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Apple: It's The Engineering, Stupid
Jan. 5th, 2015 11:52 amSpoiler alert: I like Apple products. I'm not a true Apple Fanboy, but I have an Apple laptop that has become my go-to all-purpose personal machine, and an iPod Classic that I've come to depend on to maintain my personal sanity during flights, commutes, etc. Their hardware has been outstanding for the last decade-plus.
Apple's software has been a different story. A few years ago I had an issue with my MacBook Pro such that the hard drive kept getting corrupted, causing the machine to crash. Replacing the motherboard didn't fix the problem. Eventually Apple issued an upgrade, and that fixed the problem, but the lack of transparency on Apple's part was dumbfounding. I had better transparency from Microsoft by that point, and that's saying something.
As such, I have some experience with Apple products, and I take some issue with Marco Arment's rant on Apple's software. OS X is probably the best personal use operating system on the market, and it also has the benefit of being real UNIX. But I do sympathize with him in this regard: it feels like the company is sacrificing good design in a vain attempt to reach out to new customers, and they're alienating old customers in the process.
For example, let us consider the abysmal failure of Final Cut Pro X (2). They ripped out most of the functionality that professional video editors relied upon to get their work done in a timely manner; the result is, as one person put it, "a glorified iMovie." Most shops either stuck with FCP 7 or switched to competing products --- some of which, by the way, don't run on Mac. FCPX also cost Apple the good will of nearly the entire professional video production market space, and has yet to make a come-back, even with third party tools to make up for the features that were dropped from FCP7.
On a more personal note, there's my iPod. The main feature that I like about my iPod is that it stores ALL my music. I have over 70 GB of high-quality MP3s, and a few gigs of proprietary M4Ps. I can carry all that in my pocket with the iPod classic. Now that those have been discontinued, however, no Apple product gives me that option except for one (1) iPhone. Perhaps Apple considered that it would be better to push iPod Classic users to iPhone; and perhaps for their bottom line this is so. I don't like the iPhone platform, however; I much prefer Android. And so for me, the migration path isn't to iPhone, but to an Android that takes a large (128GB) micro-SD card, and to replacing my M4Ps with MP3s.
Once that's done, I actually don't need iTunes to sync my devices. That's a big deal. Now, I don't have to contend with vendor lock-in. Now, I buy the best laptop based on the merits, including what OS it runs. And while I like Mac OSX, I have a lot of Linux experience (my preference is Mint-KDE). I've also tried Windows 10 and it's pretty damned good. As such, there's a fair chance that Apple could lose me as a customer entirely, with my next laptop upgrade.
On the other hand, there's Apples failure to innovate in a timely manner. It's not that Apple invented the personal MP3 player or the smart phone; but Apple put together the personal MP3(-ish) player and the smart phone that defined the market. Such has not been the case with the smart watch. Everybody right now is counting on Apple to put out the market-defining smart watch, but as of this writing, the best one on the market is the Samsung Gear 2. It comes with a built-in camera. And of course, it runs Android, and to use it, you need a Samsung phone. Apple doesn't just need to meet that standard, it has to exceed it, and they need to do so before Samsung becomes the de-facto standard. Otherwise, that's more vendor lock-in they lose.
Apple still has time to recover from its mistakes of the last few years. Their history of producing Cadillac electronics --- not inventing but perfecting and then marketing --- still serves them well, FCPX being a notable exception. If they can find their way back to that tradition, then they can prove Marco Arment wrong. I hope they do so.
Apple's software has been a different story. A few years ago I had an issue with my MacBook Pro such that the hard drive kept getting corrupted, causing the machine to crash. Replacing the motherboard didn't fix the problem. Eventually Apple issued an upgrade, and that fixed the problem, but the lack of transparency on Apple's part was dumbfounding. I had better transparency from Microsoft by that point, and that's saying something.
As such, I have some experience with Apple products, and I take some issue with Marco Arment's rant on Apple's software. OS X is probably the best personal use operating system on the market, and it also has the benefit of being real UNIX. But I do sympathize with him in this regard: it feels like the company is sacrificing good design in a vain attempt to reach out to new customers, and they're alienating old customers in the process.
For example, let us consider the abysmal failure of Final Cut Pro X (2). They ripped out most of the functionality that professional video editors relied upon to get their work done in a timely manner; the result is, as one person put it, "a glorified iMovie." Most shops either stuck with FCP 7 or switched to competing products --- some of which, by the way, don't run on Mac. FCPX also cost Apple the good will of nearly the entire professional video production market space, and has yet to make a come-back, even with third party tools to make up for the features that were dropped from FCP7.
On a more personal note, there's my iPod. The main feature that I like about my iPod is that it stores ALL my music. I have over 70 GB of high-quality MP3s, and a few gigs of proprietary M4Ps. I can carry all that in my pocket with the iPod classic. Now that those have been discontinued, however, no Apple product gives me that option except for one (1) iPhone. Perhaps Apple considered that it would be better to push iPod Classic users to iPhone; and perhaps for their bottom line this is so. I don't like the iPhone platform, however; I much prefer Android. And so for me, the migration path isn't to iPhone, but to an Android that takes a large (128GB) micro-SD card, and to replacing my M4Ps with MP3s.
Once that's done, I actually don't need iTunes to sync my devices. That's a big deal. Now, I don't have to contend with vendor lock-in. Now, I buy the best laptop based on the merits, including what OS it runs. And while I like Mac OSX, I have a lot of Linux experience (my preference is Mint-KDE). I've also tried Windows 10 and it's pretty damned good. As such, there's a fair chance that Apple could lose me as a customer entirely, with my next laptop upgrade.
On the other hand, there's Apples failure to innovate in a timely manner. It's not that Apple invented the personal MP3 player or the smart phone; but Apple put together the personal MP3(-ish) player and the smart phone that defined the market. Such has not been the case with the smart watch. Everybody right now is counting on Apple to put out the market-defining smart watch, but as of this writing, the best one on the market is the Samsung Gear 2. It comes with a built-in camera. And of course, it runs Android, and to use it, you need a Samsung phone. Apple doesn't just need to meet that standard, it has to exceed it, and they need to do so before Samsung becomes the de-facto standard. Otherwise, that's more vendor lock-in they lose.
Apple still has time to recover from its mistakes of the last few years. Their history of producing Cadillac electronics --- not inventing but perfecting and then marketing --- still serves them well, FCPX being a notable exception. If they can find their way back to that tradition, then they can prove Marco Arment wrong. I hope they do so.
