A New, Unforeseen Threat to Apple Appears
Three very interesting articles converged this week to suggest a change in the currents of thought that flow through our Apple lives. The first is this survey from The Verge that reports on “How Americans really feel about Facebook, Apple, and more.”
Apple’s spaceship building at Apple Park.
Backdrop: Recent political events, the evolution of social media and social influence and the rise of the industry’s tech giants into powerful forces threaded into our lives have resulted in sea change in attitudes about tech and the tech giants, according to these findings.
The Verge writes:
We wanted to know how you felt about these companies. So late last month, The Verge partnered with Reticle Research to conduct a wide-ranging survey on the public’s attitude toward some of the biggest names in tech.
The troubling results for Apple are surprising. Of course, people continue to stand in lines for Apple products, and few other companies can claim that. However, the insertion of a massive influx of opinion and high tech initiatives by Amazon, Facebook and Google have diluted the once simple memes of old: You were either a PC person or a Mac Person.
The very first chart from the survey reveals that Apple has no monopoly on consumer feelings about trust. This shouldn’t be, and the mind reels. But there it is. The rest of the charts tell additional, depressing stories about how people feel about Apple compared to the other tech giants.
Image credit: The Verge
The internet, iOT, AI and other advanced technologies have allowed the various tech giants to flood the market with all kinds of gadgets and services regardless of whether they are wise and helpful products. Like Amazon Key. In turn, the powerful social discourse about these products and services by users and tech writers has created a multitude of emotions and beliefs that are no longer evidence-based. That, in turn, has created feelings about Apple that professionals who truly understand Apple don’t experience..
In ironic, infinite regression, The Verge’s survey is a great example of the very kind of internet discourse that I’m describing.
The Apple Double Standard
Another good example of the social discourse that threatens Apple is explained in this week’s article by Neil Cybart at Above Avalon. “Apple Is Facing a Double Standard.”
However, a trend has developed where a number of tech companies are said to be outperforming Apple. Despite being cast as leaders, these companies aren’t judged by the same high standards as Apple. Microsoft, Samsung, and Google are said to be one-upping Apple in core competencies like hardware and design. Yet, these companies don’t face anywhere near the amount of criticism thrown at Apple.
Author Cybart goes on to explain in detail how many of the criticisms of Apple are done with a certain pseudo-authority of absolutism. Meanwhile, other companies, listed above, who aren’t doing all that well with their products compared to Apple, are cut huge slack and “graded on a curve.”
Left unabated, this constant barrage of emotional evaluation of Apple appears to be affecting the opinions of consumers, as described in the survey by The Verge with which I opened this article.
Dated Half-Truths
A final example of the confusion and shifting consumer attitudes is exemplified in this terrific analysis by John Gruber. “Face ID FUD.” There, author Gruber explains how misunderstood half-truths and dated information coming from Apple’s supply chain get turned into what appears to be authoritative criticism of imminent Apple problems and potential failures.
Plagued! Doomed! How can it succeed? Oh, wait.
The Mac Press, if you can call it that, has dozens and dozens of experienced technical journalists who understand Apple. However, their competent voices, like their professional counterparts in political news coverage, are often drowned out in a barrage of social media reports told by amateurs full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.
We’ve endured the art of Apple bashing in its simplest forms before, but the sober minds of informed customers has always prevailed. However, just as scientists, with quiet, intelligent competence, are being drowned out by political partisanship and showmanship, Apple, I worry, may have increased difficulties with a coherent, widely recognized narrative about its offerings that resonates widely and profoundly with consumers.
Fortunately, the huge popularity, quality, and advanced technologies of the iPhone are holding the fort. Apple hardware speaks volumes about the character of the company amidst a rising cacophony from all others.
Next Page: The News Debris For The Week of October 23rd. New thinking about the future MacBook lineup.
Page 2 – News Debris For The Week of October 23rd
The Future of the MacBook and MacBook Pro
Very often, the value of an article is in the details of the discussion: the observations, nuances and references. This article by Jason Snell at Macworld sounds overly critical, but invokes a good dialog about Apple’s thinking. “Three MacBook mistakes: Will Apple correct course?”
MacBook Pro, 13 and 15. Image credit: Apple
After all, two of the criticisms refer to the MacBook, a Mac that was designed in the Mac’s dark years, 2015-17. I agree that it would be good to have an extra USB-C port on new MacBooks, but I disagree about the original butterfly keyboard—which I love. So what do you think?
It could well be that as part of the re-thinking of the Mac lineup, one that is more practical and functional, with less focus on design that interferes with instead of enhances functionality, Apple will make some welcome changes to the future MacBook and MacBook Pro models. We shall see.
More Debris
• Microsoft has given up on the Kinect technology. A very good story at co.design details the rise and fall of this Microsoft technology. “Exclusive: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect.”
Manufacturing of the Kinect has shut down. Originally created for the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s watershed depth camera and voice recognition microphone sold 35 million units since its debut in 2010, but Microsoft will no longer produce it when retailers sell off their existing stock. The company will continue to support Kinect for customers on Xbox, but ongoing developer tools remain unclear.
This is a great story about the forces that act on evolving technology. It also seems to fit in with a new kind of thinking and focus by Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella.
• If you have access to a server to do your (non-GUI) code development work, an iPad Pro and keyboard can be a pretty nifty terminal for access. “The iPad Pro as main computer for programming.” This should whet your appetite:
In the summer of 2017, I wanted to know what it would be like to use an iPad Pro as my main computer. I found out that it can actually work, thanks to an iOS app called Blink, an SSH replacement called Mosh, iOS 11 and running stuff on a server.
• Finally, we know that Apple is developing original TV content. But one of the things I have written and podcasted about is that Apple as a corporation will be harshly judged by the character of that content. I thought it would be unwise for Apple to jump in with the same levels of sex and violence as everyone else. Really great, high caliber content doesn’t need it. And so I was pleased to see this missive by Peter Kafka at recode. “Apple’s new TV shows will be nipple-free.”
Excellent.
Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holiday weekends.
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