So Apple Watch and AirPods is almost as big a business as the Mac. Wow, I didn’t realize that.
Quite a vindication of Tim Cook’s decade at the helm.
Quite a vindication of Tim Cook’s decade at the helm.
The App Store is clearly a big wasted opportunity. 12 years ago I was actually eager to find new apps there. Why did Apple let it become a slum?
It probably is at least relatively. The problem is that you (or at least a lot of people) wouldn't like the answer. Make it a very curated marketplace. Yes, that would take some labor but you can also take into account ratings etc. (Though not sure how to deal with the legit crappy online banking app that people give low-ratings too.)
But cue the outrage over my app dropped below a 4.0 rating and Apple kicked me out of the App Store. Or Apple decided I wasn't popular enough. Or any of the other ways in which curation produces losers that will be at least somewhat arbitrary at the margins.
Across all of the apps that I use to consume content, I only know one app that does this well: Criterion. Here, look:
https://www.criterionchannel.com/browse
First thing to note. You can browse w/o having to create an account!
You know what else Criterion does? Rather, what it doesn't do? It doesn't cut off the end of movies at the credits to spam me with what it thinks I want to watch next. There's no "you may like this other thing" based on my watch history. Rather, content is grouped already based on attributes of the movies, not based on my watch history.
Criterion cares about movies and about me as a movie watcher, and it shows.
I will pay Criterion $99/year till the end of time.
The only thing I'd like them to improve is their streaming quality a bit. The video stream is okay, but none of the soundtracks are anything but stereo at best, even for movies they also sell as Blu-ray that have multi-channel DTS soundtracks.
But this is no surprise. Per this quora answer by Larry Wright ( https://qr.ae/pvlbgP ) -
> Note that Criterion is a video distribution company. One may still wonder exactly whom makes the selections and with what credentials. Co-founder Robert Stein's background is in electronic publishing. Co-founders Joe Medjuck and Roger Smith produced such Criterion-unworthy fair as "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!" and "C.C. and Company" (respectively). One must assume that they employ a crack team of film historians, critics and assorted movie geeks to curate their titles.
69 are available on Criterion. 61 are on HBO. 22 are on Amazon Prime. 17 are on Netflix. 15 are on Hulu. 6 are on Disney+.
240 are available as rentals on on iTunes.
(And I have no idea who Larry Wright is or why I should give any credence to his snarky remark where he picked two films that are not at all representative of the full Criterion catalog and neither of those films are currently on Criterion in any case. To pick a random selection of 5 on Criterion from my watchlist: Story of Women, White Material, Woman in the Dunes, Piccadilly, The Thin Blue Line.)
So like... worst of both worlds. Nice.
They gambled and lost.
Which also says a lot about Tim Cook's tenure. They are facing major regulatory scrutiny due to the App Store, in addition to it being a major knock on their brand, instead of it being the asset it once was.
It's a leadership problem, for sure.
It's absolutely outrageous that they run confusing ads next to search results -- probably millions of people getting confused and having a bad outcome because of that. Just straight up selling out a good user-experience for $. Shameful.
I think when most people got a phone it was novel to have an app for different purposes - but nowadays people only really want apps they will use. They already have dozens they like so something has to be offering something unique.
And when it comes to finding a new app (like how I recently picked a new app for cycling) just seems like youtube and reddit forums are always going to have more info than an official marketplace.
If only those had costed $15 instead of $1, apps might not have become a race to the bottom where the only way to make a buck was to offer shady IAP or to release an uninspired boilerplate app filled to the brim with ads.
However, I do a perceive a slight sheen on the slope.
This was obviously an oversight and the ads were halted when this came to light. Apple has never been good at dealing with ads, which is probably good since we don’t need a single company to takeover all markets.
After seeing the tremendous success that he's lead the company to my view has softened a bit. Even if those atrocities might have been avoided if Jobs was still around, there's no denying at this point that Tim was the right choice for CEO.
Was that Tim or Ive?
Agreed, if all you care about is Apple getting richer, he's done an outstanding job.
I think Tim Cook’s Apple is doing very well