Comment by michaelmarion | Hacker News Reader

Comment by michaelmarion | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking on this the other day, and I think what ultimately boils down to is this: there’s no “why” anymore at Apple.

Go back and watch old keynotes with Steve. Almost always, whenever he’s talking about a new feature or piece of hardware, he starts with the “why.” Not everyone will agree with the “why,” of course, but it’s still given.

Why do we want to get rid of the CD drive on MacBook Airs? (We see OTA software updates and media downloads as the way of the future and it wastes space.)

Why do we want to migrate from PowerPC to Intel? (We need better performance-per-watt so we can build MacBooks that have better battery life and don’t overheat.)

Why do we want to not have a physical keyboard on the iPhone? (Because the buttons and controls can’t self-specialize for each application.)

There are obviously exceptions to this rule, but by and large it’s fairly accurate. Now, watch the most recent keynotes. Has there been even a single second dedicated to WHY we need Apple TV+? Apple News+? Apple Arcade? Thinner keyboard mechanisms?

No, and it’s because we all know what the answer is.

There's still a "why" to those product launches. It's just that the "why" is no longer design-driven and is instead driven by business needs– namely, "we need to diversify our revenue streams away from just hardware sales and into services." This started when Tim Cook (instead of Jony Ive) took over as CEO.

I think the actual turning point was when Scott Forestall was fired & Ive took over software design. Prior to that, Apple had been a software company first. Even Woz talks about making hardware so that he’d have to tools to make software.

Ive created some amazing hardware, but I’m excited to see where the next few product cycles go.

> making hardware so that he’d have to tools to make software

A very good point in the context of neglecting the Mac, the primary tool used to make software for all the other prioritized hardware devices.

If they lose the developer community, who do they expect will build software for iOS, or the iPad that Cook loves so much? Seems very shortsighted.

Yeah, this is exactly what I was alluding to when I said "we all know what the answer is." It's the needs of the business, not customers, that are being put first.

Brilliant summary on the state of invention at Apple.

I think Steve really did give them the edge with design and innovation. Right now there's just no leadership with that kind of bold intent of any one thing in particular. Apple have sort of blended into other premium brands as well as premium brands copying a lot of what Apple do (Matebook X, every phone that copied the iPhone notch).

Are they re-architecting MacOS to be more secure as they've currently pushed for? Or are there middle managers at Apple who are measuring engineering by the number of commits their engineers do per sprint. Only time will tell - If they don't do this right (as with the butterfly keyboard) they really risk damaging their reputation as a premium brand with high quality.

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