Apple might be the biggest company in tech, with revenues that make eyes water every quarter, but even some fans think it’s getting a little boring in Cupertino.
Following last week’s big MacBook Pro event, Apple has delivered everything it had planned for 2016. We’ve had upgrades to iPhone, Apple Watch, and the 12-inch MacBook; brand new AirPods (though those aren’t shipping yet); the diminutive iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
But was all that enough, or could Apple have done more? None of these releases were really that revolutionary, and investors are still waiting for Apple’s next big thing. So, is it true? Is Apple really boring now?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over these questions and more!
Killian Bell: I see a lot of fans complaining that Apple has become boring now. Many feel its latest product lineup isn’t exciting enough and that the company is falling behind. I would argue this is the most exciting Apple has ever been.
I will admit that there are areas in which Apple could improve — starting with a new iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro. But I feel it’s hard to complain about much else.
Thanks to iPad Pro, Apple still offers the best tablet money can buy, powered by the best mobile operating system. iPhone 7 might look the same as its predecessors, but it has awesome new features that make it worth the upgrade, like water-resistance, stereo speakers, and that incredible new dual-lens camera on the larger model.
Apple Watch Series 2 is also a nice improvement over the original, with its faster processor fixing the biggest complaint fans had last year. Then there’s the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, which I’m super excited about. It’s going to change the way we interact with macOS and our favorite apps, and in years to come, that Touch Bar will be everywhere.
2017 is going to be even better. It’s the iPhone’s 10th anniversary, and it’s going to be huge. We’ll get the best iPhone upgrade we’ve seen to date, with recent rumors promising a fancy all-glass design, the iPhone’s first OLED display, and a revolutionary new AR experience.
What’s not exciting about Apple right now?
Luke Dormehl: I’m on a weird side of the fence here, and one I hope readers will at least hear me out on.
First off, of course Apple is a successful company. Take virtually any Apple business and spin it off as its own company and you’ve got a Fortune 100 company there. It’s not in any way on the ropes, and even the fact that we may have reached “peak iPhone” is offset by the fact that, as today’s news shows, Apple’s making virtually all of the profit in the smartphone industry.
I am 100 percent not saying that Apple’s “boringness” is symptomatic of a company that’s on its way out. On top of this, it’s a company that continues to make beautiful products. The iPhone 7 and the iPad Pro are wonderful, and I use my iMac every day and love it more than any computer I’ve previously owned.
So what am I saying? Simply that Apple’s not the company it once was, in which everything felt like it was reinventing the wheel. The Apple Watch is nice, sure, but it’s not fundamentally different from other smartwatches we’ve seen. It doesn’t drastically rethink the smartwatch interface in a way that finally makes it make sense.
Apple TV, meanwhile, has been a crushing disappointment for me. Apple seems clueless as to what customers want from a reinvented TV experience. It’s majorly lagging behind companies like Amazon and Netflix in this area, and it’s major lost ground when you consider how Apple was on top of the video streaming/TV alternative with iTunes back in the day.
The same could be argued for the iPhone, iPad and even the new MacBook: they’re all just iterative improvements, and in some ways seem more like Apple reacting to the market than dictating it.
I may be totally off my rocker here: after all, my favorite period in Apple history was the 1990s when it was releasing a ton of off-the-wall concepts we look back on as amazing today, but which barely sold. I just don’t feel excited about Apple in the way I used to. Am I wrong here? Maybe I’m just spoiled.
Killian: Apple can’t make drastic improvements to products that are already spectacular. It can’t reinvent smartphones, tablets, and computers every year. If those things continue to pull in glowing reviews and sell well — which they do — iterative improvements are all that’s necessary.
Apple isn’t the only company in this predicament, either. None of its rivals are making revolutionary changes to these industries, which tells us something. We’re at a point where these products have become so good, it’s not easy to see where they can go next. They’re not desperate for major overhauls in the same way smartphones were in 2007, or portable music players were seven years earlier.
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Apple has found its winning formulas, so why change them? It can’t afford to make major changes to a product as successful as the iPhone on a regular basis, because major changes don’t always pay off.
I accept your point about Apple Watch. I think Apple’s just as clueless as other smartwatch makers right now, but I think that’s because consumers are clueless, too; no one really knows what they want a smartwatch to be yet. You might argue Apple should show us, just as Steve Jobs showed us what we should want a computer to be, but it’s not so obvious here.
I don’t have much to say about the Apple TV because I’ve never been all that excited about it. I’ve owned a couple, but neither of them got a lot of use. I appreciate the new model is better now that it has an App Store, but everyone’s waiting for Apple to reinvent the TV experience — and again, I don’t think it’s obvious what that should be.
The problem Apple has now — that it didn’t have in the 90s — is that it’s almost too successful to be that company that rolls out the crazy concepts. Too much is on the line now; it can’t afford to take major risks with products as big as the iPhone. And while products like the iPhone are the priority, Apple can only invest so much in attempting to revolutionize other industries.
If Apple was struggling — or it looked like things could go bad in the foreseeable future — I would worry it isn’t doing enough. But clearly that’s not the case right now.
Luke: I agree with a lot of this. If Jony Ive is, essentially, trying to get to the Platonic Ideal of a smartphone, then adding unnecessarily gimmicks for the sake of it is clearly not the way to go.
I do feel like a lot of what Apple does elsewhere feels half-assed, though. Beats 1, iBeacons, Apple Watch and Apple TV were all concepts that, when they were introduced seemed like they had all the potential in the world.
Instead, Apple has its products that it cares about and everything else — and you could arguably add in products like the Mac Pro here — are left to fend for themselves.
It’s all well and good that Apple is allegedly working on a car, but in the meantime it’s missing out on getting involved with newer areas like VR and AR, while — as noted — being left behind by companies like Netflix and Amazon when it comes to its TV offerings.
Apple has so much cash on its hands that it could easily bankroll some original programming to get into the original content game that’s being owned by others. By the same token it could do more to differentiate itself from other streaming music services.
Let me put it to you this way, are you as excited about new Apple products as you’ve ever been? And as a company that’s got a few really successful revenue streams and an upper executive level that rarely changes, do you think it’s even a company with the capacity to change in the way it has in the past?
Killian: It’s difficult to answer your first question because I find it really tough to get that excited about technology now. I’ve been writing about it every day for years, so it’s not quite the same anymore. I don’t think I’ll ever be as excited as I was when I bought my first iPhone or my first iMac, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every upgrade that came after those was a boring one. It’s just not the same.
With the exception of the Mac mini and the entire iPod lineup, I don’t think any of Apple’s big products are boring today. I wrote a very complimentary review of the iPhone 7, which I still stand by two months later, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the new MacBook Pro. If I wasn’t into PC gaming and I hadn’t built a Hackintosh, I’d snap up a 5K iMac in a heartbeat.
I also wear an Apple Watch, and it’s the only smartwatch I haven’t become bored of. I wear it every day and I find it useful every day. I love my 9.7-inch iPad Pro with Apple Pencil.
I think Apple’s a little bit confused about what it should do next, like a lot of its rivals. You mention it’s yet to get into VR — and that’s something I’m waiting for Apple to tackle myself as a VR fan — but I think it wants to avoid following suit like it did with Apple Watch. I think it’s holding back until it has a product that really is an improvement over what’s available today.
Once Apple knows what it needs to do next, I do think it’s capable of changing, yes.
Luke: Well, let’s turn this over to readers. Is Apple still exciting you as a company, or do you think its rivals are outshining it in some areas? What would your pick for Apple’s most exciting years? Or are they still to come? Leave a comment below, and have a good weekend.
Friday Night Fights is a series of weekly death matches between two no-mercy brawlers who will fight to the death — or at least agree to disagree — about which is better: Apple or Google, iOS or Android?
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
19 responses to “Has Apple become boring? [Friday Night Fights]”
I wouldn’t say boring, but perhaps out of touch with the market
One year have passed since I quit my old work and I am so happy now… I started doing a job from comfort of my house, for a company I stumbled upon on-line, few hrs /a day, and my income now is much bigger then it was on my last work… Last payment i got was for 9 thousand dollars… Awesome thing about this gig is the more time i got with my family… KORTA.NU/MDe
You mean out of touch with the marketing hype of VR and pen based computing? I have yet to see someone with a touch screen laptop using a Pen. I have yet to see a touch screen laptop where they are actually using the touchscreen. I have yet to walk into a store where they are actually holding a Windows based tablet in one hand and using it with their other hand. I have yet to see a Surface Book in someone’s hands that actually bought one. I have yet to see someone wearing a set of VR that’s in the public. I still haven’t seen someone actually wear the Google Glasses that have since been $hit canned by Google since it never really sold that well. I have seen someone using a PC 2 in1 as a tablet, but it was on their lap.
Apple’s just being conservative since they don’t want to release something that’s borderline stupid.
I’m surprised the media didn’t rip Microsoft over the coals for the Surface Book and Surface Studio designs. They are both flawed. If it had an Apple Logo on them, the media and the Apple user base would have crucified Apple had they released those two products. One is a product where the lid doesn’t close properly, and a computer where the guts are in a separate box that’s permanently attached to the monitor via a hinge are just plain stupid designs. Why Microsoft isn’t called on the carpet for piss poor designs is beyond me. Neither of these products even support the latest I/O standards. No Thunderbolt and no USB 3.1 Gen 2 support. Talk about holding the user back in the dark ages. Talk about someone being out of touch with where the market is going.
I’m sure temp signs are a cheaper way of advertising than in newspapers/online but the signs are a distraction to drivers. The driving skills in Calgary are already outrageously poor and we don’t need to decrease that more.
You are completely incorrect and standing up for a company that cares two sh!ts about you; just about your wallet. Apple used to be about products that just worked! Now in order to use your product you have to purchase multiple dongles to complete simple tasks. Moving pictures from a camera, need a dongle. Moving info to/from and usb stick, need a dongle. Connecting your iPhone, need a dongle. I’m assuming you’re getting the point by now and are realizing how stupid it is! It’s people like you who waste their money that Apple sees as dopes and continue to build products that extract the most money out of you.. After spending $1800+ on a computer, I expect it to ‘just work’ without having to spend more to use the product.
One yr ago I decided to quit my old job and I am so happy now… I started to work online, for a company I found online, for a few hrs /a day, and my income now is much bigger then it was on my office work… Last check i got was for Nine thousand bucks… Superb thing about this gig is that i have more time with my family… SECURE47.COM
Or, you could just NOT buy a dongle and do all those things…..you know…..WIRELESSLY lol smh
In an effort not to be “boring,” Apple is adding and subtracting features on its devices at the margins and calling them innovations. Touch Bar? Eliminating headphone jacks and MagSafe? Is the new “butterfly” keyboard design really a huge improvement? Or a bigger trackpad? USB-C? These are not innovations, they are tweaks, and in my opinion they usually do not add much in the way of useful functionality. There have been genuine innovations, such as Touch ID, but they are increasingly rare. There’s just so much you can do with the basic design, which Apple has perfected. About all they can do is build their machines lighter, with increasingly brilliant displays, blinding speed and more storage. If that is “boring,” then I’m all for it.
My odyssey with Apple is vastly different from anybody else (especially the fanbois). Back in the 80’s I was keenly aware of (and would have killed to get my hands on) an Apple 2c or IIc, even though I’m sure I wouldn’t have known what to do with either. I watched Windows become commonplace EVERYWHERE. Apple seemed like a distant memory destined to file for Chapter 11. The ridiculous looking Apple G3 compounded this feeling. And then came the iPod. Then the iPhone 6 years later. My very first Apple device was a pink iPod Shuffle I won in a contest at work. By the time the iPad came out, I was obsessed with iOS and Apple (again). My first iOS device was an iPad Mini. I loved iOS so much I knew my next cellphone had to be an iPhone. And after 10 , mostly unpleasant, years on Windows and having become obsessed with Apple again 30 years after the first time, I knew it was time for a Mac. But I didn’t do it blindly; I knew it had to do the same common tasks I was used to doing on Windows. For a short time everything was perfect. Then they stripped the Shuffle of the ability to make a playlist from all songs you put on it with just a couple clicks. Then they removed the haedphone jack from the iPhone. Now they removed the last disc drive, and ports I’ve been using on my MacBook Pro. When the time comes for me to get a new laptop I’ll be stymied; I never want to go back to Windows, but the new MacBooks just look like royal pains. The passion is gone again.
That’s too bad. I think the TouchBar looks like one of the biggest useful design since the computer itself. It makes that entire portion of the keyboard useable in new ways. I know the switch to USB-C is unsettling for people, but imagine 5 years from now. We probably won’t be able to find a new computer with anything other than USB-C. USB-C supports every I/O that one can use. There really is no use for any other connector on the actual computer anymore. Yeah, the user has to get one of the four things.
1. A new cable USB-C to whatever they need.
2. A dongle to attach to an existing cable.
3. A USB-C adapter. The smallest and cheapest solution.
4. A new device that comes with a new cable or port that supports USB-C so you don’t have to buy one. There are dual port USB-A/C Flash Drives and MicroSD readers, and they aren’t that expensive.
So there are plenty of solutions when moving to a USB-C computer, but you really can’t blame Apple on this. They just want to design a computer where each port is the most useful port they can use. Other ports are either one or limited use ports. So why have a bunch of different ports that are limited in their functionality when you can have one that do anything? I’m on Apple’s side on this. I wish they had a few more on the MacBook, and one more on the lowest price 13in MBPR. I’m sure USB-C will be replacing all other ports on their desktops when they get refreshed.
Adopting USB-C is like pulling off a Band Aid from a injury. the best way to do it is one quick motion and be as painless as possible, rather than slowly pulling it off, that just hurts more.
Yes yes, boring. They need to come up with dozens of useless gimmicks and stupid features like poop scanner, toast makers and portable landing strips in their devices.
Seriously I think most of the internet is confusing ‘interesting’ and ‘innovation’ with throwing shit at the wall and checking how much will stick like other companies so often do
But it is still quite disappointing when the iPhone releases after such a long time and it’s camera isn’t even as good as the s7 which was released prior with it’s only benefit being extra zoom. We are stuck with the same old screen for a long time and the one major “improvement” is removing the headphone jack. You talk of useless gimmicks. Is the new home button anything more than a gimmick? This is why after so long I’m seriously considering the google pixel as my next phone. But I might also wait till next year for the anniversary edition of the iPhone since I really really hope it becomes the next big thing.
I think most people’s impression of Apple was the iPod and iPhone and how transformative those were at the time. However this is not the real Apple, and it is creating an unrealistic expectation for shareholders and behind the curve customers. They were essentially seeing everything through rose tinted spectacles which are beginning to wear off and now realize the company isn’t just about growth and innovation.
The rest off us who are the early adopters and actually understand tech, never really saw Apple as a better company we just bought the best product for ourselves with the money we had available. This may or may not have been a Mac.
The progression of the Mac has never been that “revolutionary”, it has always been about thin and artistic and removing older features and ports and replacing them with accessories. Yes sometimes something good is released but I think that is due to the philosophy and natural progression rather than a deliberate attempt to innovate through specs.
Mac never had a blu ray drive and Apple don’t sell one. The MacBook Pro has always had underpowered GPUs and the iMac has slightly better mobile GPU but not really good for modern gaming. That is how it has always been.
Essentially Apple have always been “boring” from a spec and tech standpoint, that does not mean they were/are not marvelous feats of engineering. The new MacBook Pro with only thunderbolt 3 ports is almost the full realization of the design. Slim, compact, yet powerful but also gives the user the freedom of expansion like a desktop.
The reason I am favoring Apple at the moment is their focus on security, privacy and safety/quality. No other manufacture or OS currently offers those. I would quite happily pay more for the piece of mind that my phone won’t blow up and my card details are stored securely.
The funny thing about innovation. If the innovation is badly executed, then it’s not much of an innovation. Apple’s still innovating, but they are being more cautious as to not rush to market and screw up the implementation. That’s worse. the thing is, Apple is competing against companies that would rather put out a product that’s being rushed the market and has flaws than to do a better job in product design. That’s what is REALLY going on, but the media isn’t talking about it, because it would piss off the Advertisers. Remember, Samsung, Google, etc. pay a LOT of money in advertisements and they’ll over look things when they can.
There is a list of crap that Google, Samsung, Microsoft and others are doing where the media looks the other way, and if Apple did it, they’d get racked over the coals.
Apple is STILL Innovating. The TouchBar IS pure genius, and It may never come out on the PC in quite the same way. Time will tell if they can pull it off the way Apple did it.
Apple has been submitting and get patent approvals left and right. But it takes time to fully test and be able to bring these INNOVATIONS to market, because it just takes time. Would you rather have a product that’s rushed to the market simply to get bragging rights, but in really has a security problem or the innovation really isn’t that useful because the implementation is incomplete? Those seem to happen all of the time with Google and Samsung innovations.
The innovations from Apple may not always be seen from the outside. The way they are waterproofing the Apple Watch is pure genius. It’s not only useful, but the design and the idea was just brilliant. THAT’s an example of pure genius in both design and execution of something that really is a useful spec.
Yes, I do agree that there are areas of improvement, no company is perfect. But I honestly think that people are not giving them credit where it’s due and that the media isn’t ripping Apple’s competitors when they should.
I was looking at a review of the HP Spectre x360 and if you look at the Advertisement, one almost wants to run out and buy one. But I sat down and read about a half a dozen of the comments and they were all written by users and every single one of them were complaining about the fact that the screen broke VERYeasily and HP won’t cover it. One was a Mac user that switched to the HP Spectre, and after a long comment, he basically wants to go back to Apple because of the hassle it was with the HP Spectre. The screen broke, the case was very easily scratched and he’s been without the product for days on end waiting for it to get repaired and hassling with HP support, which is based in India as they outsource their Support.
I have worked for very large corporate resellers and have sold most of the major PC mfgs products and HP is not normally a company that makes crappy products or doesn’t fix their products when under warranty, but after hearing this guy’s story and many others. The PC mfg are getting away with really bad business habits, but the media doesn’t cover it. I read one story where Dell simply won’t fix an out of warranty product as they only do warranty repairs. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, People should know that Dell doesn’t do any out of warranty repairs.
I honestly think a large portion of the media is biased against Apple and they make mountains out of mole hills, or they ignore bad business practices by Apple’s competitors.
When was the last time the media covered a malware problem with Apple? It doesn’t happen that often. But malware on Windows is a daily occurrence and new malware crops up daily. But the media doesn’t cover malware on Windows anymore because it’s normally accepted that Windows has a ton of malware and everyone is still numb to it. No one cares, but when there’s malware on the Mac, it’s front page news.
I just think the last 12 months for Apple has been a little light because of the lack of product announcements, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating. They are, they just want to wait until the product is ready to actually ship rather than rushing to market.
What’s funny and sad is that Apple wasn’t the first and only to remove the MicroSD card reader from a computer, they aren’t the only company to offer USB-C ports exclusively on a computer. They aren’t the only company that removed the 3.5mm jack, but they are getting all the heat like they are.
I agree with you almost completely. I believe that Apple is simply riding the wave of technological progress; the wave can slow down, or it can speed up, depending on the time. We are now in a phase of technological maturation, where most of the possibilities of current products have already been realised, and where innovation comes from iterative change such as new advances in semiconductor technology or new implementations of current technology. Our current technology level has not reached the point where more advanced interface technologies can be realised for the mass-market, meaning that innovation will slow as the primary motivator of innovation comes from newly available interfaces. We could see the intense interest generated with the introduction of the iPhone, when a new interface was opened up to developers. I honestly a new renaissance for the Mac might be around the corner because of the introduction of the OLED touch-bar; as I said, new interfaces generate excitement. Perhaps the next interface will be VR, but we’ll never know what Apple is brewing in its headquarters.
Damn ….all the latest Apple bashing is just so over-the-top. I suppose it is to be expected when you have a company as large as successful as Apple iand media which is constantly striving for clicks but Apple boring? Really? How exactly is it borng to have products that actually work, are for the most part a joy to use, and fit together in a wonderful ecosystem? What really gets me is the almost total neglect of the software aspect with Apple products. I sit down every day to use my 2014 MacBook Pro and I give a silent blessing to Apple for giving me an operating system that lets me do actual work without having to fight it as I did almost constantly with every version of windows I ever used. Ditto for iOS which although not as customizable as my android phone was, at least the Settings never crashed which drove me right back to an iPhone. If nothing else, and even if I were somehow even remotely tempted to jump ship, software that I use and depend on such as DEVONThink are absolutely unavailable for the Windows platform and I would have to close my business for lack of an alternative.
No, I am not planning to replace my MacBook Pro at the current time because first of all I use it in clamshell mode most of the time and therefore the Touch Bar does me no good and second, I have never once thought that I wanted my computer to be faster as it is absolutely fast enough for every single thing that I do although granted, I am not working with large video files or anything of the like. (I also cannot conceive of needing more than the 16 GB of RAM). As for touchscreens on my laptop, blah… Even I thought it would be useful on my laptop screen what good would that do me in clamshell mode ?
As it has been pointed out elsewhere, in that sense Apple is a victim of its own success because unlike Windows, MacOS users don’t need to constantly update their specs with every new operating system. If I were however upgrading, I would simply plunk down an extra $60 for a dock on sale right now that will plug into a USB-C port and then provide every legacy port one could possibly imagine needing. Over time, I would replace my peripherals with USB – C compatible devices and at some point in the future end up being able to ditch the dock entirely and run all my peripherals from a simple hub thereby saving money on docks into the foreseeable future.
Bottom line for those who were disappointed because they didn’t get 32 GB of RAM (And I would have to imagine that is a pretty small minority given how good 16 GB turns out for me no matter how many windows I have open) or those who were expecting legacy ports to be supported forever, well… I guess I feel your pain but that has nothing to do with me nor does I think it has much to do with the overwhelming majority of users like myself who welcome for the most part what Apple is doing and has done and look forward to many years of problem free computing into the future. When I hear the swearing that goes on from my girlfriend’s home office relating to windows 10 , I will continue to have a smile on my face and risk accusations of “Apple fanboy.”
Thank you Apple for everything you have done to make my computing life real pleasure it is as opposed to the living nightmare that was the Microsoft/windows world.
I think the tech media as a whole should stop obsessing over the specs (myself included at times) and care more about real-world performance. I am currently on a 2015 iMac with only 8GB of RAM, before which I used an older iMac with only 4GB. macOS Sierra does a great job with resource management, and makes supposedly “slow” machines such as the 12 inch MacBook feel very fast, and even make them viable light video editing machines under Final Cut Pro X. Even though tech bloggers keep bashing Apple for “overpricing” their mediocre specs, what they are not mentioning is the resourcefulness of macOS, which essentially make the machine perform on a level similarly to a higher specced Windows computer. This optimisation coupled with the superior design, build quality and stable software is what causes me to return to Mac again and again, especially after my struggles with Windows 8 on an issued laptop. This reliability is what we pay for, not gimmicky new features such as the continuum features in Windows 10, which turns a phone into a computer with very limited hardware and software, and features that actually add value to the operating system, such as the seamless integration between devices such as Continuity.
During the Apple event earlier this year something happened to me that has never happened before. I actually fell asleep while watching the presentation. I thought it was a fluke because I didn’t have much sleep the night prior. Now I’m questioning that theory because it happened again with this most recent event. I do think Apple is floundering a bit and lost its direction. They’ve never been so uneven in their treatment of their hardware lines as they are today. I was really hoping to see a new iMac, not more MacBook upgrades.
What makes me sad is not lack of innovation or usbc ports or touch bar. What makes all the difference for me its the price. Apple´s devices are not affordable anymore. Now they are really premium.
And what makes me really pissed is that they know what they are doing. They don’t care about current users because we already bought their devices and they think we will continue to buy them no matter what.
I think they are completely wrong about this and many Mac users will go back to windows.