Posted on 08/27/2011 1:05:29 PM PDT by TomServo
Earlier this month I sold my 11.6-inch MacBook Air (using Samsung Series 5 Chromebook now) and iPhone 4 (switched back to Google Nexus S). I don't miss either Apple product. Not the least bit. In reflecting, I realize that the spell is broken. Without Apple Chairman Steve Jobs driving innovation or inspiring passion -- the oft-called "reality distortion field" -- my Apple enthusiasm is gone. Perhaps it's return to sanity.
I should have connected the dots sooner, but often people don't easily apply even basic math to emotional matters, because the nuances move swiftly on the surface with many slower currents and fast-churning eddies below. The ocean is an excellent analogy. Yesterday, in viewing Nate Mook's slideshow of 20 products introduced by Jobs, and resurfacing emotions about the different launches, I had an epiphany. I could see how much Jobs' passion infected mine -- his ability to inspire about what Apple products offered. I used to joke about the Steve Jobs spell: During one of the product launch speeches, if he was having an off day, people left feeling like: If I buy this thing my life will be better for it. If Jobs was in the zone giving the preso, people left feeling if they didn't buy the new thing their lives would be worse.
Jobs' cast a big spell, but it was more than the pitch -- there are aspirational qualities built into Apple products. Jobs is the rarest of business leaders: He has good taste and the ability to inspire people working with him to put it into high-tech stuff. Related: Design priorities put features that are most useful at the top, packaged such that there is balance among them -- none takes away from overall functionality. Additionally: Simplicity is a defining Apple design characteristic, or was.
As I explained here at BetaNews in February 2005 post "iPod Shuffle: Apple understated": "The company has turned a knack for the understated into a marketing machine that touches virtually every Mac product, including iPod Shuffle...Understated often means uncomplicated. And sometimes that means cutting back consumer choices, as Apple did with iPod Shuffle. Less really can be more...Competitors really need to study what Apple is doing right and how to incorporate a similar approach into their product designs and marketing".
Complication Creep
But on reflection, I now see how much simplicity, one of Apple products' best attributes, is giving way to complication creep. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and iTunes 9 and 10 are glaring examples of increased complexity, as are iOS 4 (and soon v5), Safari 5.1, iLife `11 and most other Apple software.
Even Apple Store. I wrote in 2005: "Apple retail stores are remarkably understated. The only bright colors are found on marketing material placed throughout the store. Otherwise, the tasteful stores are quite stark, so that the shoppers' eyes are drawn either to the colorful marketing posters and signs or to the products on sale". The stores are no longer as tasteful, and the new iPad product information displays create clutter and complexity.
Still, where Steve Jobs' influence still touched so did simplicity remain, which iPad 2, MacBook Air and Mac App Store imbue. But other recent attempts at simplicity have failed, with Final Cut Pro X example of increased complexity coming from an attempt to make video production simpler. Many of Apple's elite customers complained about the product, and there was even a petition to bring back the old version! Could such a thing really have happened with Steve Jobs hands-on at Apple?
When Passion Fades
Steve Jobs unexpectedly resigned as Apple CEO two days ago, and the Board of Directors immediately chose Tim Cook, then chief operating officer, as replacement. Much of the punditry about the transition is similar: Apple will remain the same Apple under Cook. This is misguided, wishful thinking.
Apple will change under Cook's leadership. Actually Apple already has changed. For about three years now, Jobs' influence on product development and marketing is less than it once was. The Apple faithful will slam me in comments or elsewhere for speaking such blasphemy. But, c`mon. The man is terribly ill -- clearly fighting for his life throughout much of 2009 and 2011.
As I more seriously review the 2.8 years since Jobs' January 2009 medical leave started, it's clear the aforementioned qualities are missing and other less-desirable ones present in Apple products. This reflects the limits of Jobs' involvement in the process -- at least the way he was able to be when in more robust health. There is a vitality gone from Apple's cofounder that many recent Apple products reflect, even as the company reaches its highest pinnacle of success ever. It's a cruel circumstance that a man who has had so much positive influence should be ravaged from the effects of cancer while still in his prime.
Kirk and Spock
Jobs and Cook couldn't be more different leaders. They're complimentary: The inspired visionary looking to bring good taste and understated design to otherwise complex products and the man responsible for getting them to market. Like James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock from "Star Trek". Kirk is the leader, the charismatic one. Spock is the empowering sidekick but not as effective leader. That's how I see Jobs and Cook.
Cook will competently lead Apple, as he has done for the better part of two years. He's honed Apple's supply chain to a science. Apple is a self-propelling machine now. But like Spock, Cook won't have the passion of Kirk. This will affect his ability to hold onto the team core to Jobs, such as product design genius Jony Ive.
Apple won't find feature compromises -- the kind good for keeping them in balance -- as easy in the post-Jobs-CEO world, either. Response to Final Cut Pro X is one example of that. Jobs had a knack for making people believe in his company's products, for clearly calling on real-world passion while making anyone and everyone willing to listen to feel good about Apple stuff. Apple products evoke emotional response, like few others in techdom. They are imbued by Jobs' passion and his ability to inspire others to design greatness or to give someone like Jony Ive freedom to bring true design genius to market.
Apple feels quite different to me now in 2011 than it did in 2008. It's all corporate now. Just dollars and cents on a ledger. What Jobs imbued already is gone, at least for me. I predict it will fade for many technophiles. But not anytime soon for the mass market of buyers, who are more influenced by what their friends and family use than by the aura of Steve Jobs.
His legendary "one more thing" was one last thing long ago.
You couldn’t have watched the whole hour and a half keynote... You must have seen a condensed version.
Oh, you watched a 4 and a half minute youtube... Wow... right. sure.
Thank you, Dennis.
At least Dennis was helpful, as opposed to what you’ve put forth... Interesting that neither Apple nor Corning claim it as such, however.
As usual, you are insulting and rude. They have both made announcement. Just because YOU don't know it, doesn't mean that I don't... and this article proved it. You can't be gracious and apologize... get LOST.
Don't forget, a lot of Dell's profit came from Intel kickbacks, but it was covered up. There was a big scandal over it a while back, major $$$ paid in fines.
All x86 motherboards are in some way Intel reference motherboards -- otherwise they wouldn't be compatible.
Apple designs their own Intel-based motherboards (based on Intel standards as all do), their ARM motherboards completely, and even designs their own ARM chips (based on an ARM core standard, as all do). The Chinese/Taiwanese just produce to Apple's specs, and they often have to re-do their manufacturing in order to be able to handle Apple's specs.
In fact, news came out that Apple has a habit of heavily investing in Chinese factories, building them out, modernizing, making them capable of producing Apple products. Then Apple gets exclusivity and a cut rate on the initial couple years' run.
A4 chip, A5 chip, CNC aluminum bodies, and Intel sometimes gives Apple a period of exclusivity on new chips. Also, Apple is known to secure exclusive supplies of a technology for the short-term. A nice display technology might come out, but because Apple paid $$$ to have the factory for it ramped up, they are the only ones in the industry with a high-volume steady supply of the technology for their period of exclusivity. Apple has actually been described as a budding monopsony -- the one buyer that can control the market of sellers.
But aside from that is the will to use what Apple leverages. Do you see anyone else going to EFI? It's been around for years, supported by Windows since Vista SP2, and almost all PCs are still on 1980s dinosaur BIOS. Only Sony is also offering Thunderbolt on one specific laptop, and with a non-standard implementation at that. Too many other companies just don't have the balls to make the leaps that Apple does.
That's just blind to history. Apple ditched PPC because neither IBM nor Freescale (Moto had gotten out of the business) could produce chips that were fast enough while using little power. It was killing Apple's notebook line. Intel was finishing up development of the Core line of chips, which was perfect for Apple's energy efficiency requirements.
The Wiki entries on Quanta and its owner Barry Lam are revealing as far as Apple goes.
Quanta is ONE of the manufacturers of Apple notebooks, using Apple's proprietary CNC technology for the aluminum bodies, using Apple's motherboards. Notice how the innards of a MacBook don't look like the innards of any other Quanta-made notebook.
You've been spouting these lies for too long. I bet you think Samsung also designed the chip used in the iPad, since Samsung also makes them.
You may notice on the Corning site that Corning will only reveal the companies using their products if given permission by the company. Apple obviously didn’t give permission.
You may notice on the Corning site that Corning will only reveal the companies using their products if given permission by the company. Apple obviously didn’t give permission.
Where is this done? Cupertino? Massachusetts? The moon? Who runs that division? Do you have some links and references. Apple -Glueing an SSD or memory to a motherboard doesn't count as a big deal in motherboard design. Apple also alters mobo dimensions to fit in its machines. I'm saying the move to Intel chips had many reasons and one is that Quanta is more comfortable w Intel and that Apple takes an Intel reference board and works with Intel and Taiwanese to do does minor tweaking to it. Or tells Quanta or other Taiwanese to tweak it
The Chinese/Taiwanese just produce to Apple's specs, and they often have to re-do their manufacturing in order to be able to handle Apple's specs.
That is way off. Proper phraseology is --- Apple collaborates with Taiwanese to come up w design specs then the Taiwanese/Chinese produce it
A4, A5 - what’s in the chip itself? It’s an Cortex A8 with a PowerVR combined. Most companies pair the PowerVR with an A8. The A5 is similar - it’s an ARM core with a GPU. Others haven’t mixed the two together like that - but not because it’s exclusive to Apple. That technology is available to other vendors, they choose to do things differently.
CNC aluminum bodies? You mean no one else can machine aluminum bodies? That technology is not available to other vendors? Or do other vendors choose to do things other ways?
Please address what I said, not what you thought I said - Apple doesn’t use anything that is not available to all other vendors. Whether those vendors use that technology or not is the vendor’s choice - not Apple’s.
EFI - maybe because for most consumers it adds zilch? How many actually flash their BIOS? What’s the benefit for the typical consumer versus the costs associated? And actually EFI has been supported in Windows since XP SP2. It’s been out for over a decade - but what’s the benefit for most consumers?
Thunderbolt? What’s the market? What’s the real-world advantage over USB 3.0 that consumers will really notice? Why do you want a different, incompatible hardware connector that will require new cabling and adapters when USB 3.0 is available? Will it help the consumer connect to most of their peripherals - printers, scanners, cameras and phones?
All these technologies have been available to all other vendors - they’re not exclusive to Apple. Apple can sometimes buy enough of a certain product to get a short-term “exclusive” simply by buying up all items - but that technology was still available to others, and usually well before Apple knew about it. You think LG and Samsung display groups don’t let their own cellphone groups know of their breakthroughs first? ;)
Apple chooses different mixes, sure - but it’s not exclusive to Apple. It’s just different. That was my point - and you’ve kind of reinforced it.
Quanta is ONE of the manufacturers of Apple notebooks>>>>>>
So which line do they make and what Apple laptops do other Taiwan CMs make for Apple. Such as who makes the Macbook Air? I’d like one of those but I would run Windows 7 on it
Can sometimes? Surely you jest! Apple has more cash on hand than any other tech company in the world. They can always. Apple is the best customer many if these companies have. Intel gives Apple first rights to its processors. . . and several months exclusivity in some cases on the high end. Apple is given forknowledge of upcoming products. You don't piss off your best paying customer by keeping it in the dark about your upcoming technology, not if you want them to remain your best paying customer! Where are the other phones with retina displays like the iPhone4, Sidelines? It's been a year and a half since Apple unveiled the high density display. How Cooke no one made such a display available on another phone? Not one!
CNC aluminum bodies? You mean no one else can machine aluminum bodies? That technology is not available to other vendors? Or do other vendors choose to do things other ways?
Uh, no. . . Sidelines, a couple of months ago, several PC makers were planning to produce alluminum monobloc laptop computers. They couldn't. Why? They found Apple had purchased almost all the production capable milling machines capable of producing such cases available to turn out their MacBook airs, MacBook, and MacBook pro laptops! It would be over a year before there would be sufficient machine tools available... So it would be either back to plastic, carbon fiber, or stamped metal.
It's not just the ARM and PowerVR parts you choose, but how you design the overall SoC. The A4 and the Samsung Hummingbird were so fast for their day because of the expertise of a chip design company called Intrinsity, which specialized in high-performance, low-power designs. Only Apple and Samsung got those advancements, although the two designs were still somewhat different. Then Apple bought Intrinsity and another chip designer, P.A. Semi. Thus the advancements of the A5 are exclusive to Apple.
CNC aluminum bodies? You mean no one else can machine aluminum bodies?
Not in mass production quantities. Apple has basically purchased all of the available CNC capacity. Foxconn bought those thousands of CNC machines just to handle Apple's demands.
EFI - maybe because for most consumers it adds zilch?
EFI can programmatically handle things like sleep and suspend. It can recognize boot volumes over 2 TB. And for ease of use for consumers, it can give you a GUI before the OS boots since it loads video and mouse drivers (in a multi-boot Mac you choose your boot volume with the mouse), and even network drivers. It also has inherent lights-out capability, since it is a fully-functional mini-OS that boots before any OS.
Thunderbolt? What’s the market? What’s the real-world advantage over USB 3.0 that consumers will really notice?
Unlike USB, Thunderbolt is essentially your PCI bus over a cable. Plug ONE cable into your laptop, you can have that connected to two high-resolution displays, external hard drives or RAID boxes (that will transfer much faster than USB 3) and even external video cards.
Apple can sometimes buy enough of a certain product to get a short-term “exclusive” simply by buying up all items
And that makes it Apple-only. Nobody else can get it if Apple has bought all of the capacity.
Give that man a cigar, we have a winner. When Apple puts "designed in Cupertino" on all the products, it doesn't just refer to the outside case.
Or tells Quanta or other Taiwanese to tweak it
You're getting closer to understanding. That is designing it. You design how it should be tweaked, and order that from the manufacturer.
Proper phraseology is --- Apple collaborates with Taiwanese to come up w design specs then the Taiwanese/Chinese produce it
No, Apple designs, Apple even comes up with new manufacturing techniques, and then Apple works with the Chinese to get them up to speed to be able to produce the Apple design.
CNC capacity is limited? Huh - I’m pretty sure I could find a few hundred CNC machines if needed, and ramp up in 3-4 months to thousands if the cash was available to invest. It’s not that big of a deal.
Samsung, IBM and others are doing CNC machined laptops, but only at the high end because it’s too expensive.
But you guys keep on believing that it’s only because of Apple’s cash that they can do CNC and no one else can. I guess browsing Alibaba.com and seeing all those CNC machine makers are all lying about being able to deliver all those CNC machines in 1-2 months. Nosiree, no one out there can deliver 2000-4000 CNC machines in a few months because the Apple legion have spoken!
Seriously...
Apple is not coming up with new manufacturing techniques. They find something new in a trade magazine om page 98. They then cut out the article and send it to the Taiwanese. They say to the Taiwanese, “Is it possible that you can you get your Chinese factory to do it this way? What is your cost estimate?”
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