iPhone 16 Launch Is Just One Month Out – Here's Everything We Know

[citysnaps]

It's just what Steve said about him, and I get what he meant now. He seems better at the financials than the actual end product vision. That's all. And that's really what Apple needed then, when they were experiencing explosive growth. He is managing the business very well.

And yeah compared to other CEOs he looks quite good. Like I said, my main worry is for what comes next. Next for their products, next for their leadership.

I wouldn't sell Cook short on product vision. He's fully immersed in that and sharp as a tack. That's backed up by Apple's success and massive customer base.

It's sad that people sell him short for really no good reasons, other than simply his optics - how he looks, how he dresses, the glasses he wears, how he talks, his chosen lifestyle, etc.

What's interesting is people *choose* to forget that Lisa, PowerMac G4 Cube, Apple HiFi, Apple Socks, etc came to market while Jobs was CEO and leading Apple. A "product guy" as so many here tout. Funny how people forget about that.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I wouldn't sell Cook short on product vision. He's fully immersed in that and sharp as a tack. That's backed up by Apple's success and massive customer base.

It's sad that people sell him short for really no good reasons, other than simply his optics - how he looks, how he dresses, the glasses he wears, how he talks, his chosen lifestyle, etc.

What's interesting is people *choose* to forget that Lisa, PowerMac G4 Cube, Apple HiFi, Apple Socks, etc came to market while Jobs was CEO and leading Apple. A "product guy" as so many here tout. Funny how people forget about that.

Steve definitely didn't make all the right decisions. My main criticism of Apple in general right now is the dumbing down of their user interfaces. The aligning of everything around the Vision Pro interface. But I don't know if Steve or anyone else would have done that differently. I just wonder if Cook is coming at it from the right angle. That, and all the time wasted on the car and on ignoring Siri. Like I say he's not driving the company into the ground, but I wonder if he's going to be able to do anything but hold the course.

 

[Kevin2055]

I wouldn't sell Cook short on product vision. He's fully immersed in that and sharp as a tack. That's backed up by Apple's success and massive customer base.

It's sad that people sell him short for really no good reasons, other than simply his optics - how he looks, how he dresses, the glasses he wears, how he talks, his chosen lifestyle, etc.

What's interesting is people *choose* to forget that Lisa, PowerMac G4 Cube, Apple HiFi, Apple Socks, etc came to market while Jobs was CEO and leading Apple. A "product guy" as so many here tout. Funny how people forget about that.

Tim is a great job to launch M series Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, HomePods, AirTag, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple News, Apple Fitness, except Vision Pro is too early to tell. He made Apple ecosystem much larger than Steve did.

 

[citysnaps]

Steve definitely didn't make all the right decisions. My main criticism of Apple in general right now is the dumbing down of their user interfaces. The aligning of everything around the Vision Pro interface. But I don't know if Steve or anyone else would have done that differently. I just wonder if Cook is coming at it from the right angle. That, and all the time wasted on the car and on ignoring Siri. Like I say he's not driving the company into the ground, but I wonder if he's going to be able to do anything but hold the course.

The thing to remember is Apple's customer base are not people who are super-savvy with tech, as many here are and hold themselves in tech high esteem.

Rather... Apple base is made up of predominately ordinary people who don't live in a tech world. People such as real estate agents, grocers, police officers, plumbers, artists in various disciplines/genres, mail carriers, car sales people, bus drivers, office clerks/secretaries, building contractors, high school teachers, musicians, politicians, hockey players, doctors, nurses, physical therapists, psychotherapists, gardeners, retail store owners and employees, restauranteurs, house painters, woodworkers, elderly people, people with disabilities, and many dozen/hundreds more categories that are not tech-related.

What you view as Apple "dumbing down" user interfaces I view as making Apple products more accessible and usable for people that don't live in a tech world. In other words, removing friction getting in the way of ordinary people using Apple products. Apple has been about that since the very beginning.

 

[citysnaps]

Tim is a great job to launch M series Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, HomePods, AirTag, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple News, Apple Fitness, except Vision Pro is too early to tell. He made Apple ecosystem much larger than Steve did.

Spot on... And people need to remember that the concepts behind the Mac user interface and computer were basically handed to Jobs after he and a couple other Apple employees got a tour of nearby PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and saw the computer they developed in their lab using a graphical user interface. Also... big hat-tip goes to Doug Englebart, an engineer at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) who invented the mouse.

 

[Kevin2055]

Spot on... And people need to remember that the concepts behind the Mac user interface and computer were basically handed to Jobs after he and a couple other Apple employees got a tour of nearby PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and saw the computer they developed in their lab using a graphical user interface. Also... big hat-tip goes to Doug Englebart, an engineer at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) who invented the mouse.

Well Steven launched iPods, iPad and iPhone which is still half of Apple’s total revenue and sit as the center of the ecosystem. Both did great in my mind.

 

[citysnaps]

That, and all the time wasted on the car and on ignoring Siri.

There's a reason Apple shut down their car project.

And that's due to the US Government earlier this year massively increasing tariffs on EVs manufactured overseas from 25% to 102.5%. That pretty much instantly sunk Apple's project, even though they're an American company. Apple would have to create a massive US-based factory staffed by highly paid Americans to build their EVs.

I suspect that would have made Apple's car instantly non-competitive. Especially with the projection of many Chinese EV companies soon coming into the US selling cars at prices far below Apple's, even though they'd be subject to the same tariff.

I suspect Musk is very concerned about that as well.

 

[citysnaps]

Well Steven launched iPods, iPad and iPhone which is still half of Apple’s total revenue and sit as the center of the ecosystem. Both did great in my mind.

For sure on that, with a small asterisk about iPhone...

Apple got a ton of insight working with Motorola systems engineers developing their Rokr handset. Motorola (the M in what the cellular industry used to refer to as MEN - Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia) pretty much wrote the book on cellular communications/telphony and created the first cellphone (hat tip to Motorola's Martin Cooper) back in the early 1970s.

Having worked in that industry, I'm skeptical of Apple being able to *succesfully* pull off iPhone without assistance from Motorola's cellular telephony pioneers. Just interpreting the mandated technical spec/requirements back then was mind-boggling; especially starting from zero experience in that field.

 

[Kevin2055]

For sure on that, with a small asterisk about iPhone...

Apple got a ton of insight working with Motorola systems engineers developing their Rokr handset. Motorola (the M in what the cellular industry used to refer to as MEN - Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia) pretty much wrote the book on cellular communications/telphony and created the first cellphone (hat tip to Motorola's Martin Cooper) back in the early 1970s.

Having worked in that industry, I'm skeptical of Apple being able to *succesfully* pull off iPhone without assistance from Motorola's cellular telephony pioneers. Just interpreting the mandated technical spec/requirements back then was mind-boggling; especially starting from zero experience in that field.

Even if that is true, I would say Steve did great by letting Motorola help Apple build iPhone and kill themselves eventually.

 

[BeforeTheMeds]

So.....it just may be worth upgrading from an XS pro max.😏

 

[CarAnalogy]

The thing to remember is Apple's customer base are not people who are super-savvy with tech, as many here are and hold themselves in tech high esteem.

Rather... Apple base is made up of predominately ordinary people who don't live in a tech world. People such as real estate agents, grocers, police officers, plumbers, artists in various disciplines/genres, mail carriers, car sales people, bus drivers, office clerks/secretaries, building contractors, high school teachers, musicians, politicians, hockey players, doctors, nurses, physical therapists, psychotherapists, gardeners, retail store owners and employees, restauranteurs, house painters, woodworkers, elderly people, people with disabilities, and many dozen/hundreds more categories that are not tech-related.

What you view as Apple "dumbing down" user interfaces I view as making Apple products more accessible and usable for people that don't live in a tech world. In other words, removing friction getting in the way of ordinary people using Apple products. Apple has been about that since the very beginning.

Apple has been about being the computer for everyone. And they’ve done a great job of that. The iPad and out of box configuration of the Mac are for people who are not tech savvy.

But that’s not really what I mean. You don’t have to be a novice nor an expert to want better notifications. To want more information density when there is tons of white space. Things like that. The design team is moving in the wrong direction.

And they have to leave the Mac a power tool otherwise what’s the point?

 

[citysnaps]

But that’s not really what I mean. You don’t have to be a novice nor an expert to want better notifications. To want more information density when there is tons of white space. Things like that. The design team is moving in the wrong direction.

I'm not following you.

Can you give 4 or 5 real life examples of what you're talking about that's adversely impacting you every day? And what remedies you are seeking from the design team?

Also... have you written a letter to Craig F or others at Apple with your suggestions? If so, what was their reply? I know they take customer feedback seriously and respond back.

 

[nicho]

I wouldn't sell Cook short on product vision. He's fully immersed in that and sharp as a tack. That's backed up by Apple's success and massive customer base.

It's sad that people sell him short for really no good reasons, other than simply his optics - how he looks, how he dresses, the glasses he wears, how he talks, his chosen lifestyle, etc.

What's interesting is people *choose* to forget that Lisa, PowerMac G4 Cube, Apple HiFi, Apple Socks, etc came to market while Jobs was CEO and leading Apple. A "product guy" as so many here tout. Funny how people forget about that.

At least two of those products you're talking about genuinely never actually existed to be forgotten about.

I would buy Apple Socks tomorrow if they did ever get made (presuming they were expanded in size to accommodate modern iPhones). I miss my iPod socks still.