Ask HN: Has Apple lost it's way?
what happened to Apple? what happened to "We'll just build it first and fast and get feedback later. Customers don't know what they want anyway." This is how we go all the awesome prodcuts from them. It seems now they are just chasing their competitors.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 89.2 ms ] threadThere were other computers before the Mac, MP3 players before the iPod, cell phones before the iPhone, tablets before the iPad. They're known for moving into a market segment with their own take on the product.
Half of those are wrong - they reversed the Ives decisions about ports, MagSafe, and the escape key, etc. — and it’s unclear that your personal preferences are as widely shared as you’re claiming. All phone manufacturers have been removing headphone jacks, for example, since it makes them more reliable and the models with headphone jacks didn’t start selling better. I haven’t seen any data supporting that as a major disappointment for customers.
I could write a manifesto on my hatred of the move from headphone jacks to bluetooth across all device categories. I admit that I'm an outlier here, but regardless I just might have to make time to write up my thoughts on this travesty.
Doesn't that describe the Vision Pro, which just released a few weeks ago?
Apple is just a ginormous megacorp now. Not even just a megacorp.
Like, yeah the MacBooks are nice and the phones work well enough. But can I be honest? They’re not that cool.
All these mega corporations know they are in the enshittification phase. That’s why all the products are bland. There is no soul at all. All the marketing is woke and cringe (I’m a brown dude btw) and doesn’t even reflect reality let’s be honest unless you’re in some Truman show headspace.
What happened to the translucent back covers on a Mac? Why aren’t there different colors that are actually appealing? You guys remember the iPod and its various colors right?
What happened to the silhouettes of people dancing while enjoying an apple product instead of weird looking people in some dystopian cyberpunk looking ads that do nothing to evoke wonder or awe.
Sorry but that’s my view on it. Maybe I’m off base I don’t give a f. All I know is I’m not impressed. I just hold apple stocks because they’re a monopoly now. Not because I buy their latest products.
My theory is that apple is trying to market to Asians (Indians and Chinese especially) where the culture is not individualistic. I’m Asian myself and it’s noticeable in our cultures at a high level. It’s all conformity and stay in your lane! type of mentality.
I miss the 90s and early 2000s when American companies made products for Americans. They extruded individuality and people all over the world did look up to that level of coolness. Now it’s all just hues of gray and boring.
This is excellent. Those things were bizarre but incredibly cool. Apple went from whimsy to faux luxury, losing their soul in the process.
I still use a lot of their products though as I still find them highly superior to the (also whimsy-less) alternatives.
see how they reacted to the EU regulation requirements. they just want to keep competition out at every imaginable cost. sensible, from a business perspective, yet from a _users_ perspective not the most agreeable move. i want to have devices again which i actually _own_, not devices i'm "allowed to use" as long as they don't cancel my account.
They recently switched their entire product line over to their own silicon resulting in life-changing performance and efficiency improvements. If you're already an apple user, have you forgotten what even the last generation of Intel pros was like? Hot laps, 2 hour battery life, and fans spinning loudly. I have barely heard my fans or felt heat on my M2 Max laptop since I got it. And have the battery life to actually be away from a plug all day. Their software is just good enough. I can't remember the last time the entire OS crashed and had to be rebooted. They manage to freshen up the UI just a little each year with fairly minimal changes that require relearning how to do basic things so often. That's probably why my 75 y/o grandma can text and FaceTime me completely by herself, the phone UI has remained consistent enough she was able to memorize it and use it without help
Even today I'm eyeing a new watch because their materials teams are killing it with Titanium. My old watch is about 4 years old without a discernible scratch on its face.
Apple is making great products, and it's really cool if other companies are catching up, that's what apple needs to compete harder.
I was just reminded today that my M2 Pro has a fan at all. Ollama went into a loop and the fan started spinning after a couple minutes. It still took me a few more minutes to realise it was spinning though as it's nearly whisper silent!
But for windows NUCs, the amd ones are coming down in price and can do pc gaming.
Laptop wise, unless you needs osx, you can get a nice fully loaded gaming laptop much cheaper than a mac pro. But if you need OSX, that mac pros are damn fast and nice to use.
Too bad the apple watch didnt have android support, fitbits are just not as good.
Apple’s strong suit is this kind of attention to detail. You may not like their UI but they know how to make it look beautiful. The attention to detail on fonts etc is amazing.