Is Apple Losing Its Way?

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429315/is-apple-losing-its-way/

by olalonde • 14 years ago

28 25 14 years ago

twiceaday• 14 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines

Great comment! From your wikipedia link: "...any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no". The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bollocks..."

georgemcbay3• 14 years ago

Predictable comment, IMO.

Quoting Betteridge's Law of Headlines is this season's "You're not Google's customer, you're their product".

I can predict with great accuracy whether or not I'll see it referenced in any given HN comment thread based on the headline (ironically, in this case if the headline ends in a question mark, the answer is yes. If the headline is asking something negative about Apple, the answer is double yes).

choko• 14 years ago

IMO, it's a pretty sorry excuse for a law. While you can often answer with "no" and be accurate, it doesn't happen enough to say "always" or "any". Reading through my RSS feeds, I see about 20 headlines ending in question marks. Only 12 of them can be accurately answered with "no".

dakrisht2• 14 years ago

100%

olalonde• 14 years ago

I think we officially need an "Hacker News Law of Submissions": any submission which ends in a question mark will have a comment pointing to Betteridges Law in its comment thread. http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=http%3...

M4v3R• 14 years ago

Ok. We get it. Apple maps are subpar (for some people), they need to improve them soon. Is this YET ANOTHER STORY about it so interesting that it hits HN main page?

Btw, I've tried them and while there are some quirks, I really like them. Being vector is a huge win, it loads up quickly and whole experience is a lot smoother. As for accuracy, I live in a small town in Poland (not exactly Apple's main point of interest) and it's as accurate as Google Maps were.

epo• 14 years ago

Its the Apple haters having their day in the sun. They have to have something to distract them from their rubbishy phones.

cristianpascu• 14 years ago

"The direction of Apple to go into maps is the right direction, but people will probably start questioning whether Apple products are as wonderful. It's been almost like a cult. We can always forgive people for one mistake, and for the post-Steve-Jobs era, this is the most significant. Another slip of this kind, people will start questioning Apple."

Apple has done lots of mistakes in the past. I've been an user of their products for only a few years, but even so I know.

It's not repeated mistakes that sink a company. It's unfixed mistakes. If users will find alternatives to iOS6 map app, they will use them. It's been like only a week since the new OS version was released. Not everyone has updated yet. People have been warned.

And the 'apple is cult/fanboys are blind followers' argument is one of the worst. Just like when non-religious persons belittle religious persons for being irrational, blind and manipulated. Which is stupid because it's not (generally) true.

Many make educated and conscious decisions. Buying a product is partially an irrational decision. BUT, the fact that Apple products produce those irrational decisions is the key to understanding the quality and the design thought that went into the products. And the fact that people keep on buying them, with every new version, tells that these products are really good. It's not magic. It's an illusion. It's just good products, and it's a damn successful company.

Mistakes can be fixed. Fixed ideas, hardly.

abrym• 14 years ago

"Google Maps is not available as an iPhone app, but Google Maps can still be used on a Firefox browser."

I stopped reading at this point.

fingerprinter2• 14 years ago

Apple is huge. When a company gets as big as Apple does, you'll always be able to find cracks and missteps.

Where I think Apple is failing is filling the gap of Jobs, and I don't mean the man, but the fear. Jobs was notorious for being an asshole and firing whole teams if they didn't deliver to "his standard". Without this fear, I wonder if things will begin to come out that would otherwise never have seen the light of day.

IMO, the last few products Apple has released have been much worse than the previous few. Lion was a bad release, Mountain Lion was better, but generally not a great release either. The new Nano with the round icons is, well, horrible looking. Would Jobs have let that go out? Would the team release that if Jobs was still alive and in charge?

I'm actually a huge fan of individuals being able to make autonomous decisions. I think that leads to healthier companies and better products. HOWEVER, Apple has never been structured that way and it could take some time before natural leaders step up inside the company. They have the money to weather storms and lets face it, the Apple fans are going to give them many years of free passes so there really isn't a fear of them ending anytime soon.

dakrisht2• 14 years ago

They're certainly not "losing" their way because they released a shitty product in Maps, a subpar OS release in Lion and other minor issues (so far).

However, Apple is certainly not innovating like they were when Steve was around and the market itself, in particular the smartphone market, is becoming very mature - smartphones can only get so small, thin and fast before they reach an apex. And think of the iPhone in relation to the Porsche 911. It's more or less the same car for the past 50 years. Every 2-3 years Porsche makes it better. It works for them, the consumer, the brand and the legacy. I'm not sure why some people were expecting a Phone in the i5 that would make them breakfast but it's a better product than already great product in the 5.

At this point, Apple is such a massive company lead by not a visionary, but a supply chain genius in Tim Cook.

Ive leads design, but Cook has the final say. Forstall and the iOS team don't really care to shift much and take risk in exciting new features (after all, why take risk, if it ain't broke, don't fix it). That's why there are barely any new and groundbreaking features in iOS 6 vs. 5 (BS on your "200 new features" - nothing but minor tweaks) Do not disturb? Come on. It's nice but not a keynote slide.

I LOVE Apple products, I used to destroy my eyes on Apple IIs back in the day and have always loved what they do. I've followed (and had) most every product they've launched. I still have a Newton somewhere and once in a while play Sim City on OS 9 classic like a super-nerd.

I also think consumerism expects A LOT from this company. When Steve was on stage announcing products and wowing audiences, there was innovation, risks, big bets were being placed on products - now, the empire just runs, like a conveyor belt. Every year, a minor upgrade. It works. It sells. It's fine. They're not losing their way, they are just becoming a part of the status quo. They're not challenging anything. At least in the last year or so. Leadership is strong but they're going in a straight line. Calculated moves.

You can't blame them - this is a massive public company and one mistake will lead to an uproar. The question is - will Apple's biggest mistake be not taking a risk and innovating.

Remember, even the Roman Empire fell.

fingerprinter2• 14 years ago

> However, Apple is certainly not innovating like they were when Steve was around and the market itself, in particular the smartphone market, is becoming very mature - smartphones can only get so small, thin and fast before they reach an apex. And think of the iPhone in relation to the Porsche 911. It's more or less the same car for the past 50 years. Every 2-3 years Porsche makes it better. It works for them, the consumer, the brand and the legacy. I'm not sure why some people were expecting a Phone in the i5 that would make them breakfast but it's a better product than already great product in the 5.

That is a great way of saying it... love the Porsche analogy.

However, I challenge you on one point. I don't think Apple EVER innovated. Rather, they've iterated. And they did this wonderfully. Apple is notorious for not innovating but rather taking already established ideas and doing them much, much better than even the people who originally did them. That is their secret. They are great and simplifying and making it oh, so pretty.

EDIT: I should caveat the above to the modern Apple era. Post 2001 or so.

And not to take anything away from this, but when most people say "innovate" they typically mean something other than what I say above. In reality, the groundbreaking new features are never from Apple. If you looked at the marketplace, someone, somewhere already had those features. Apple just did it better a year later. That is what they do, no shame in it either...but they are not an innovative company.

quesera• 14 years ago

> most people say "innovate" they typically mean something other than what I say above.

Have you considered the possibility that you're misusing the word?

The word you're describing is "invent". But you'd still be violently wrong about Apple not doing it.

ramiwi• 14 years ago

Your Porsche analogy is awkward. Computer vs car industry analogies generally goes like “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”, and i don't see a reason for this to change anytime soon, for obvious reasons (computer software and hardware are much easier to update and innovate then mechanical systems are).

JanneVee• 14 years ago

To answer the question in the headline. No, the company and brand has always been "arrogant" and occasionally "entitled". Just look at the iPhone 4 antenna problem. This is the same thing, they lose airports and train stations. Then they tell people to use it so they can find all the problems so they can start fixing it. I don't know about you people but I use the map app but I use it to find locations where I haven't been before. I find the response slightly arrogant to this whole maps deal. It is "your holding it wrong" all over again.

I have a bunch of Apple devices. But this maps thing and other things like Gatekeeper makes me hesitant to buy a device that is more expensive than the competitors. The thing is that I don't feel that the premium isn't simply worth it anymore.

headShrinker• 14 years ago

A lot of people feel the need to complain for some reason but I don't quite understand why. I don't see a smoking gun. There are no broken antennas, and MobileMe didn't crash. Sounds like a company just released a brand new product and there are some small bugs to work out. Which it what I would expect, from any company. We all know Samsung has bugs, MS Windows 8 has bugs, Nokia 920 has bugs. When I got a Galaxy S, 2 years ago, I received an OTA update v2.2.2, it bricked my phone. It bricked a lot of peoples phones. They stopped doing OTAs after that. Then the GPS didn't work. That was sort of accepted as a flaw in the GS v2.2.2. I had to root my phone and run a third party hack to get it to work. The mp3 player had a button to view music by album but tapping it would crash the player. That wasn't fixed until much later, v2.3.4, 9months after google released it. Had to use my brothers PC, install software on PC to install sw update on phone. Ridiculous. Virtually no updates to touchwiz UI. Garbage! Calls were always dropped constantly. Then I got a GS2. It would crash... all the time. I had to reboot nearly everyday. That is sort of expected with the GS2. Calls were dropped all the time. Text messages wound't come through on Google Voice. The control buttons on the headphones worked erratically but mostly not at all. TouchWiz is a disaster. Battery life was maybe 8 hours of standby. I had to charge to phone two times a day. The phone IS TOO FUCKING BIG! Trying to use the phone one handed, the thumb muscle would touch the screen before the tip of the thumb causing unintentional taps. These are 'real' user issues. What droidfans aren't saying is that Android is rough, and they like to fiddle with it, they like to mod it and install patches, and break it and reinstall it, and fuck with it some more. This is why there is no waiting lines for Samsung products. The 'sheeple' like expensive shit that works. I mean works as in 'doesn't crash everyday', not 'boo hoo, the bridge in my maps looks funny [frown-face], this is awful I think I will go shoot myself!1!!'

I understand people are having a problem with maps but most of the blogs are complete hyperbole right now, and the maps are working great for me in NYC. Public transit was never very helpful by google maps because "public transit is underground!" Welcome to the big city. Thus no network connectivity. No one is having "real" problems with the new iPhone. This is all BS for the purpose of getting visitors to a shitty blog. No Apple has not lost its way. iPhone 5 is amazing says nearly all reports. iOS 6 is great. There are some bugs. The total package is what I would expect from Apple, past or present.

kyriakos• 14 years ago

i'm no apple fan and i don't own any apple products but even i can say that companies make mistakes (after all its people who run them). its how they come out of the bad situation that counts.

obviously bad map app is an inconvenience especially when you buy a premium product that claims that it just works.

is it the end though? no.

did apple make more serious mistakes in the past? certainly, but it didnt kill them

just like the antenna issue, people will complain for a bit, and in a couple of month's time it won't be in the headlines anymore assuming they FIX it. if they don't then we should start considering that they might have lost their way.

Is Apple Losing Its Way?

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