Apple product ecosystem has fast become a solution looking for problem combined with touchy feely hokus pokus aided by synthetic exclusivity and nonsensical differentiation.
Why the hell do we need the iPad to take over the PCs? Why the hell do we need ARM CPUs in Macs? Nobody is solving any real problems with those things - it's only purpose is to make Apple's margins and control even greater. And we as consumers are supposed to pay attention to the news outlets droning on about it for no benefit!
I think Apple will do well going back to the basics - simplifying the product lines, selling what matters and focusing on increasing the reach of its products to price conscious buyers. I don't think the market has a big enough appetite for more BS however well marketed it may be.
The trash can Mac Pro and butterfly keyboards are perfect examples of solutions looking for problems.
But I don't think making the iPad's operating system usable is an attempt to somehow position the devices as "PC killers." For use cases where a tablet is sufficient to produce a particular work product, a more usable OS only enhances its effectiveness. This has no bearing on the huge number of use cases where a tablet is insufficient.
I agree with the author that Apple would be barking up the wrong tree trying to switch the Macs to ARM processors. Macs are already comparatively a low-volume market and segmenting that market would not do them any favors in the face of increasing competition from Microsoft and Linux implementations.
> But I don't think making the iPad's operating system usable is an attempt to somehow position the devices as "PC killers.
I agree with that one - meaningful improvements to make the iPad a better choice for the users that can get away with using only the iPad as their primary device is a good thing. There's also a significant number of those users. But in practice, deciding what those capabilities are and how best to implement those are far more complicated questions - adding a mouse pointer is maybe a perfect illustration of the conundrum - should we, how should it look, what about the click targets, what about touch first, pencil etc.
Why the hell do we need the iPad to take over the PCs? Why the hell do we need ARM CPUs in Macs? Nobody is solving any real problems with those things - it's only purpose is to make Apple's margins and control even greater. And we as consumers are supposed to pay attention to the news outlets droning on about it for no benefit!
I think Apple will do well going back to the basics - simplifying the product lines, selling what matters and focusing on increasing the reach of its products to price conscious buyers. I don't think the market has a big enough appetite for more BS however well marketed it may be.
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