Now they're a victim of their own success. All their product lines are relatively successful. There's not a significant product that they can kill (they killed the routers now, but that probably doesn't free up too much focus anyway). I think even Steve would've struggled with this conundrum.
Internally, they've tried to merged Mac and iOS, ala Windows 8/10, to allow them to keep a single focus.. but their conclusion was that it compromises both Mac OS and iOS in a way that they don't want to do. And if they made the merged OS closer to iOS, it would alienate a lot of Mac users and developers.
So how should Apple refocus? Who knows. I think it's a flaw to think that Steve Jobs would have magically solved the problem already. He was smart, but not a god.
> how do you plug your lightning headphones into your Mac?
You don't buy lightning headphones.
Apple will kill the lightning on iPhone too. Either replacing it with USB-C or removing it altogether. This is all part of a transition which is unavoidably awkward.
Apple is betting heavily on wireless, and lightning headphones is just a stop-gap solution while wireless headphones improve. A way for people to be able to buy some cheap, simple headphones to replace the bundled ones if they need to. If you buy an expensive lightning-only headphone you're a fool.
The moment that wireless charging is fast enough to completely replace wired charging, they will kill the lightning port and perhaps bundle a case which bridges lightning or USB-C to wireless charging+bluetooth 5. Third parties will deliver cases with bundled battery, USB-C and 3.5mm jack, and since the phone will be even thinner without any ports, the phone+case will still be plenty thin enough for daily use, and sturdier too. Everyone will be happy (hah, as if..)
They could have made the transition much better if they just included Airpods with iphone 7 onward..
They could have delayed the iphone 7 launch by a few months but (especially given what happened in their other product lines) that would probably have been a mistake.
Except that a pair of lightning headphones comes with iPhone 7. (And before "nobody uses the supplied Apple headphones".. actually yes a lot of people do.)
Buy a 2015 MacBook Pro and iPhone 6S. You get headphones that plug into both devices, and a USB-lightning cable that links the two.
Buy a 2016 MacBook Pro and iPhone 7. You get lightning headphones that won't plug into the computer, and a USB-lightning cable that won't plug into the computer.
I know there are "reasons" but isn't this just... silly?
Hasn't it? They still sell nearly twice as many iPads as all Macs combined. Relative to units sold I think Apple invests heavily in the Mac platform you may (dis)like the new MacBooks and MBPs but clearly a lot of time and effort has been invested into their design.