The internal drama explains a lot about Apple’s dilemma. Its one major new product of the post-Jobs era, the Apple Watch, made its debut five years ago. Its iPhone business is faltering, and more recent releases like its wireless AirPods haven’t been enough to shore up falling sales. It hasn’t had a megahit new product since the iPad that started selling in 2010.
Every line of that paragraph infuriates me.
Its one major new product of the post-Jobs era, the Apple Watch, made its debut five years ago.
And the iPad debuted 5 years before that. The iPhone was only two years prior, but the iPod was 7 years before that. And the Mac, well that was 17 years prior to that. See a pattern here? Neither do I. Major new products from Apple come out when they are ready. There has never been a period in Apple’s history with hit major new product after major new product.
Its iPhone business is faltering
A 5% decline on 46-million units per quarter now qualifies as “faltering.” Check.
and more recent releases like its wireless AirPods haven’t been enough to shore up falling sales.
AirPods are a legitimate cultural phenomenon. But that doesn’t fit the narrative here, so let’s point out that they’re not expensive enough to make up for “faltering” iPhone sales. Because that won’t directly contradict your point later in the article that iPhone X was too expensive.
It hasn’t had a megahit new product since the iPad that started selling in 2010.
iPad is the fastest-selling consumer electronics gadget of all time. Sure, Apple hasn’t had a hit of that magnitude since. It also never had one of that magnitude prior. And neither has anyone else. What’s your point?
Look, I get it. Jony Ive quits Apple, and you as a journalist see an excellent opportunity to cash in on the sentiment that “things just aren’t as great as they used to be.” So you gather a bunch of disgruntled former Apple employees who haven’t exactly “had a megahit” themselves since they left and cast as negative a picture as you can, so you can generate as many clicks as you can. But don’t expect me to read this drivel and actually believe any of it.
By the end of the piece, I’m supposed to think Apple is doomed because Ive would rather spend time with his ailing father than watch a Lady Gaga concert. (I shit you not.)
But of course, my Twitter timeline is full of Apple fans with malfunctioning keyboards telling me this is a “must read.” So, mission accomplished, I guess?
