Oh wow, it’s like they’re trying less and less.

When they introduced the Apple Pencil and people were like “haha it’s a stylus”, the thing was decidedly NOT a stylus (it actually couldn’t be used to control some parts of the UI). It was an actual digital pen, something that used to be specialized and expensive external hardware, and it worked beautifully with the iPad. It was literally “stylus but GOOD”. I saw it and thought “people will make memes about this, but Apple totally gets it”.

When they introduced the Vision Pro, VR was just kind of shit. Bulky, ugly, uncool. Vision Pro tried to resolve some of the issues, but it was still kind of half-assed. Like they wanted to have a VR device but couldn’t actually make it work. Good resolution, but not great. Vergence-accomodation conflict not addressed. Still bulky and ugly. Isolation kind of addressed (with the AR-ish UX and the “see-through” display), but not enough.

Now we got the foldable iPhone and a touchscreen MacBook.

Foldable phones are still awfully delicate and the whole concept doesn’t have a clear “killer” use case. There’s no new UX, no new features, it’s just an iPad Mini in a marginally smaller device that’s expensive as hell. Apple didn’t even try to address the obvious shortcomings, they just built the same stupid thing everyone else is failing to sell.

Touchscreen laptops still wobble, they still get covered with fingerprints, they’re still uncomfortable and there’s still no meaningful UX. This thing doesn’t even try to address any of that. Their marketing images literally just show hands hovering above the keyboard and touching the screen for no good reason. They’ve been mocking touchscreen laptops for years now and now they release one like it’s the most obvious thing ever. 1984 vibes.

> Now we got the foldable iPhone and a touchscreen MacBook.

And the HomeView, which also feels like it lacks a clear “killer” use case.

Maybe I’m just not the intended audience for any of these products, but I’m also starting to wonder if Apple are throwing things at a wall and hoping something will stick.

Tim Cook and his lieutenants were decidedly running on fumes for the last 2-3 years. That's how long these products take to plan and design so that's what we're seeing right now; the last of the Cook era is being released now. Wait for 2-3 years for Ternus and his gang to start doing their work in hardware; on the software side they've already reversed the direction and its hopefully getting better.

Apple nowadays feels like it’s rudderless and grasping at everything for $$$, in turn giving up on their OG design principles.

First Liquid Glass, then the 17’s design, then ads and ecosystem subscription bloat, then Duo/HomeView, and now the touchscreen Mac. Jobs is rolling in his grave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zfir0Ide0A

Also they lost the simplicity to their product lineup.

How come they just released a Macbook Pro yesterday with the latest M6 chip, to release the day after another Macbook Pro with a year old chip?

Why is there not one Macbook and one Macbook Pro?

How else would they get consoomers to keep buying?

I am a dev with a m1 air 16gb and I have 0 reason to update yet, it's been 6 years now, laptops are solved for 90% of people, they need to introduce gimmicks to create demand

The people who made Apple what it is today are long gone. The planks have been fully replaced

>When they introduced the Apple Pencil and people were like “haha it’s a stylus”, the thing was decidedly NOT a stylus

Ironic: when they introduced the Apple Watch, the narrative around it was "whatever it will be, it WON'T be just another smartwatch" and yet it was.

This. 100% this. My first look at their marketing images resulted in "well, that's the most awkward looking thing I've ever seen."

Apple lost its magic long time ago.

The Duo does have a killer use case at least for me: multitasking

Game + Video

Messaging + Browsing

App + Development

Notes + Research

etc