Is the Mac Struggling Inside Apple?
Over at Bloomberg Technology, Mark Gurman lays out the case that Apple is indeed marginalizing the Mac internally, as we have suggested recently. Gurman cites numerous sources within the company who reveal troubling changes. These days, the Mac hardware team gets less face time with Jony Ive’s design group, and managers have become more likely to float multiple competing ideas, meaning that time spent on losing designs ends up wasted. On the software side, Gurman says that there is no longer a dedicated Mac operating system group, with all engineers on a single team and many of them focusing on iOS first. Even Apple employees are asking if Mac desktops remain strategically important, which prompted a response from Tim Cook that was positive, if vague.
I am watching this closely as we have depended upon iMacs and Mac Pros for our business for a long time. I cannot imagine having to switch platforms just because I want to use a computer to run my business. I am ordering another Mac Pro as we speak - we don't use it for graphics but for databases and web services.
I read Tim's assurances, but I did not get any warm feelings from it.
UGH!
Sad news. The delusional ones at Apple will destroy the company, if they stop producing a compelling Mac. While the iPhone may bring in more revenue, if all of us Mac users are pushed to Windows, then Android phones become much more attractive. Apple is much more vulnerable on the iPhone side, because there are fewer distinctions between phones. A few missteps, like the lack of headphone jack and exploding batteries, and Apple could lose a third of its iPhone sales.
This is definitely the case for me.
Although I like my iPhone, I could imagine switching to a well-engineered Android phone. Especially if Apple keeps charging what they do and iOS continues developing into this Windows-esque do-it-all-bloatware. The Mac on the other hand I could really not imagine giving up, regardless of how things have gone downhill since Snow Leopard. Despite the fact that I use Linux professionally and actually enjoy its many strengths, I really do not want to give up the Mac.
Macs, apart from being better than Windows desktops, lead to iOS development.
Nuke macOS, and one may as well develop for Android.
The question that I haven't seen addressed anywhere is to whom at Apple do we direct our concerns? I sent a letter to investor relations at Apple, but I don't know if those comments are placed in a round file or actually read by someone who cares.
Apple has a product feedback site at
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
But you can also always email someone like Tim Cook or Craig Federighi, whose email addresses are easy to find with Google. You probably won't get a reply, but you never know...
I couldn't care less for the dated and expensive hardware and I have been an Apple user for 30 years. We have been given mediocre hardware that just looks nice, marginally. I cannot run my current proffessional software on anything costing less than $3300 while the PCs are 2/3 that. It is unsustainable.
I can make a strong case (but won't here) that the Mac's days are numbered. I'd estimate that Apple has an aggressive internal objective of phasing it out within the next 5 years. Tim Cook's direction for Apple is aligned with that of his former boss, for whom no product was sacred.
When I needed to get a smartphone for work, I experimented with departing from Apple. I got a $25 Moto E (running Android 5), and there are very few times I feel like it's not powerful enough.
I think many people just buy Apple by habit, as I would have if money wasn't a problem.
Thanks for the clue how to find Tim Cook's e-mail address. I spent the last hour or so writing him a long letter lining up what I think the problems are. Not that I expect him to take notice of my complaints. No doubt I'm not the first one to call him out on the issues. But since most of the problems are longstanding and show no signs of being fixed, it's clear Cook lives in his own, impermeable world of delusion. So maybe I'll feel the need less often to rant here on TidBITS about Apple's decline. It seems inevitable and irreversible. So what's the point? I'm an old fuddy-duddy so it means less to me than to younger generations for whom the failure of Apple will be a greater tragedy.
I have been an Apple user (consumer) for over a decade - Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad. If I had to rank their products in order of importance to me, that would be their ranking - first comes the Mac. Take that away and I could easily switch to other brands.