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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.

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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.

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