Steve Jobs Made Apple Care. Who Does Now?

[-BigMac-]

iOS 26.2 RC2 dropped today. According to MR users, no ongoing bugs were fixed.🥳

You know what? I am sort of glad. Finally, Apple’s quality control is so bad it doesn’t just linger like a bad smell. It hits you square in the face.

Our bug reports? Mostly ignored. Feedback? Doesn’t matter. Prices for hardware and software? Going up every year.

This is a stark contrast to 2009. Back then I emailed Steve Jobs directly for advice on a warranty issue. The Apple store didn’t want to hear it, even though my iPhone was clearly covered. So I emailed Steve - his email was well known.

The next day, the Apple store manager called me directly. He said he would love for me to come back to the store, so he could personally handle a free iPhone exchange, whenever I was available. I went in the next day. In and out in two minutes. They didn’t even look at the phone. Just swap, done.

I’ll never know if Steve read my email or if it was his team, but one thing is clear. Steve at the helm made a difference. He had mechanisms in place that no longer exist. I felt supported. A potentially terrible customer service experience became amazing. Just because someone listened. Someone cared.

I don’t see that anymore. Apple seems to have lost its passion. There is no above and beyond. No real listening. Just the bare minimum to keep the cash cow growing.

I love Apple. I always have. Every iPhone since 3G. Mac user since 2008. I line up for launches. I am the ideal customer. Apple loves me for that.

But I see a trend across the forums: more negative feedback, less certainty about the future, and growing frustration. It makes me wonder: what is the plan? Will we still be using Apple in five years?

I don’t want to jump ship. Most of us don’t. But is it even possible anymore to send a message to Apple? Can the company that I loved for decades still have a soul deep inside, waiting to be shown again?

Or are we stuck here on MR, giving props to Apple just for being Apple, while the innovation and product quality quietly slip away?

 

[Cobold]

I can only quote myself from another thread like this:

It's not only iPhones. Look at some Samsung forums about their latest devices. Look at car forums (whatever brand). Look at Home Entertainment forums (like TVs, ...).

It's all about gaining the most profits with the absolute minimum effort put into it. Cheeping out on materials (like paying less and less for parts from external suppliers), cheeping out on testing out new devices/new software, cheeping out on QC, ....
It's the time we're living in! Shareholder value is all that counts these days. Quality was the first victim. And since the stock price continues to be all that counts, quality of *insert product of your choice* will go down further down the dumps.

 

[-BigMac-]

I can only quote myself from another thread like this:

It's not only iPhones. Look at some Samsung forums about their latest devices. Look at car forums (whatever brand). Look at Home Entertainment forums (like TVs, ...).

It's all about gaining the most profits with the absolute minimum effort put into it. Cheeping out on materials (like paying less and less for parts from external suppliers), cheeping out on testing out new devices/new software, cheeping out on QC, ....
It's the time we're living in! Shareholder value is all that counts these days. Quality was the first victim. And since the stock price continues to be all that counts, quality of *insert product of your choice* will go down further down the dumps.

You know what? I’m with you.

Apple used to own innovation. They created the first accessible personal computer, the first GUI + mouse combo, iPod, iPod nano, iPhone, App Store, iPad - Steve at his peak. Passion, vision, absolute market boss.

The last ten years? VisionPro and HomePod. 👍 Yes, I’m sure the dozen or so VisionPro owners really love it - but the rest of us? Not exactly a headline-grabbing revolution.

iPhone updates in the last decade? Tiny screen tweaks, never ending debates about aluminium, and camera lens shuffles. Everything else is just minor polishing of old tech.

Where’s the hyped stuff:

• Apple Car/Project Titan – rumors started around the time of Steve’s passing. So it was underway conceptually when he was alive, but the release got pulled.
• Apple TV “television” – Steve personally hinted at it in 2010 in a Mossberg interview. After his passing? Pulled.
• Under-screen camera - Rumored since 2019 on MR here. Maybe one day Apple will deliver.
• Bezel-less screens - MR posted in 2014 suggesting iPhone 6 would be bezel-free. 2016, repeated this, citing supply chain leaks.

Thb it feels like the company is on autopilot. All flash, less substance.

 

[Starfia]

Prices for hardware and software? Going up every year.

I'm struggling to think what you're talking about. The first (and worst, entry-level) iPad was $499 in the US. The Mac mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Apple Watch? All starting at about the same prices as when they were introduced, despite one or two decades of serious inflation. And when was the last time anyone here thought about paying $129 US for a new version of macOS?

The last ten years? VisionPro and HomePod.

90 percent of Apple Watch history?

All of AirPods?

All of Apple Silicon for Mac?

But I see a trend across the forums: more negative feedback, less certainty about the future, and growing frustration.

There's a lot of frustration with a lot of things. Much of it has pertained to governments apparently feeling they're entitled to be tech industry experts (with the repeated effect of revealing they're not), and developers and enthusiasts witnessing and responding to the journalistic by-products.

Some of the frustration has been more Apple-centric: the debut of the Apple Intelligence brand emphasized unduly and early, and an overzealous interface design update when – after all the aforementioned drama – an underwhelming but steady year would have reassured. I understand all that.

But generally, I think people complaining are often forgetting, or just not seeing, that things are about the best they've ever been. Impressing shareholders is indeed a tremendous challenge because Apple has legitimately earned the customers that have put it on top, and trounced bygone doomsaying. (Wasn't the Mac supposed to have died last decade?) We once dreamed about, and now have, the best devices in the world. Without keeping perspective, it can be easy to complain there's nothing else because literal today looks too much like literal yesterday.

So, sure – let's check in after five years. ^ ^

 

[-BigMac-]

I'm struggling to think what you're talking about. The first (and worst, entry-level) iPad was $499 in the US. The Mac mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Apple Watch? All starting at about the same prices as when they were introduced, despite one or two decades of serious inflation. And when was the last time anyone here thought about paying $129 US for a new version of macOS?



90 percent of Apple Watch history?

All of AirPods?

All of Apple Silicon for Mac?



There's a lot of frustration with a lot of things. Much of it has pertained to governments apparently feeling they're entitled to be tech industry experts (with the repeated effect of revealing they're not), and developers and enthusiasts witnessing and responding to the journalistic by-products.

Some of the frustration has been more Apple-centric: the debut of the Apple Intelligence brand emphasized unduly and early, and an overzealous interface design update when – after all the aforementioned drama – an underwhelming but steady year would have reassured. I understand all that.

But generally, I think people complaining are often forgetting, or just not seeing, that things are about the best they've ever been. Impressing shareholders is indeed a tremendous challenge because Apple has legitimately earned the customers that have put it on top, and trounced bygone doomsaying. (Wasn't the Mac supposed to have died last decade?) We once dreamed about, and now have, the best devices in the world. Without keeping perspective, it can be easy to complain there's nothing else because literal today looks too much like literal yesterday.

So, sure – let's check in after five years. ^ ^

You make a fair point, and I won’t argue that Apple hasn’t delivered some incredible products in the last decade - Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Silicon, all impressive. Prices for some entry-level devices have stayed reasonable too. I get it.

But my gripe isn’t just about incremental updates or cost. It’s about the spirit of innovation. The Apple of Jobs’ prime didn’t just tweak existing products - it created new categories. iPod, iPhone, iPad - all market-defining devices that made people gasp and rethink technology.

The last ten years? VisionPro is really the only headline innovation, and let's be honest, the VisionPro audience is… very small. AirPods and Apple Watch are great, but they feel more like extensions of existing categories, not earth-shaking new products.

And yes, devices today are arguably the best they’ve ever been, polished and mostly reliable. But polish isn’t passion. Incremental improvements aren’t jaw-dropping innovation. There’s a difference between good tech and iconic tech, and it feels like Apple’s teetering more on the former lately.

I still love Apple. But these days.. it feels like Apple’s just polishing yesterday’s brilliance instead of daring to create tomorrow’s

 

[chmania]

People believe that a person can be replaced, certainly for semi-mechanical jobs like those on the conveyor belt. However, once an individual is gone, their vision and thought processes disappear as well. Everyone passes away, including jobs; this cannot be halted. He should have at least groomed someone to take his place. However, his vision died with him.