What's Coming From Apple in 2015: Apple Watch, iPad Pro, iPhone 6s, 12-Inch MacBook and More

[thekeyring]

It's not just you. None of this excites me.

As long-time Apple fans and users we have to accept that, as much as they try to market otherwise, Apple doesn't have the soul of their early days. They are now every bit as much a Microsoft as they once claimed to despise. They are not outsiders and they don't think differently. They think only about money and how they can get more of it.

Tim Cook has got to go as head of Apple. I'm calling it now. It was perhaps always a poisoned chalice to follow Jobs. I'm sure Steve did say to Cook not to think about what he would do, but that shouldn't extend to rubbishing the brand, its soul and identity. To be fair I think this already began during Jobs tenure as he gradually relinquished control and responsibility due to his ailing health.

A minor disclaimer that as a science grad with an engineer brother I have a seething disdain for financial or marketing types that think they know what's best for a company. In all modern workplaces the real innovators and workers have become subordinate to corporate management and this is very sad. It should be the other way around. Accountants, lawyers, paper pushers and corporate nobodies should be subordinate to the real drive and soul of a company. Technical experts, engineers, programmers and scientists should be the ones calling the shots and rise to positions of management and power.

Apple needs a technician, engineer or programmer as its CEO. Someone who's willing to to tell investors and Wall Street to shove it when necessary. There is no evidence that Tim Cook is this person and lots to the contrary.

I'm fed up of this attitude. Everyone's copied Apple, and now Apple are being penalised for not 'thinking differently'? Do Apple try and compete with specs? Does their phone run Android? Do their personal computers run Windows? No. They're different from the rest of the industry.

Can you point to another company that has a clear vision for personal technology, that's as clear as what Apple has? No. You get companies with an abundance of products.

 

[Thunderbird]

Really wish they would implement a new file system like ZFS in 2015.

 

[tdale]

If Apple changes the naming scheme, I suspect it'll be that they stop naming them at all. They'll either refer to them as "New", or just by year, or by generation number.

At this point, with my iPhone 6+, I feel like smart phones have reached the point where they're in the same category as computers, where they'll get spec bumped but not much else. What else is there to do with them? I feel like I'll be holding onto my 6+ for quite a bit longer than I held onto my prior iPhones... like I may just update to the 2019 model in 5 years, and that it'll be basically identical to my 6+ except bigger numbers. No shock and awe or groundbreaking change. Nothing it can do that my old one couldn't (given enough time). Just a smoother, crisper, quicker experience.

I can almost imagine Apple simply not updating the iPhone in 2015.

Yes, not a lot of room to innovate now, its all been done. The complainers here want innovation though.The post above yours asks for a 17" MBP, Tower MacPro, non soldered RAM, but thats also not innovative.

I feel Handoff is innovative, as is Continuity.

Can someone list out the innovative changes made by other manufacturers this year. Not improvements, upgrades, but Innovative new features, keen to know.

 

[940272]

No iPods? Those devices launched into the spotlight! :O

 

[tdale]

None of those things you mentioned are innovations. They are tiny incremental improvements on existing products. Wow, a 5.5 inch phone! Welcome to 2009, Apple.

And nonsense like Apple pay and car play don't do it for me. Android has had NFC payment for ages. I'm glad somebody is excited about that stuff, but I'm sure not.

Apple Pay is doing what others haven't done. Make it mainstream.
Car Play doesn't do it for you? Are you the standard? Others use devices too.
Android has had NFC for ages? Yep. Hows that been going? Poor.

Posters who whine that it doesnt fit their bill waste space on these threads. Does that mean its the same for everyone else? Solution is don't buy

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Then you must never get excited about any new products because according to you, companies cannot introduce "innovations" unless they are brand new products introduced throughout the year. Sorry but I don't see any new products introduced by anyone. They are all iterations of existing ones.

Exactly right. I cannot see any innovation features by anyone. Although Continuity/Handoff are new I think.

This thread needs to be renamed.

 

[Zxxv]

No iPods? Those devices launched into the spotlight! :O

a booster rocket is jettisoned. think of it like that.

though a 3/4g data capable iPod would be cool if it had a decent camera. I guess apple will wait till the market demands it i.e. their profits and sales drop off from iPhone maybe due to security tracking (people demanding greater privacy) or even when more wifi infrastructure is built and 3g/4g becomes obsolete

 

[tdale]

My hope is for a 5" iphone with same specs as whatever the newest model is at the moment.

I like size of my 5s
I am good with giving up a little battery to make room for extra chips or whatever.

You don't know whatever the newest model is at the moment?

 

[Zxxv]

You don't know whatever the newest model is at the moment?

they meant with the newest spec what ever they are. not what ever the newest iPhone is.

 

[tdale]

Can you explain why? I use Yosemite literally all day every day at work and home, and I have no issues with it. I also have a multiple iDevices and they work fine as well.

My experience too. rMBP, 6+, iPad Air. All going fine thanks. Clearly the so called bugs are not universal. A web and app dev posted a few days ago about issues caused by third party devs, not the device or OS. Or the needs 2GB RAM fallacy.Bugs will always exist, but if its a real bug, everyone will have it. Thats clearly not the case.

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I don't know, I think its been a pretty good Apple year. The iPhone 6 is, in my opinion, the best iPhone update ever. The thinness and the feel of it and the increased battery life over my previous 5 with a better camera and Apple Pay to boot. Love it!

IPad Air2 is a fantastic hardware update. And for all the "it looks the same" crowd: please, tell me, how do you change the design of 10" rectangle other than making it thinner and changing the corners. Honestly it's a screen. Not much else you even could change. iPad Mini3 was kind of an embarrassment, though. Why make it a new model (3) when the only change was colors and Touch ID?

I've had no issues with iOS8 or Yosemite (and I was/am a beta/developer user) and I really, really like the look of Yosemite. Dark Mode for the win! (With the correct darkish black background of course!)

I am hesitant on the iWatch but only because I have a Pebble that I barely wear and am not sure I care about the features the Apple Watch will offer. Though it looks cool.

I am very excited to see/buy a 12" Retina Air!

New Apple TV would be cool.

12" iPad Pro: probably good for pro artist/architect types if it has a stylus. But not of real interest to me.

As always, just my opinions....

A good summary, +1

 

[randian]

Broadwell? I guess we're giving up on Skylake for 2015.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

My apple fantasies for 2015:

-Not fully convinced by the iwatch -

-Ipad air 3 (pls update the CPU/GPU, and offer 2gb RAM -this would be a killer combo

-The late/mid Imac update, i hope they skip broadwell and opt for skylake (usb3.1, TB3 etc); and allow nividia 980 graphics

-updated apple TV

 

[WilliamG]

missing from list:
Bugs, bugs, and more bugs.

Quoted for truth. I'm so incredibly disappointed with Apple lately when it comes to the outrageous number of bugs in their entire product line. Yosemite wifi issues, iPhone 6/6 Plus/iPad Air 2 shipping with essentially non-working wifi for many etc until an iOS 8 update, among other things...

How is it 2015 and Apple still can't make wireless stuff work properly? Just...sad.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

That would be one of the best things to hear again at WWDC.

The should tweak the design. I know many don't like it including myself. Besides that a pure maintenance release would be welcomed by many.

Missing from the list is also the things apple decided to stop
- no more quad core Mac mini
- no future Aperture or iPhoto updates
- no iWork updates if one stays on Mavericks

 

[MH01]

I'm fed up of this attitude. Everyone's copied Apple, and now Apple are being penalised for not 'thinking differently'? Do Apple try and compete with specs? Does their phone run Android? Do their personal computers run Windows? No. They're different from the rest of the industry.

Can you point to another company that has a clear vision for personal technology, that's as clear as what Apple has? No. You get companies with an abundance of products.

And what is that clear vision? I do not see one at all for the first time in years.

 

[MH01]

Apple Pay is doing what others haven't done. Make it mainstream.
Car Play doesn't do it for you? Are you the standard? Others use devices too.
Android has had NFC for ages? Yep. Hows that been going? Poor.

Posters who whine that it doesnt fit their bill waste space on these threads. Does that mean its the same for everyone else? Solution is don't buy

----------



Exactly right. I cannot see any innovation features by anyone. Although Continuity/Handoff are new I think.

This thread needs to be renamed.

I'd say that Apple pay is doing no better in NZ than NFC hardly mainstream at this point. Inventing NFC tech was innovation, tinkering financial application using it is hardly amazing innovation, limited to how many countries ?? Just saying.

 

[patseguin]

I do agree that they lost some of their sole since they lost Steve Jobs. Really though there isn't much left to innovate with except for improving existing products like I think they did brilliantly with the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 and 5k iMac. I think they should be concentrating on an all new AppleTV to compete with Roku and Fire TV for one thing. Perhaps something new and innovative with iPod also.

As for the company itself, the mission of any business is to make money. I'm a business owner and my mission is not to make a beautiful product and not care about money. My mission is to make a beautiful product and get rich. To think that a company should exist to please us and not care about money is totally unrealistic.

 

[Heisenberg888]

First post on macrumors. 2015 should be interesting. I don't think I will buy any new products, as I've spent an absolute fortune on apple gear in the last two years.

I'm decidedly underwhelmed by apple watch and in any case I would never get the first iteration of an apple product. Still, I will be interested to see how it goes and will keep an eye on it.

I will, however,l be interested to see if Apple do bring out a 12inch retina Macbook Air and a 12inch iPad Pro.

Otherwise, I think 2015 will be a year of consolidation rather than anything spectacular.

Agree with others on here about being disappointed with Apple's problems on the software side in 2014, especially iOS8 which did not live up to their high standards: too many problems and bugs. I personally, have not had any major issues with Yosemite and I think that is due to apple releasing the beta version early so most of the problems could be caught early. They should do the same for iOS9.

Finally, it would be good if apple did not see the need to release a new OS for OSX every year. There really is no need imo.

 

[thekeyring]

And what is that clear vision? I do not see one at all for the first time in years.

To quote Tim Cook:
'Sometimes you want to sit at your desk in front of a huge, beautiful immersive screen, packed with powerful technology. Sometimes you want to take that powerful technology with you wherever you go. Sometimes you want to be close to your content, touching it. Sometimes you want to hold that powerful technology in the palm of your hand. And soon, you can wear that powerful technology right on your wrist. This is our vision of personal technology.'

This seems consistent with their product releases, starting with iCloud in 2011, and right up to Continuity, Handoff, etc in 2014. Like they had a master plan from the start. This plan survived a change of CEO.

Look at Microsoft. Paniced response to the rise of tablet PCs: Windows 8. Response to the outcry at Windows 8: Windows 10.

Samsung making each phone bigger than the last, with no indication of when they will finally work out what's 'big enough'.

Credit to Google for executing to a vision of 'get as many people to use Google services as possible'. Android, Chrome OS, Google apps for iOS, etc.

 

[Col4bin]

A utopia where software and technology doesn't have bugs will never exist, so stop dreaming of one.

I get what you're saying, but if OP's explicitly referring to the bugginess of iOS 8, then I tend to agree with him 100%.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

The past year has seen an impressive display of innovation and new ideas, but upcoming product releases and rumors suggest that 2015 may be an even more monumental year for Apple.

Who writes this stuff? There's no way I could write this and have a clear conscience.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

How, exactly, did the iPad mini 3 make it a MAJOR year for Apple? I don't see how taking the same iPad as last year and putting Touch ID on it and adding a gold option makes it worthy of being in that first sentence...

 

[MH01]

To quote Tim Cook:
'Sometimes you want to sit at your desk in front of a huge, beautiful immersive screen, packed with powerful technology. Sometimes you want to take that powerful technology with you wherever you go. Sometimes you want to be close to your content, touching it. Sometimes you want to hold that powerful technology in the palm of your hand. And soon, you can wear that powerful technology right on your wrist. This is our vision of personal technology.'

This seems consistent with their product releases, starting with iCloud in 2011, and right up to Continuity, Handoff, etc in 2014. Like they had a master plan from the start. This plan survived a change of CEO.

Look at Microsoft. Paniced response to the rise of tablet PCs: Windows 8. Response to the outcry at Windows 8: Windows 10.

Samsung making each phone bigger than the last, with no indication of when they will finally work out what's 'big enough'.

Credit to Google for executing to a vision of 'get as many people to use Google services as possible'. Android, Chrome OS, Google apps for iOS, etc.

Cook's statement can apply to any company to be honest .

Sure they survived the change of CEO, though at the same time , one can argue that Apple has dropped the ball in regards to innovation, their computer range has dropped the ball and gone backwards in some instances. Sure Apple is doing fine, though it's not the same company without jobs, I'm not sure there is a masterplan, plan seems to be maximise profits at all costs.

 

[Col4bin]

How, exactly, did the iPad mini 3 make it a MAJOR year for Apple? I don't see how taking the same iPad as last year and putting Touch ID on it and adding a gold option makes it worthy of being in that first sentence...

+1

The biggest product release in 2014 was the iPhone 6/6+. Everything else was incremental. Conversely in 2015, it will be the Apple Watch. Again, all other releases this year will be incremental spec-bumped product.

 

[Tiger8]

I can almost imagine Apple simply not updating the iPhone in 2015.

they will update it to keep shareholders happy. The S is inevitable at this point

 

[StoneJack]

headless xMac.

Midtower Mac with a room for aftermarket GPU; PCIe cards and other things you can add. My dream mac was G3 El capitano Blue and White and ever since dream of such expandable Mac.