I kind of feel like, once you're talking publicly about things like if you are committed or not, you probably aren't and are trying to keep people from fleeing while you figure out what to do or while some long-term strategy kicks in.
"We have so many amazing things in store that I am so excited about" <-- recycled and beaten to death CEO lingo. I mean, he might be telling the truth (I am not gonna argue what I don't know!) but the wording is just awful and comes off as corny and forced by your PR department.
Actions speak louder than words. The new MBPs are the most meh Apple laptops ever. The iPhone 7/Plus are the laziest iPhones ever made, too. Rehashes losing legacy ports and trying to impose new ones (although USB Type-C is the best decision they've made in the last several years; I think they should've went with the same port for the iPhone as well). And losing battery life. Damn.
I was never an active Apple user. I bought my first iPhone and Macbook at March 2016 (the 12" Macbook and the 6S Plus; I sold the iPhone only 4 months later but that's a separate topic). But I did consider Apple because part of the Windows ecosystem -- and the entire Android ecosystem -- are disappointing me a lot lately. I was really curious what will Apple bring with the iPhone 7/Plus and the new MBPs.
Severe disappointment followed. I'll give them until the next iPhone release. If they can't excite me, oh well, guess it's time to sift again through the trash yard that Android has become lately.
I wish manufacturers would make products that work well with anything. Like Apple watches with Android phones and vice versa, Apple TV running Amazon's Prime TV app, Amazon's Prime TV box running Apple's TV app, etc.
All of these ecosystem-exclusive things are annoying and in some ways I believe holding technology back a little.
Peter Thiel's "From 0 to 1" opened my mind to this. SV VCs also don't care about your tech too much - but they are insanely focused on what your "moat" is. I.e. lock-in, patents, network effects etc.
If your Apple Watch series 4 doesn't work with your Nexus 20 phone, whose fault is it? Who needs to fix it? It might be holding technology back a little but until we get away from capitalism and there's a financial risk/reward system to making sure everything works and nothing is shared, we'll have to deal with this exclusivity.
Oh and this was quite accurate at the time (I'm not implying that in case of Apple): http://wiki.c2.com/?WarningSignsOfCorporateDoom
Also, in this situation, denial is the lesser of two evils. Because if there are rumors that "X is going to be killed", and you don't squash them, that's even more suspicious.
PR departments (and governments) concoct and intentionally "leak" internal docs to the press all the time as a back-channel. This particular Apple missive reads like a press release[1].
I recently read an interesting article on how governments benefit from unsanctioned leaks as they provide cover for planned leaks. The same dynamic applies to companies, planned leaks are a mechanism for good PR that they do not want to be officially recognized as PR. I wish I could find the link, I can't find it in my history :-(
1. "The current generation iMac is the best desktop we have ever made, and its beautiful Retina 5K display is the best desktop display in the world."
“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore?" Tim Cook told the paper during a trip to visit Apple's flagship store in London for the debut of its powerful big-screen tablet, the new iPad Pro. "No really," he said, "why would you buy one?”
In Apple's world, "PC" means Windows PC; the Mac is not a "PC". As Gruber noted[1], remember the ad campaign - "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC..."
[1] http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/10/31/cook-why-would-y...
"No Gruber is just plain wrong. I thought I remembered Cook using "PC" to mean Mac and WinPC, and, after a little Googling, found I was right" [1]
[1] https://myfreakinname.blogspot.com/2016/11/john-hodgman-is-n...
The term PC does not refer to any computer intended for personal use, it refers to machines compatible with the IBM 5150 Personal Computer.
Sure it is. It made out of stock X86 hardware components. It uses stock PC expansion modules. It can boot and run both Windows and Linux.
Exactly how is not a PC?
What Apple is committed to is its iPhone-powered firehose of cash. (Maybe volcano of cash? Atomic bomb? No hyperbole is too strong, here.)
I pine for great computer hardware from Apple as much as anyone else, I'm sad about the current state of their computers. But can you really blame them? The numbers generated from their iPhone business is bonkers. It's off the map/beyond the pale and it has made them arguably the biggest most successful enterprise in the history of the world. What are they to do?
The first 25 minutes were spent rambling about other Apple business, and then they only updated 1 of their many Mac product lines.
Is it any surprise that longtime Mac users are pissed?