Here are a few bits and pieces from the New York Times this morning.
First, there’s this, from an article entitled, Apple Moves Toward a Wireless Future, One Tweak at a Time:
What was lacking in Apple’s product showcase was a new, can’t-miss hit. But if you like tweaks to products you may already have, the company had plenty to offer.
Or this dismissive line from Apple’s Latest: What You Really Need to Know:
An examination suggests that no upgrade is necessary unless you have owned your current iPhone for more than two years.
But my favorite is this, from an article entitled, What’s Really Missing From the New iPhone: Cutting-Edge Design:
The iPhone 7 doesn’t have a place to plug in headphones, but that is far from its worst shortcoming. The new device is an example of how Apple’s aesthetics have gone stale.
Did someone at Apple piss in their corn flakes?
I can certainly understand cynicism, judging new product with a critical eye. But this doesn’t feel objective at all. This feels judgmental, in the worst way. At the very least, the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the new Apple Watch, and the rest of the wave of new tech from Apple provide food for thought, a sign of things to come, a core set of technological achievements that will move the smartphone industry forward, both by Apple and by the companies that are inspired by Apple.
This is fine work, the result of many millions of dollars spent and the late night, long hours efforts of many designers and developers. Is it all home runs? Very nearly. But even if you don’t think so, take the time to explore, with curiosity, and appreciate what Apple has achieved.
My 2 cents.
The NY Times is a an elitist publication only interested in manufacturing consent to the highest bidder, or in this case the lack thereof.
It’s no secret NYT likes to punish Apple for being good at what they do.
I suspect they work on a ‘pay to play’ model and if you don’t provide kickbacks, or the very least your own copy, then you suffer the wrath of the editors who haven’t gotten laid in years.
Note to the bowl-swirling print media: putting a tantrum on a printed page doesn’t inspire “rage purchases” of your paper. There is no such thing as print-bait. Believing as much won’t save your business and puts you on par with the average jagoff blogger-cum-troll.
To be fair, this is no different that what others have been saying …. BEFORE yesterday. Most journalists are ill-qualified to discern what real innovation is. They can only identify it when looking back. That is, if they ever understand it at all.
“the result of many millions of dollars spent and the late night, long hours efforts of many designers and developers”
This is true of any big tech company. Google, Samsung, Microsoft, LG etc.
The NY Times isn’t a single entity (just like Dave isn’t Jim). Farhad, who wrote the 3rd linked article is historically pretty pro-Apple, though can be tough. For example, he wrote this. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/android_vs_iphone_why_apple_still_has_the_edge_over_google_s_operating_system.html
The media has definitely been tougher on Apple recently. Prior to this the media was (deservedly) overwhelmingly positive. Has the media turned on Apple because there’s smoke or because they’re bored? A case for the former is the slowdown in growth. Anecdotally, I would say that I see more high end Android phones in situations where you would only see iPhones.
wait, when was the media overwhelmingly positive on Apple? the ’80s? ’90s?
hacks
Basically since about 2004 till about 2014.
To be honest, the NYT quotes are spot on in my opinion.
The 6S was the first iPhone generation I skipped. I will upgrade to the 7 but I am not excited about it. I do not feel forced to upgrade, I am just bored and want a new phone as it has been 2 years.
I will also buy the watch now, but again I skipped the first gen. (another first for me, not buying a new class of apple product on release day) I am not super excited about this purchase too, but feel I need to understand the category.
I have a pot of money allocated for a new Macbook Pro and some sort of replacement for our non-retina Macbook Air, but Apple has nothing for me to buy right now.
I think it is a good move to drop the headphone jack and love it when Apple pushes technology and our views on Tech. But this is about the only real news so far this fall.
These are some of the reasons I am all out of APPL. Reminiscent of Blackberry in 2008 actually. 🙁
Well you have to stop being a fanboy and being a little bit critical. Obviously these sentences are not well written, but it is such a pain to watch Cook’s keynotes… Apple has really slow down innovation, there are no breakthrough anymore as when it was at its pinnacle under Jobs. Do you find it normal to pay full price a computer that as 3-4 years old components? Lineup is a mess, entry products are so weak, etc… Apple is now governed by sales, that is sad. It still is the best tech company, make no mistakes.
Maybe you need to remove the Steve Jobs RDF. Other than the original iPhone what amazing breakthroughs and innovations happened on his watch? iPod socks? Buttonless iPod Shuffle that was replaced the next year? Cube that only lasted 18 months? iPod HiFi? The stuff Apple is doing now is way more interesting than anything they did under Jobs IMO.
I wish there was some originality within the tech press. I could have written any one of these articles before the event even happened. They’re so predictable, especially the click-bait headlines.
That seems odd as the reviews for the 6/6 Plus were very positive and under Pogue the NYT was a favored publication of Apple and generally very supportive and positive. Did Apple’s checks suddenly start bouncing?
First of all, bravo for your list of failing Apple products, no one would have thought of these all together 😉
But i have to say i strongly disagree, Job’s Apple was much less powerful : less money, less people… still they brought disruptive products : iMacs, iPods, iPhone, iPad in 00’s. Not even speaking about the 80’s, mouse, fonts, gui…
Of course Apple is nowadays making wonderful products, they are so big and powerful. But what we see under Cook is just a yearly iteration of things that are obvious and wanted by consumers : GPS was missing for the watch here it comes, wireless headphones (Ive’s most awful design don’t you think?), more power, better display, gold color for middle-east and east markets…
This is no breakthrough!
Well, two of those bylines sure do bring back memories of unbiased commentary on Apple products.
The one thing I’d argue is misleading is to say the iPhone 7 doesn’t have a place to plugin headphones. Of course it does. Right in the lightning port.
Otherwise I frankly don’t see the issue. It’s true, yes there are advancements, and all of it is not break through work, they’re iterative improvements on a product that is already amazing. That is how the general population sees products. Most of the population doesn’t see: oh a new chip upgrade, or oh they removed headphone plus so we can get more battery life… still then, the improvements, while courageous in nature, are incremental, and there is nothing wrong with it.
I think Apple knows the upgrade cycle of the phone is being extended. When it first came out, Apple was keenly aware that phone upgrade cycles were about 2 years, the phone contracts helped enforce that.
That’s why the exterior design of the phone is minor enough that they get some efficiencies from the current tooling machines with minor changes. Automobile upgrade cycles are about 4 years as well for some brands. I’m willing to bet that in a few more years, the upgrade cycle of the iPhone will extend to about 4 years so we we’ll see a major change in design every 4 models.
But also technology has advanced enough that you don’t need to upgrade your phone every year or even every other year as your wife said. The iPhone 6 is still a great phone, I don’t notice much of a performance hit between my iPhone 6S and my wife’s iPhone 6 when I use it. But with the exception of one game, we don’t use apps that really tax the processor that much (well, except Facebook, but I think that’s just sloppy programming).
Right now, there are 9 years of customers who have, or have had, an iPhone. Apple doesn’t need all of them to upgrade every year (hell, apparently Apple can’t produce enough phones for the first weeks demand). But many will. If people who have a 6 or 6s don’t upgrade, it doesn’t make this product a failure, they’ll just catch you on the iPhone 7s or 8.
Let’s not forget that one of the authors is Farhad Manjoo who famously wrote “The iPhone Is Boring”:
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/07/iphone_google_glass_apple_s_tech_innovation_has_gotten_boring_it_s_time_for_something_new_.html
only to follow it up shortly after with “The iPhone 5 Is a Miracle”
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/10/iphone_5_review_marveling_at_the_existence_of_the_greatest_phone_ever_made_.html
Right…I guess I imagined all those stories about the “beleaguered Apple” from 2012 to…well, actually, those stories never stopped, really.
Overwhelmingly does not equal unanimously. The vast majority of coverage of Apple, especially with the iPhone 3G on has been mostly glowing with occasional contrarians and click bait.
Pogue left the NYT in 2013 and their tech column leaves much to be desired (ahem, Farad Manjoo).
I’ll concede Pogue was favorable to Apple when Jobs was alive, (I’m sure he received regular calls from Jobs).
As a whole, though, NYT is only interested in stirring the shit storm when it comes to Apple. I generally find their Apple articles unbalanced, inflammatory, and biased, focusing on the negatives, rather than the positives. For whatever the reason, they tend to hold Apple to a higher standard than other tech peers (placeholder: Amazon).
If their not building ’em up, then their tearing ’em down.
Apple’s the envy of almost every company ever, and being on top only gives them one direction to go: down. Unless, of course, they can reinvent the wheel for yet the umpteenth time.
Yes, if only the NY Times treated Apple as lightly as they treat Amazon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html
Apple is a big successful company that have earned high expectations, they’re going to have critics. In the 90s, Microsoft was the envy of every company out there and they got hammered in the press. In the 80s it was IBM and in the 70s it was AT&T. It’s not 1998 anymore, Apple isn’t the scrappy underdog anymore.
I’m in pretty much the same place: I can buy what I want, tend to keep things for 3 years, have a 6s and no watch and will not buy a watch yet (or ever) and being a serious Mac user, am waiting for Apple to give us a hint of their Macintosh road map. I could use a new MacBook Pro but I’ll see what’s coming later in the fall. The way they let the Thunderbolt monitor go without announcing a replacement and now there’s a rumor of of a replacement, all of that is terrible. And, the Mac Pro… not good at all.
I still hold some AAPL and as a stockholder, I know where Apple’s bread is buttered (iPhone) but I don’t like them having product lines that are faltering; they have more than enough resources to keep the Mac, iOS, Watch OS, TV OS and more up and in the air at the same time.