Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple's Biggest Challenge to Innovation in Recent Years Has Been Software

[BWhaler]

How is this news? How is this insight? This is what the Apple Board and Press should have been hammering Apple leadership for years on. Not out of mean spiritedness, but because this is what is the most looming threat to the business.

Just look at the tepid media and customer response to the Home Pod. Apple tried to position it to their strengths, and the market didn’t care. What we want nowadays is SMART speakers. There is no hiding from the fact thart Siri is unacceptably bad.

Unfortunately, Apple is following the demise of Sony in the 90’s/00’s, step-by-step:

The best hardware with amazing design
Sub-par software
Sub-par cloud offering
Media group dictating product features for their business objectives, not the best interests of the customers.

The good news is Apple can still do something about it. There has been an awakening—or so we hope—that they were losing the pro market. (Still no word on better pro software and more investments to MacOS)

Now let’s hope they are awakening to how software and lack of total customer focus is what will ultimately do them in. It takes time, but it can happen.

 

[biggie5252]

I just want consistency in iOS on a single device as well as from iPhone to iPad. Like the switching of the emoji/keyboard and the number key when going from landscape to portrait on iPhone 7. Wtf? And other keyboard inconsistencies. Mail icons being on opposite ends of the screen on iPhone & iPad. As someone who often bounces between both devices throughout the day, it gets frustrating at best.

I also think it’s (long been) time to stop halting everything you’re doing to let you know you still have 20% (an hour or more?) of battery life left.

 

[Danoc]

-

 

[I7guy]

How is this news? How is this insight? This is what the Apple Board and Press should have been hammering Apple leadership for years on. Not out of mean spiritedness, but because this is what is the most looming threat to the business.

Just look at the tepid media and customer response to the Home Pod. Apple tried to position it to their strengths, and the market didn’t care. What we want nowadays is SMART speakers. There is no hiding from the fact thart Siri is unacceptably bad.

Unfortunately, Apple is following the demise of Sony in the 90’s/00’s, step-by-step:

The best hardware with amazing design
Sub-par software
Sub-par cloud offering
Media group dictating product features for their business objectives, not the best interests of the customers.

The good news is Apple can still do something about it. There has been an awakening—or so we hope—that they were losing the pro market. (Still no word on better pro software and more investments to MacOS)

Now let’s hope they are awakening to how software and lack of total customer focus is what will ultimately do them in. It takes time, but it can happen.

Tepid response to HomePod? Similar to Apple watch? How do you know customers response to HomePod is tepid? What the media thinks is irrelevant and has been for a while.

I also do not think their software is subpar, not by a long shot.

There are always shades of grey. Apple isn’t perfect, but they are not as bad a shape as you make them out to be.

 

[69650]

Apple software has been getting worse and worse for several years.

 

[JPack]

Just look at Apple Pay Cash. It's merely catching up to WeChat Wallet back in 2011-2012.

No currency conversions, no bill splitting functions, etc,

 

[Zwhaler]

Here's an idea... a functioning, local user-accessible filesystem for iOS.

 

[thadoggfather]

That's not true at all. In fact they are grossly underrated.

I agree that apple should fix their software bugs. the problem for apple has been that they aren't as focused on fixing bugs. There is only so much hardware you can sell. They need to hire more folks tbqh.

What’s changed radically since iOS 7 UI or UX wise? Not a ton.

..Since 2013. Half a decade ago now

 

[Shalev Lazarof]

iOS really lost her reliability for me as of now, i really don't count apple word for a "it just works" OS at lunches and just knows that it will be buggy in September... knows the software will be fixed 6 months... iOS11 is was a nightmare, sorry to say but android is far more stable than iOS in recent years

 

[Michael Goff]

I disagree with that statement. Look at Microsoft, they have 2 per year of rolling updates to their OS and for the most part each one gets better not worse. Apple could adopt that model instead of an entirely new rewrite that takes the entire year to squash the bugs they created just before its time for the next years version and starting the process over again.

Windows 10 updates don’t go out to everyone at once, though.

 

[kruegdude]

Give me back Aperture, Apple. That's all I want.

And the headphone jack. Don’t forget about the headphone jack , and throwing your voice into the darkness and asking for the other things that won’t happen.
[doublepost=1523474786][/doublepost]

I disagree.

I think hardware is way behind the software.

Look at the hardware. The bad design speaks for itself.

Mac Pro- a complete failure. After 12 years still nothing until 2019. Really?
Macbook Pro with a Touchbar- Another big failure
Mac Mini- Not upgraded in years...
iMac- The design was not upgraded in years. not user upgradable.
iMac Pro- for a 6k+ machine it is ridiculous that you cannot upgrade the internal HD.

[doublepost=1523474871][/doublepost]

Apple software has been getting worse and worse for several years.

It’s also been getting better and better.

 

[itsAgaunt]

Give me back Aperture, Apple. That's all I want.

Seems like Apple tried to merge their pro / prosumer software with their consumer software and ended up with mediocre software. Ugh

I miss Aperture

 

[nviz22]

I’m not sure why they don’t have some of those features on the iPhone, iOS 11 has been mostly excellent for me on the iPad.

Ironically, my iPad hasn't had iOS 11 issues. I guess since I typically spend more time with my phone, I will notice more bugs too.

 

[mrzz]

Apple's QA has been a joke lately...I couldn't agree more: iOS11 has been the worst software release from Apple so far, ranging from trivial and very stupid bugs to very questionable UI solutions. Especially, on the X. It's decent with 11.3, but it took them half a year to fix whatever should've worked from the very beginning.

the same with macOS, I stopped installing new versions and usually wait at least half a year to get couple of FPs as there is close to 100% chance of some problems. I did a big mistake upgrading to High Sierra - one of the worst OS releases.

 

[alexhardaker]

Is it a coincidence that iOS quality took a nose dive after Forstall’s departure?

I’ve always thought this

 

[Michael Goff]

Is it a coincidence that iOS quality took a nose dive after Forstall’s departure?

iOS also does more than it did when Forstall was around.

 

[justperry]

the same with macOS, I stopped installing new versions and usually wait at least half a year to get couple of FPs as there is close to 100% chance of some problems. I did a big mistake upgrading to High Sierra - one of the worst OS releases.

Nope, Yosemite was the worst one.(in recent times)

iOS also does a ton more than it did when Forstall was around.

Added a bit.
I wish though they never went to the flat UI, except for that iOS 11 is OK.

 

[nt5672]

As an interesting note - OPPO also was - until about two weeks ago - maker of the nearly undisputed best CD, DVD, Blueray playback units.

People with six-figure speakers. and amps costing as much as a sports car, would happily use Oppo's several hundred dollars units as their source for playing physical media.

I'd bet on OPPO - they really know their stuff - at least in that area...

And it sounds like OPPO talk to their partners. Something Apple is loath to do. In general, I think the Chinese are a lot less arrogant and have a lot less "Not Invented Here" syndrome. Apple needs to drop down out of the sky and get real.

 

[kerpow69]

They've actually regressed in software. Turning great applications like iMovie and iPhoto into steaming piles of useless ****. The iLife suite used to be one of the big reasons i'd recommend Macs to people.

 

[star-affinity]

I feel even Windows 10 is surpassing macOS. A big part of macOS feels clunky and looks dated.

Care to give an example? While I think there are some good things in Windows 10 (window management), I still think macOS is more coherrent and doesn’t really look dated. If you look below the surface of Windows 10 there are many areas with Windows 95-ish user interface and icons. Especially if looking at third party apps.

 

[WinstonRumfoord]

An expandable, user-serviceable tower would be quite innovative, if you ask me.

 

[justperry]

An expandable, user-serviceable tower would be quite innovative, if you ask me.

Just like the old cheese grater Mac Pro's or older Powermacs.

 

[AdonisSMU]

There was always the promise that photos would become more of a platform than it has. The underlying program was supposed to be open to developers shoehorning in plugins and tools on top of a basic DAM (photos) software.
It never came to be, likely because Apple still believe that cross platform photo libraries in iCloud would be threatened by the compatibility of such bolt-ons from MacOS to iOS. Basically, Photos is an iOS software that runs on MACOS too. Visa-Versa is too complicated.

As it happens iCloud (and the lack of proper sharing/collaboration) screwed up the potential for Photos anyway. This is apparent when you look at the better cloud services from microsoft (For Storage) and particularly Google Photos for sharing.

Photos is a joke. And Apple know it.

Google and MSFT both monetize the data they get back from the photos so advertisers can use the information with their platforms.

 

[Michael Goff]

Nope, Yosemite was the worst one.(in recent times)




Added a bit.
I wish though they never went to the flat UI, except for that iOS 11 is OK.

I think we’re going to get some changes to the UI soon. After all, they’re planning a home screen refresh in the future.

 

[sracer]

They've actually regressed in software. Turning great applications like iMovie and iPhoto into steaming piles of useless ****. The iLife suite used to be one of the big reasons i'd recommend Macs to people.

I agree with your observations. Back-in-the-day, Apple's desktop OS had an insufficient install base to attract a large percentage of developers. To make Apple's hardware attractive to people, they had to "model the way" and develop software that realized the vision they had for how people would use their computers.

The thing that impressed me with Apple when I bought my first OSX/macOS system was that in spite of the high initial cost, it came with 95% of the software that I needed to get things done...making the cost when viewing the package as a whole, fairly reasonable. The software included didn't fare very well in comparison spec sheet of functions (compared to Windows software) but what features and functions WERE provided could be used in such a way as to accomplish tasks that on the surface didn't seem possible... simply by "thinking different".

But as time went by and Apple laptops/desktops became more popular and developers started developing in greater numbers and types of applications, Apple began to retreat from the application space. This provided greater opportunities for developers to have financially viable products. But sadly, not all slots were filled to the level (or beyond) what Apple's initial offerings provided.

It seems like Apple would rather remain primarily a hardware company (with the software being a necessary evil).