Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak Discuss USB-C on iPhone, iMessage on Android, Lack of iPadOS Calculator App, Pace of Innovation, and More

[Piplodocus]

When no-one you know uses WhatsApp, and everyone you know uses iMessage. WhatsApp's useless and iMessage is the only choice you have unless you want to fall back on SMS.

This means everyone you know has an iPhone. That would be unbelieveable for me. iMessage would be great if everyone I knew did. But most people I know don't, most people have Android, and everyone has WhatsApp because it's cross-platform. So as much as I'm no fan of WhatsApp I'm forced to use it most of the time because for most people it's SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or trying to convince people to install something else when they'll just say don't you have WhatsApp. I can iMessage some friends (maybe ~1/3rd), but as soon as there's a group chat you can guarantee at least one person is on Android and it's got to be WhatsApp or FB Messenger.

 

[Abazigal]

Typical corporate spin. If people were excited over the latest phones they would be selling more of them than in past years- remember the days people would camp out to get in line or you would not bother to get up at 5am to oder on day of the release and that would mean you would not get your iphone for about a month? Those days are gone because the Iphone is no longer innovating at a pace to keep excitement. I got the 11 and saw no real need to upgrade for 3 years until Iphone 14. I am also a macrumors reader so I know firsthand the pace of meaningul updates is falling. The ton of stuff in the pipeline Craig is referring to is a bunch of small beans. We want big beans. Also, noticed that the newest releases of IOS 16 and Mac OS Ventura did not produce any real interesting wallpapers - they are really dropping the ball here. Stupid answer on the calculator missing in Ipad. It is there in IOS 16. Come on.

I think Apple is selling more iPhones than in previous years, though not all are their latest models. With over a billion iphone users, even if people are holding on to their phones longer, it still translates to a lot of iPhones sold every quarter.

 

[timber]

My comments for those two people (ok, none) that care.

USB-C on iPhone - Inevitable
iMessage on Android - Lost opportunity, the boat has sailed. At this point keep iMessage closed to serve the only remaining purpose of locking in US customers. On the rest of the world not even Apple users can use iMessage because nobody else does.
Lack of iPadOS Calculator App - Completely incomprehensible
Pace of Innovation _ They are doing OK.

 

[krspkbl]

it's pathetic i need to use a third party calculator on ipad but i can use apples calculator on my iphone!

and no i'm not using a third party app! 1) i'm not using it if it has ads or gathers data on me 2) i'm not paying for a calculator app.

there is no excuse for it! i can buy a cheap little dumb phone made by some cheap brand i've never heard of before and it has a calculator on it.

apple already has a calculator app and all they need to do is have it run on iPad. apple really are so damn stupid at times.

 

[DrJR]

The calculator not being on iPad absolutely enrages me.

 

[GuruZac]

I like Craig, but that was a cop out response on iMessage on Android. Furthermore, why does it take a mandate from the EU to add USB-C to the iPhone when the Mac and iPads across the board are USB-C, and iPhones have terabyte storage, ProRAW and ProRes. Ridiculous.

 

[Lioness~]

What was new, really…
That Craig wasn’t so articulate comparing to Greg.
Well, he just showed off his hair as usual, right.
But thanks MacRumor, it was entertaining.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Speaking about why iPadOS still lacks a native calculator app, Joz said, "there are a ton of them. Go to the App Store." "I use third-party apps,"

While true, it still doesn't really answer the question. There is no logical reason Apple doesn't have a built-in calculator app for the iPad.

It is time for the EU to make a law that every device must have a calculator app!

I'm joking, but seriously. Add one to the iPad, Apple.

 

[Kiwamu]

apple already has a calculator app and all they need to do is have it run on iPad. apple really are so damn stupid at times.

It also puzzles me, when I got my iPad, the first thing I searched for was a calculator app from APPLE, as I thought it might not have come preloaded... with the Weather App now being available with iPadOs 16, I think the next major announcement for iPadOS 17 will feature the brand new and slick calculator app and they spend 10 minutes showcasing the specific apple features of iAddition, iSubstraction, iDivision and iMultiplication, the resulst are displayed in the results tab and only the M2 devices are so blazing fast, that you can load your results in the memory to take advantage of an improved workflow pro users need.

 

[MaxBurn]

Ha! Yeah ok. by this logic, why the hell did they finally add a weather app when there’s so many weather apps on the App Store?

Part of it is probably because they killed the best one out there in the process of making apple weather app better. Guilt as a motivator?

I use the control center button as the fastest way to launch calculator, that's not available for third party.

 

[gluckett]

Maybe they should try to release every 2 years.....but at the end of the day it's all about $$$$.

The problem with releasing every 2 years is not every consumer is on the same upgrade cycle. It would suck if you had to upgrade in one of the non-update years just to know you're already on year-old technology because that's the only choice you had.

 

[CBlakeston]

I like Joanna Stern but over half this interview was wasted on questions she knew they wouldn’t answer. I get the pressure to ask one or maybe two but variations of “tell me what you’re doing next” for twenty minutes is a pointless waste of everyone’s time.

 

[Hurda]

This. In the UK it used to be huge and then slowly everyone switched to WhatsApp as groups took off. The reason being of course everyone could be in a WhatsApp group, whereas with iMessage you were limited to just iPhone users.

I fail to see why this won't also happen in the US.

As long as every second smartphone is an iPhone, network-effects work in iMessage's favor. Also note the article from a few weeks ago about 87% of teens being on an iPhone/iMessage or so. If that share can mostly be maintained to their adulthood, Apple is golden.
In Europe it's "just" at around 20% to 30%, and at that point you have to use another messenger next to iMessage already.

 

[tomtad]

My comments for those two people (ok, none) that care.

USB-C on iPhone - Inevitable
iMessage on Android - Lost opportunity, the boat has sailed. At this point keep iMessage closed to serve the only remaining purpose of locking in US customers. On the rest of the world not even Apple users can use iMessage because nobody else does.
Lack of iPadOS Calculator App - Completely incomprehensible
Pace of Innovation _ They are doing OK.

Agree with all of this.

I do think Apple has slowly come around to the idea that for services to be successful they need to be platform agnostic. Just look at how they've opened up TV+ and Music over the past few years to more platforms which is unlike the Apple of old which locked these services down to hardware. Ultimately when it comes down to a service which is only available on an Apple device vs one that is available everywhere, including Apple devices, it will be the one available everywhere that wins out.

Had they done this with iMessage and also FaceTime say 5 years ago they may have still had a chance to be a major player in the messaging space but as you say that boat has now sailed. Should they still open it up? I would say yes to retain what market share they have but as Craig has alluded to they seem to be afraid of doing so incase it bombs and this reflects poorly on the company.

The one area where Apple did go platform agnostic in the past was with the iPod opening it up to Windows with the idea it would be a halo product that brought people into the Apple ecosystem and sell more hardware. This certainly was a success.

 

[antiprotest]

The interview was very straight forward and they were being very careful what to say and not to say.

Only Craig Federighi can save Apple. He is our only hope. He must be saved at all costs.

I want to shave him bald and see what happens. I will let him grow it back.

 

[Quu]

Pretty clear from the emails that them not placing iMessage on Android was to dissuade people buying Android devices. They see iMessage as a way to lock people into their ecosystem, especially families.

Craig said it himself in the email exchange with Eddy, if we put iMessage on Android it could potentially result in parents purchasing much more affordable Android devices for their kids.

His answer in this interview is a false statement. It's not at all about making a difference and how they chose not to put iMessage on android because they didn't think it would be successful or innovative. It all comes down to money.

Now look at Apple Music, there is an app for that on Android. Why? because they make money from subscriptions to Apple Music. They are hardly killing it on Android compared to Spotify, so why not have the same rationale there? because money.

 

[sdz]

I rarely even open the calculator on the MAC. Spotlight does all the calculation for me

 

[tehabe]

iMessage is the least important aspect of the Apple ecosystem, usually it doesn't even occur to me to try it. I use Signal or WhatsApp, I could turn off iMessage and it wouldn't make a difference. Where the iPhone shines is when it comes to using it with a Mac or Apple TV. That is what locks me in.

 

[SusieS]

The lack of a calculator app on iPad just doesn’t…add up. 😆

I have some third party ones, I don’t like the ads. It just feels cheap on Apple’s part.

 

[TwoBytes]

Despite the cop-out commentary, I thought Craig handled himself well to defend (much as we didn't like his answers) his company and would make a great successor to Tim Cook. Now Ive has gone, he is the only person at Apple left who would be worthy.

Face it, it's either Craig or Elon Musk

 

[rp100]

They prioritized “karmic charging” that no one requested over a native calculator app that people have complained was missing for years…

 

[Estivee]

This means everyone you know has an iPhone. That would be unbelieveable for me. iMessage would be great if everyone I knew did. But most people I know don't, most people have Android, and everyone has WhatsApp because it's cross-platform. So as much as I'm no fan of WhatsApp I'm forced to use it most of the time because for most people it's SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or trying to convince people to install something else when they'll just say don't you have WhatsApp. I can iMessage some friends (maybe ~1/3rd), but as soon as there's a group chat you can guarantee at least one person is on Android and it's got to be WhatsApp or FB Messenger.

Everyone except my girlfriend pretty much. I live in Sweden though and here iPhone has a much higher market share (about 52% of all phones run iOS) than in the rest of the world and the market share of WhatsApp is as low as 10% DAU.

Facebook Messenger reigns supreme in Sweden as the alternative. So it's either iMessage of FB Messenger, meaning as someone without a Facebook account you're pretty much screwed.

 

[Edsel]

After reading the majority of well-founded complaints about this interview, what innovation should be Apple's next "Big Thing"? Has communication/data sharing technology reached its zenith? Does Apple, Inc. now venture into Bio-tech/DNA sequencing?

 

[Jason J. Schneider]

Listening carefully, they did not answer any relevant question in this interview. And the answers they provided eventually weren't that relevant anyway. I wish for more transparency from their side.

 

[Ryankontos]

I thought he felt very uncomfortable. During the whole interview process, he was feeling wishy-washy.

I feel this. I think a part of him deep down wants to be more genuine than he can be. I get the feeling that in real life he's a very genuine person but at Apple he has a job to do