Success has been very, very good to Apple in so many ways. But many of the traits that brought Apple here have become weaknesses. For the company to make it through the next couple of decades successfully, it needs to show more adaptability.
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I think I mentioned this elsewhere but I think Apple will have greater success if their teams were divided by apps instead of all the apps getting overhauled every OS update.
Have a Calendar team make Apple Calendars the best calendar app on the market on all platforms. Reminders, Notes, etc… Save the OS teams for system level improvements, Apple Intelligence, and ecosystem features.
if the ecosystem is the product apps should not be left to languish. It still boggles my mind that the product with the stylus (iPad) does not have a journal app.
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I wonder how long it would take any of these journalists, who seem to have all the answers to fix Apple, to run for the exit if they were in charge of running a large company.
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Ill asterisk my comment with that. I absolutely could not do better than Cook.
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I agree with this as long as they could maintain the tight integrations with the OS and other apps. But yah, it’d be nice if they weren’t tied to OS updates.
I think it’s ok for the truth to be a little bit of both. I don’t expect someone to be able to run a company to comment on it/write about it/etc.
But I also agree I think most of us can’t imagine what it’s like to run a company like Apple. Makes my head hurt even thinking about it. Much easier out here in the cheap seats!
Makes me head hurt even thinking about it
My head hurts just trying to pick the right app. 
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To be clear, I’m not stating Apple does everything right because they don’t. However, this piling on lately from tech journalists is really boring.
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Not to completely pull us off topic, but I sometimes feel the same. I wonder, though, if it’s because I tend to follow a number of journalists/podcasters who all generally carry the same opinion. So I end up reading/hearing the same thing over and over again. I could probably do a better job of curating (either listen to less, read less, or diversify).
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There is no excuse for a CEO that does not know the status of his most important product. Apple’s senior management had to know last year‘s WWDC was a bluff. If they did and chose to roll the dice on being able to deliver on time, that’s one thing.
If they didn’t, Apple may be in real trouble.
These ‘guys’ always have their finger in the air…to see how the winds blowing….now it’s bash Apple time thanks to Gruber. Wait a week…they’ll be back on the kiss-up train with WWDC coming up soon.
If Apple are a “String of failures” then I’d like someone to show me what a successful company looks like.
The iPhone was dubbed a failure initially as was the Apple Watch, both grew into the Most successful tech product ever (by many, many measures), and a product which on its own would bring in billions of dollars
I’m not saying Apple is perfect, far from it, but they play the long game. They don’t overreact if something doesn’t sell as many units as they expect.
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A month ago I decided it was time to migrate out of the Apple ecosystem and as a result I’ve spent the past few weeks shifting my attention over to podcasters and YouTubers that cover Linux.
It’s been a breath of fresh air. The difference is that there is less pretense of journalism and ZERO rumor mill.
ZERO rumor mill.
There’s a lot more discussion of actual, real Linux news as well as a lot more practical sharing about what nerds are actually using/doing.
Yes, there’s still complaint and critique, but it’s not all about what one single trillion dollar company is doing or might be doing. The over-all feel reminds me of the Apple community 30 years ago. It feels more like nerds having fun in a garage or maker space.
While the Apple community is usually discussing the next new expensive Apple gadget (that may or may not exist) or complaining about the latest move by Apple corporate, the Linux nerds are gushing over the 2014 Thinkpad they just brought back to life.
Side note, related: I installed Linux Mint on my 2012 Mac Mini now dubbed LinuxMini and hoo-boy has it been fun. Installation took 15 minutes. Everyday since has been a process of learning, using and enjoying a new-to-me mix of Linux apps. It’s been a lot of fun and all the while I’ve continued to get all my real work done.
Bonus: I was on the verge of needing to upgrade my monthly iCloud plan from the 200GB to the 2TB plan. Instead of paying Apple $7 dollars more a month for 1.5TB of data I would never use I pulled all my data out of iCloud, downgraded to the free plan. In a day I configured my M1 Mini and external drives I already owned to serve as my own local cloud.
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This being true, I would also agree that in general Apple is not in the Steve Jobs days any more and that’s what pundits are claiming for, the lack of obsession for the last excruciating detail. For example, Jobs would have not tolerated the “System Settings” window we have now.
User demand for product improvement is never ending and accumulates geometrically. When all that Apple had was, say, Snow Leopard, iTunes Store and the iPod… well everything was easier to control. Now I’m not so sure perhaps Apple will become as exciting as General Electric.
No-one knows what Jobs would have accepted, or even what role he would be performing in today’s Apple
Steve Jobs would not have been capable of doing the same job he was doing in Apple as it is now. He wasn’t just the CEO, he was performing the role of the Chief Product Officer, and regularly had his hands in design (directly or indirectly). It’s possible he would be a more hands off chair of the board rather than CEO/figurehead, especially after beating cancer.
It’s easier to focus on detail when you have a few products, it’s far less possible to get into detail with Apple’s current portfolio.
But 14 years after he passed, no-one knows what he would have done/accepted.
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Enjoy the honeymoon period (sincerely. 
)
Mint is a fun distro and keeping old hardware alive is definitely fun. Hope you’ll stick around after your transition is done.
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Before trying to make out that Apple has produced a string of failures perhaps a look at the failed devices that Microsoft has produced Zune, Kin, the Nokia phones after they took over company. Clippy! (though that seems to have been resurrected by Duolingo for their language learning app) And many more.
There is a longer list at
which contains some failures that I’ve never heard of until now.
Someone really should put M365 on top of that list. It might be financially sucessful, but the softwaresuite-previously-known-as-Office is getting worse with every update.
True story.
That’s quite a jump. I know with 100% certainty I will never switch ti Linux and get in the computer tinkering world. I hope that the platform works for you but for me it comes with far too many tradeoffs.
I love that Linux exists for you and others who can make it work, though – it’s nice there’s a solution out there for people who don’t want to be in Apple or Microsoft’s ecosystems.
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I have been dabbling in the Raspberry Pi space and I am certainly a fan of Linux the philosophy. But keep my trusty mac around because I do not trust myself with Linux as a daily driver. I would certainly like to get a hobby laptop to tinker with. VanillaOS looks like a splendid distro.
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