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.

 

[Basic75]

Are you still committed to Apple for the next 5 years?

For what possible reason would I "commit" myself to a hardware vendor for the foreseeable future? When the time comes for me to need a new computer I'll look then at what is on offer and decide. Over the last two decades my choice was often Apple, but not always, like to nobody's surprise my gaming computer is not a Mac.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I am holding out some hope on the rumors of the OS 27 versions being a Snow Leopard style cleanup and optimization of things. macOS and iOS have needed one for a good while now, and I think it's good to stop and do one every few years. Dropping Intel is a great excuse to do so, just like dropping PowerPC was with 10.6.

 

[maflynn]

What does the competition offer over apple?

I absolutely hate the directions that MS is taking with windows, so much so I bought a M4 Max Studio to replace my PC this past June. I don't see anything in android that could tempt me away from ios.

Is macos and iOS perfect? Far from it, but they are better then the competition.

My loyalty only extends to the point where a product keeps meeting my needs. Phones, computers and services are all expensive, and I don't choose one over the other based on the logo, but how well it meets my needs. Apple continues to do that in many areas for me and so I'm happy to stick with them

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Tim’s team is also well known to respond to emails, and I’ve had Apple fix three of my reported bugs in the iOS 26.2 Beta cycle alone.
Obviously anecdotal, of course but, maybe it’s worth considering that Apple running to and dealing with machines when they were selling in the hundreds of thousands per quarter and there was only about 20 million iPhones sold in total it was only available on one carrier and sold in 70 countries was probably a completely different ball game from today’s 2 billion iPhones, 200 million plus new ones every year, and even the Mac is selling over 20 million a year on hundreds of carriers and certified retailers across hundreds of countries.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

5 years is kind of a long time, I can't really guarantee brand loyalty that long. At the moment I don't have any want or need to switch, but if I were to switch to anything, it would be using Linux full time. Definitely not Windows if it keeps going the current direction it's in.

 

[Abydos]

remember qc is a cost, could it be the defenestrations at apple hq are related to poor performance, question cost by what metric (cost per flop, cost versus screen resolution etc) or maybe most versus mean (or median) income. pick your metric if enough people salute you're golden

 

[MBAir2010]

I have not purchased an  product since early 2023 and will never again.

well I dont need another as I use 7 products form 2010, 2012, 2020 and 2022.
I even decided "not" to replace that  watch battery so that sits and sits
in that time I purchased 2 Klipsch speakers and 2 Sony walkman to replace  incompetence for playing music.
my iPhone stays at home on a cradle as that REFUSES to accept any live phone calls and the software is useless.
the 2022 iPad was great until liquor glass ruined the experience.
tv 2022 is good until that realizes it is an  product and need a reboot.
Monterey is worse than Mojave with is worse than Mt. Lion with is worse than Snow leopard.

as for getting a Dell XPS Samsung tablet to draw cartoons I need Photoshop for windows
which I already have for Mac and iPad.

 is a horrible customer service pigheaded profit run company these past 3 years
that just keeps on roll out incompetent software.

I'm just happy I can complain here and try to help other on MRF.

aded
oh in 2018 I had total control over my iTunes CD ripped music as my MBA-iPad-iTouch controlled the music being played in 3 different rooms. fast forward to this year, as I can't even control anything music wise.
 has gotten so stingy and bully over music and everything nowadays.

 

[MBAir2010]

What does the competition offer over apple?

somehow an Asus 14" 2023-24 zenbook laptop outperformed my MBA 2020 in every aspect.
I could even swap a larger ssd drive if needed.
that Asus zenbook with windows 10 made everything just seemed to work easily, as  did before 2013.

 

[Schismz]

What does the competition offer over apple?

I absolutely hate the directions that MS is taking with windows, so much so I bought a M4 Max Studio to replace my PC this past June. I don't see anything in android that could tempt me away from ios.

Is macos and iOS perfect? Far from it, but they are better then the competition.

My loyalty only extends to the point where a product keeps meeting my needs. Phones, computers and services are all expensive, and I don't choose one over the other based on the logo, but how well it meets my needs. Apple continues to do that in many areas for me and so I'm happy to stick with them

This.

Do I love Apple products? Not anymore. Am I excited when something new is being released? Not at all. Do I have any faith in the leadership -- whatever it left of it by next month -- not in particular, there are certainly many talented people at Apple but... Steve Jobs did focus. Here's a list of the 10 most important things, we can only do 3 of them! The current Apple is infinity half-baked projects and an unfinished car sitting in the sub-basement of some R&D lab that was going to take on Tesla a million years ago. But look, 27 new emojis!

Right now Apple feels about same as the 90s before NeXT took over Apple, NeXTSTEP morphed into OS/X, and Apple got a 2nd life. It's a confused mess. Tahoe... yay, so, it's like Aero 2025 version.

Apple doesn't need a 2nd life, it has infinite money printer with iPhone and giant pile of cash giving it endless runway to figure out how to reinvent itself, or remember what it used to be.

At the end of the day the question is: jump ship to... what exactly? Windoze 11 is a horrifying mess, and yes Linux is the answer (what was the question again?) but let's pretend I use my devices as tools to accomplish tasks and the vast majority of the software I need doesn't run on Linux... further, let's pretend I really have no interest in configuring and downloading 99 different pkgs to superglue together some kind of usable desktop experience.

So ya, Apple. But, it's about as exciting as a Honda Civic. I guess it gets me from point A to point B, but I really don't care anymore. They're just devices I'm using. I use other devices for other purposes, but anyway, here we are. Apple... it's kinda mediocre, broken things stay broken, and everybody who created the 2nd coming is dead, on permanent vacation, or gone elsewhere.

 

[FNH15]

Unfortunately, the competition is even worse. But the bugs keep snowballing on iOS / macOS. They need a Snow Leopard type release next year or they’re in danger of turning their OS (as it’s all the same under the hood) into the Classic Mac OS, which was partly being crushed under the weight of 20 years+ of bugs/workarounds.

They need to clean house in their QA department. Embargo any radical changes for at least a year or two. It’s gotten to the point in some areas that I wonder what the execs at Apple are using themselves. I can’t imagine using an OS which I have a direct part in controlling and being fine with some of the bugs which pop up, year after year. For example, are they really using the Contacts app in Tahoe on their personal Macs? Or putting up with the feeling in certain areas that the entire OS is sitting on a house of cards and just barely working (looking at you, Wallpaper UI).

It says a lot in their confidence in their own software that they no longer do live demos. The correlation with the downturn in software QA starts around there.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

5 years is kind of a long time, I can't really guarantee brand loyalty that long. At the moment I don't have any want or need to switch, but if I were to switch to anything, it would be using Linux full time. Definitely not Windows if it keeps going the current direction it's in.

I actually replaced a Windows 11 installation with Bazzite on a gaming setup since Windows 11 was being an absolute pain to deal with.

 

[maflynn]

somehow an Asus 14" 2023-24 zenbook laptop outperformed my MBA 2020 in every aspect.

You're comparing a 2020 model computer against a 2023/2024. What CPU/GPU and battery size is in that zenbook?

 

[randomgeeza]

I had a very similar experience in 2009 when a MacBook Pro 17" was damaged during a service. The store flat out refused to accept responsibility for the damage and refused to offer a resolution. I emailed Steve and within 48 hours the store reached out, swapped the unit and that was the end of it.

Did he read it, probably not, but I bet one of his team did and put in place the resolution...

That resulted in my loyalty to the brand.

However, these last few years have found me questioning that loyalty. Accepting, Apple and its issues as the best of the bad. Best of the bad...! It's sad, frustrating and a real shame to see the brand where it is now. Skimping on materials. poor sofware quality. Next to no Siri improvements. And everyone jumping ship...

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Apple cares the most about humans that have the potential to purchase the most products in the future. That makes age a big factor as a long future of buying products is more important to them than a long history of buying products.

 

[chmania]

What does the competition offer over apple?

Microsoft is not concerned, and it doesn’t care. Windows holds over 70% of the global market share. Windows doesn't have a competition, period! Microsoft has R&D centres, research labs all over the world. Does Apple?

I absolutely hate the directions that MS is taking with windows,

Interesting, what might be those "directions?"

My loyalty only extends to the point where a product keeps meeting my needs.

You purchase the product to use it, and there is no loyalty to a product. A product is simply a product.

 

[xXRainKingXx]

Things get worse every year, but right now they're still better than the alternatives.

 

[rappr]

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

One thing you need to keep in mind is that Apple became a mainstream brand under Tim Cook, which means a lot more people are using Apple products than when Steve Jobs was alive. And more importantly, its more regular people that aren’t as forgiving as die-hard Apple fans. So, you will naturally see more negativity.

I know a lot of people were in love with the idea of Steve Jobs being the magical man that did everything at Apple and didn’t care about profits (fyi, Apple products have always been expensive, Tim Cook didn’t invent that). But even if Steve Jobs were alive today, I doubt you’d feel the same as you did back then. Too much has happened in the world, and we view tech companies much more cynically than we didn’t back in the early 2000s.

 

[maflynn]

Interesting, what might be those "directions?"

Cramming AI, Being vocal about turning Windows into an Agentic OS, lack of privacy, not just the telemetry, but also the RECALL feature. Forcing me to using their online account when I only want to use a local account.

You purchase the product to use it, and there is no loyalty to a product. A product is simply a product.

you would think, but many people here and other social media sites largely hold a near religious fervency regarding their platform of choice. Not just computers, but everything - I've seen videos of people getting into fist fights over Chevy vs. Ford.

 

[chmania]

Cramming AI, Being vocal about turning Windows into an Agentic OS, lack of privacy, not just the telemetry, but also the RECALL feature. Forcing me to using their online account when I only want to use a local account.

What does all that have to do with Windows as a day-to-day operating system? It's just a general set of statements, nothing more. Do you have an online account with macOS, iOS, etc.?

you would think, but many people here and other social media sites largely hold a near religious fervency regarding their platform of choice. Not just computers, but everything - I've seen videos of people getting into fist fights over Chevy vs. Ford.

You know what Australia is trying to do, about social media for kids? I suppose, some countries, might need to do that for grownups too.