
The void left by Apple - theaeolist
https://hackernoon.com/what-happened-to-apple-3c2029b98845#.aq4qb7nj4
======
jwr
What's more worrying for me is that entire product categories are either left
abandoned (Mac Pro) or updated with inferior products (latest MacBook Pro),
and it seems that Jony Ive's form-over-function approach encounters no
opposition within the company. We lose good functionality for no good reason,
other than products become "simpler" and "more pure".

This in itself would not be a problem for me, if it weren't for the lack of
competition. Mac OS is so far ahead in terms of "getting things done" and
"just working" that it isn't even funny. And yes, I do know, I also regularly
use Windows (10) and Linux (Ubuntu 16 LTS). I feel locked in: both "competing"
platforms are huge time-wasters for me. I know some people feel different —
past discussions have shown that most people do fewer things with their
computers than me (for example, if all you need is a web browser, Ubuntu is a
great choice).

Now that Apple is abandoning me as a customer (I'm not the mainstream), I feel
squeezed: where do I go from here? What's even worse is that the cost of entry
is now so high: developing an environment that works, and then convincing
developers to embrace it is nearly impossible. And the only companies that
have the resources to do it (Microsoft and Google) do it badly.

~~~
Jdam
So I'm sitting here, just unlocked my Mac through putting my finger on the
touchbar and reading your post, wondering who that "pro" is that I keep on
hearing in conjunction with Apple during the last 6 months. I'm a dev, doing
the Kool Aid for a 100bn$+ company, together with designers in my team. I
always thought devs and designers would be that pro usergroup people are
referring to. I've read all the complaints in the last time of "Apple is
abandoning the pros" but funny thing, I only heard that on the internet and in
hypothetical perspectives, nobody actually complained about the lack of Kaby
Lake irl. I'm very fine with the current lineup and I'm wondering if that
"pro" you're referring to is actually just an extremely narrow niche.

~~~
roryisok
I guess the "pro" is anyone who wants more than 16GB RAM ?

~~~
philjohn
The lack of capacities > 16GB has been covered to death ... if Apple put non
low-power RAM in their machines they would be crucified for the drop in
battery life. Until Intel actually makes a release date (increasingly
unlikely) there's not a lot they can do before the next refresh.

~~~
appleiigs
Apple could have kept the extra millimeters in thickness for a larger battery.
High-power >16GB RAM plus long battery life would be "pro". Nobody would be
crucifying if MBP was same thickness as before.

~~~
andromeduck
It would be nice yeah but I doubt the niche is big enough to justify the R&D +
logistical burden when those limitations are resolved by Intel in next year's
chipset.

It sucks but IMO the memory line of argument is probably the weakest in this
whole discussion.

------
applethrowaway
I'm not sure about hardware and design teams, but I'm noticing that the entire
software org is going downhill at Apple fast.

Budget cuts, delaying releases for arbitrary reasons, more and more technical
debt on key portions of iOS seem to be the norm rather than the exception.
Each subsequent release of iOS is more bloated than ever, and teams are
reluctant to port their stuff over to Swift because of the aforementioned
technical debt.

Fundamentally, the problem is that the software org at Apple is a third class
citizen. In order for that to change, there needs to be a shift in resources
toward the SW org. But I don't see it happening any time soon :)

~~~
curiouscats
I see this as a huge problem too. Apple just doesn't seem to have high level
advocacy for software quality. This is driving me to Ubuntu at the desktop.

I am sticking with my Macbook but on my next laptop purchase it will be a
matter of if Apple hardware quality makes up for their software failings. I
haven't looked closely in 2 years but back then I didn't see any hardware
close to Apple's laptop quality.

I do agree with those disappointed with the MacBook Pro (or whatever they call
it now) but those disappointments are not as great as my disappointment with
Apple software quality the last 5 years.

~~~
drvdevd
From experience (retina mbp 2015, 15"), I would highly recommend you do _not_
try to run Ubuntu (or other Linux) on newer Apple hardware. Take the money
you'll save by buying a "lower end" laptop/desktop x86 machine and put it
toward buying more RAM, a better SSD, nice peripherals, etc...

------
sxg
The author says Apple's leaving a void because Google and Amazon are inventing
new product categories instead of Apple, but Apple's successes haven't been
new inventions. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, the iPhone wasn't the
first smartphone, the iPad wasn't the first tablet, and the MacBook wasn't the
first laptop. What Apple does well is waiting to add enough incremental
upgrades to products until it surpasses the "amazing" threshold. This ends up
looking like Apple is either late to market (Apple TV) or so incredibly
successful that it appears as if the market didn't even exist before Apple
entered it (iPhone/iPad).

Based on Apple's history, we should really be expecting them to crush the Echo
and Chromecast sometime in the next few years.

~~~
eximius
They've already had a stab at the Apple TV, so I doubt we're going to see a
revolutionary chromecast-like competitor.

An Echo competitor would be possible but has Siri made any noticeable
revolutionary leaps recently?

~~~
sxg
Siri does now have an API (although limited) on iOS, but I haven't seen many
uses of it yet.

As for the Apple TV and Chromecast, I've been using a Chromecast (1st gen) for
the last few months since I gave my Apple TV to my parents, and I miss my
Apple TV. The Chromecast is great when it works, but it's extremely hit or
miss depending on the app you use to stream. YouTube and Netflix work
perfectly, but HBO Now and FX are terrible. There's no option to scrub
backward/forward, and often when you hit pause the app will disconnect. With
HBO Now and the FX app, it usually takes a good 3-4 tries to connect and
actually watch something. With the Apple TV, everything worked as expected.

I think the major factor stopping the Apple TV from crushing the Chromecast is
price. The old Apple TV is $70 - they should really be pushing for a much
lower price point for this to compete with the Chromecast, but Apple doesn't
even list this one on their site as far as I can tell.

~~~
youngtaff
I never got on with the Chromecast but the FireTV stick on the other hand is
great.

Our AppleTV and PVR have both gone now.

Funniest thing with the Apple TV OS was when my 7 year old complained that it
was broken as pressing the right arrow on the remote (as indicated by the
right arrow on screen) didn't work - I showed him you had to press OK, but for
a business that's supposed to pride itself in great UI it's a spectacular fail

------
api
In the end he nails it without fully realizing it. The problem is that the
iPhone is now everything for Apple. Having one single mega cash cow tends to
result in the whole company organizing itself around that cash cow. Microsoft
did it for Windows and Office and missed a generation or two of developers as
a result.

This is why Apple is stagnating and only seems to care about phones and
locking down that ecosystem. They are the new Nokia.

Of course Amazon and Google have their cash cows too, so they are not much
different. Their home speakers are ways for them to more aggressively market
and capture customer buying behavior. Personally I consider them deeply creepy
for this reason and will not get one.

The true innovation is going to come from hungrier players: startups or older
companies that are on the ropes like Apple once was. Microsoft is getting
interesting again, and I'd also keep an eye on old PC vendors like Dell and HP
or even old IBM. These companies now have nothing to lose.

~~~
andrewclunn
Bingo. Also, let's not forget that Apple has a history of not releasing the
first of something, but waiting until the market is there, and then releasing
a much more user friendly product that redefines the market and grows it.
They're not a tech first company so much as a UX first company.

~~~
jhatax
+1. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and the team building the Linux
subsystem at Microsoft took note:
[https://jhatax.blogspot.com/2016/11/developers-windows-
linux...](https://jhatax.blogspot.com/2016/11/developers-windows-linux-
subsystem-is.html). Microsoft is truly hungry to win back developers, and the
team is willing to do what it takes to bring non-Windows developers into the
fold.

Apple seems to still be operating as if it can only focus on one core platform
at any given time as opposed to two or three. The talk on HN is only about the
core OSes -- macOS and iOS -- but what about their productivity apps? They
haven't seen a meaningful update in years (Pages, Keynote, etc. in case you
are unaware).

With their huge cash reserves, Apple needs to recognize that it can build
multiple platforms in parallel without sacrificing the quality of either. It
could very well be that Jony Ive not being a core software guy is the issue.
It could not. I don't have insider access. I will say this: Apple needs a hard
core software leader and it doesn't seem to have one today. That's the 'real
void'.

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rufius
While I do understand the author's point about the void - the particular
example of the Amazon Echo and Google Home is something I really don't get. I
find those devices invasive and irritating - I'm not sure I see the
attraction.

That being said, I also hate talking on the phone so this may be more of an
issue at interacting vocally with a device. It's somewhat lessened when I use
FaceTime with my phone but only because I can see who I'm talking to.

~~~
ebbv
On top of that, calling them category defining and comparing them to the
iPhone is kind of crazy since they are niche products so far. Nobody I know
has an Echo. The few people I know that have Chromecasts bought them only
because it was a cheap way to wirelessly stream video from their computer to a
TV for presentations. They didn't buy it as a substitute for a Roku or Apple
TV.

I share the author's concerns about Apple's devices since about 2012 being
underwhelming but I don't agree with their conclusion that Google and Amazon
are filling the void. The distressing part for me is that as far as work
computers go nobody is.

~~~
azinman2
I have an echo. My parents have an echo and I'm giving one to my sister and
her family this xmas.

It is absolutely a category, especially if you have a larger home where your
phone isn't near you. Instead, you just speak to it and it responds without
having to find a device instead. It's integration with an ecosystem in your
home means it's the new remote -- one that's far more powerful.

~~~
csydas
Out of curiosity, did your parents seek out the Echo or did you buy it for
them? I'll believe you regardless, but the comment about you giving one to
your sister tends to be more of the story I hear when I hear about niche
products "everyone has".

There's a slight difference in a lot of the tech that gets pushed as
AppleProduct-Killers in that most of the time the products usually kill the
Apple equivalent only on paper; historically, when push comes to shove, it's
been iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks people seek out or ask for because they're
still considered hot items. This isn't to dismiss the quality of other
products, but it's also not the same as everyone wanting them specifically.

~~~
azinman2
My parents sought one after seeing/using mine. My brother in law commented a
lot on mine after being over recently, and I watched my friend's 3 young girls
ask to it play various Kate Perry songs every 7 seconds (they now have one).
It's a new, somewhat expensive device, so it'll take time for it to make its
way into the mainstream. It's also not for everyone, but it is for a lot of
people.

------
linguae
I've been a Mac user for over ten years, drawn to the platform due to the
combination of OS X and solid hardware. Since the disappointing MacBook Pro
announcement, I've been preparing to transition myself back to the world of
Windows and *nix. I bought myself a refurbished ThinkPad T430 to get myself
used to Windows 10 and modern Linux desktop environments, as well as the
software running on them. I'm trying to wean myself off OS X and the Mac
ecosystem. If it turns out that I'll be able to transition to either Windows
or Linux/BSD without too much pain, then sometime next year I plan to buy
something like a ThinkPad P50, which has options for Xeon processors and 64 GB
RAM. Apple sadly makes nothing like this.

I love OS X and I still believe it's the best desktop OS out there, but I'm
very disappointed in Apple's direction, and this experience has made me
realized the dangers of being locked to a specific hardware platform: if Apple
doesn't make the hardware you want, then there are no alternatives if you want
to stay on OS X legally. It was a fun ride while Apple made the hardware I
wanted. But Apple started changing direction from powerful, expandable,
upgradeable Macs to non-upgradeable, disposable computers for those whose
computational needs aren't very intensive. I considered jumping ship back in
2013, but due to the controversies of Windows 8, GNOME 3, and KDE 4 at the
time, I held my nose and bought a MacBook Air despite its non-upgradeability.
This time I plan to jump ship. I learned my lesson regarding relying on closed
platforms for my computing needs; you're at the mercy of the provider of the
platform. For this reason alone I'm interested in returning to Windows and
Linux/BSD, although I wish they one day will have the same level of polish as
OS X.

------
ijidak
Why do we say Apple came up with this and Apple came up with that? Steve Jobs
came up with those things. The man left Apple, Apple tanked, requiring a
bailout from Microsoft. Jobs comes back, very much Return of the King-esque,
and Apple rises again. Meanwhile in his exile he helps start a little studio
called Pixar. This is very much a "Built to Last" situation. Great book.
Companies with Cult leader CEO's lose direction when that CEO leaves or dies.
Cook is Apple's Ballmer. A great business man, not a great innovator. At some
point, my guess is like Ballmer, Apple will fall far enough behind that
someone else will get the job. Hopefully, Apple finds someone like Satya. But
none of this has been surprising. You can't lose someone like Jobs and expect
the progress to continue. The guy understood how to translate technology to
the every day man woman and child like nobody else. These are the Ballmer
years at Apple. Hopefully, they go by faster than they did at Microsoft.

~~~
toyg
Pixar had started well before Jobs entered the picture. His role in Pixar was
of a mercurial money-man who constantly threatened to shut down the whole
operation, and almost killed the studio on the verge of their big break
because he couldn't stand the thought of giving out shares to all workers they
had been promised to. Not much of a help, more like a hindrance who was
tolerated because of the money he brought to the table.

He certainly did great at Apple but Pixar succeeded despite him rather than
thanks to him.

~~~
slededit
They had been trying to find buyers for almost 2 years. It was going to be
Jobs or nothing. Give the man credit for being the only one to see at least
part of the vision.

------
amelius
It was always clear to me that the direction Apple was taking was not a good
one for people outside the "2 sigma" chunk of the bell curve. Apple's focus
has been on creating the smallest amount of products for the largest possible
audience.

------
joecasson
He's not sure why they bought Beats? Is there any proof that this deal didn't
work out for them? They clearly integrated some of the IP into iTunes Music
and it seems like the products are still selling like hotcakes.

I'm scratching my head.

------
Retric
It seems like the Echo is a repackaged Siri, with an optional wake word. The
Echo Dot lets you buy stuff through it much like the Kindle which seems to be
Amazon's thing.

~~~
azinman2
Ya -- one that permanently has a place in your home so you don't have to worry
where your phone is, one that integrates with popular 3rd party home-based
IoT, is always listening/on, works better than Siri, and comes with better and
free music integration (but is better if you're a prime member). The dot is
just echo junior, there is no difference in utility of it.

The result is a very meaningful improvement and a change to how you interact
with technology in your home.

~~~
inopinatus
The Echo is terrific and (unlike Siri) I wouldn't be without it. Sadly,
Amazon's management app for the Echo is an unstable, slow, buggy piece of
unusable garbage that someone should be fired over.

~~~
azinman2
But luckily you don't really need to use the app much after initial setup.

~~~
inopinatus
Not so. It is how you access the to-do list and shopping lists. So I use it,
or try to, almost everyday.

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jaxondu
Many would agreed that the new MacBook Pro is overpriced. With its hugh profit
margin, hardly anyone complain that iPhone is overpriced.

------
vogt
How many more of these articles do we need?

Yes, we understand that Apple is no longer innovating at all, much less at the
clip that they used to.

------
grzm
Current article title: What happened to Apple?

~~~
grzm
Since changed (reverted?) to "The void left by Apple"

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Bud
Moaning about Apple leaving a "void" because of Google Chromecast is pretty
hilarious. Especially when Apple's version, the Apple TV, is a superior
device.

Chromecast is the best Google can do? Color me un-worried.

------
informatimago
Perhaps they're considering allowing third parties to produce Macintosh
compatibles, and macOS would be sold thru OEMs like MS-Windows?

~~~
grzm
I can't tell if you're joking or not. The first time around licensing the OS
was part of the near bankruptcy of Apple. Apple is a hardware company that
also makes software that makes the hardware compelling. I don't see it
happening, but I think it would be more likely that Apple get rid of Macs and
macOS entirely (relying on iOS products) rather than license macOS to third
parties.

