lack of cost cutting measures.

well you can do both and just profit

 

[oldwatery]

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

It’s not cost Reduction for a lower selling price it cost reduction for maximum profit. And there you were thinking this was for you as a consumer. No mate….. only works for shareholders.

 

[citysnaps]

correct. Exactly my point: if Apple didn’t focus on lowering costs, our iPhones would be more expensive than they are now.

Spot on.

Apparently there are a lot of people here who believe Apple is somehow immune from rising costs the company faces.

Or those same people believe Apple employees should not receive salary raises. Or, that the millions Apple pays for increased costs in employee benefits doesn't count. Or increased costs in infrastructure such as building leases (retail and commercial) and myriad overhead costs to support Apple's operations. How about the security guards you see at Apple Stores? Do they deserve raises and does the cost of their benefits increase over time?

And then there are the increased costs of parts that go into every product Apple manufactures. And of course there are increased costs of manufacturing and shipping.

So many here are blind believing that because Apple is a large corporation, they're somehow immune to inflation and rising costs.

 

[roar08]

Meh. There’s pros and cons to this. “Thinness at all costs” was not a good design philosophy. That said, the iPhone just keeps getting bigger and clunkier every year and now we have a useless plastic spacer inside. I’d like to see some middle ground between design vs. practical focus.

Agreed. I don't think it's as simple as "design is dead at Apple". Think of the Mac Pro trash can design initially billed by Schiller as "can't innovate my ass" and wound up being a stark miss. I don't think any of these events necessitate a fixed, inevitable trajectory for Apple. Air Pods, Apple Watch, Apple Silicon, Studio & Studio Display (both of which I personally own and love) have all launched post-Jobs and some post-Ive. In the long arc, I think Apple's done fine w/ and w/out Ive (I'm an Ive fan). We'll see what the future brings, either way.

 

[RiverOak]

Apple today is more of a chip company first and design second. People buy MacBooks because of their best in class performance per watt and battery life. No one has ever said that the 2021 MacBook Pro‘s are the best looking laptops they’ve ever seen. Most people would say they look utilitarian.

To each their own. I think the 14" MBP in Silver is one of their best laptop designs. It takes the classic Apple design language from 15 years ago but makes it a bit cleaner and more modern. Love that they didn't sacrifice neither form nor function. Love how it feels in the hands. Love the keyboard tray. Love the flat lid with smooth edges and the curved bottom with chubby feet. Love the focus on thermal design. Love the braided MagSafe cable. Love the thin bezels and the rounded top corners of the screen.
The only eyesore to me is the notch. Other than that it's a beautiful and classy looking computer.

But yes, it looks more simple and minimalistic compared to the previous generation. Utilitarian, yes, it looks very much like a professional tool, but with style and beauty. I would say it's their best laptop design in many years. Perhaps even the best yet. They did so many things right with it, and the combination of it all is not an easy thing to accomplish.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

We get it, you prefer the form factor of the iPhone Mini. I'm sorry the Mini got axed, but the market voted with their wallet and they prefer big phones.

Hah! I thought the mini was a bad joke. No, I was just surprised that the 14PM gained some thickness. Some say it was the cameras, some say batteries. It gained some substance.

 

[temende]

This is of a subjective opinion, but I’ve enjoyed the post-Ive design period. My M1 MBP is probably my favorite Mac I’ve owned in 25 years. My last one with the Touch Bar was the worst. Ive is an iconic designer, but not without his flaws. Same with Steve and Tim, and every other human being.

That's mostly because of Apple Silicon. You could take any Mac laptop designed by Jony Ive from the past decade and put an M1 in it and it would be just as good.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

How's it fat, I think it's just right.

Okay, it's thicker. First time I picked one up it felt 'strange'. 'Thick'. Substantial, ca[able, durable, desirable, awkward. I was surprised it is so 'thick'. Really surprised from a company that sells things that are nearly razor thin.

 

[SpotOnT]

I think the Mac has gotten better since Ive left, so I am not sure I have any particular problem wtih the design per se....

What does bother me though is the deliberate crippling of specific products in a line so as not to compete with pricer options. This is where I see the hand of the bean counters.

I would rather Apple focus on providing the best device it can, at various given price points. Most product lines have gotten bloated, with many of the offerings containg poor compromises and seemingly there only to encourage upselling.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

And yet for how many years were people kvetching in these forums for thicker cases to allow larger batteries for longer battery life. Careful what you wish for?

Yep... Funny though. I don't see it as a problem, but with a case on it, it will be rather large for people with small hands. I still remember the first reviews on the Pro Max format and people saying it felt way too big, and was hard to manage, and now it's probably the fastest selling model, possibly. *shrug* The public often doesn't know what they want until someone shoves one in their hand.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I think part of the increasing width with the iPhone since iPhone 12 was to incrementally make it larger to accommodate a USB-C port. Lightning has the benefit of accepting a prong connector with no housing -- making it rather thin. The lightning connector was perfect for Ive. But we have all experienced that over time the exposed prong of a male lightning connector eventually gets wear on the contact points and the cable becomes less reliable. USB-C has an exterior housing around its male connector with the "prong" actually residing in the female connector. This seems far more durable.

But it seems that starting with iPhone 12, Apple increased the width (and battery life) to accommodate the larger connector. USB-C and increased battery life are both good trade-offs if you ask me for getting a slightly thicker phone.

A USB-C port wouldn't be any thicker than a lightning port. I think it was the camera(s) that they used, and they added a bit more battery power.

 

[yabeweb]

Not good. Design should always come first. The accountants can come in after the fact and influence the design.

Design is how it works not how it looks