huckdaisy1

waverboy said:

I'm glad for extra competition; anything to light a fire under Apple's ass and make them turn Siri into something that's actually useful.

zoetmb said:

macxpress said:

It kinda irks me how on other sites people whine and complain about how this is a waste of money and its taking resources away from Apple. This is why they aren't releasing anything, its way over budget, etc. This is complete and utter BS! This should be making Apple BETTER in the long haul. Its not taking any focus away from any team. Its not like the hardware team is sitting there designing something for the new campus, Apple has specific contractors and engineers for this. OS X isn't suffering because of this being built.

What it should do in the end is combine all of the software teams into one section of the building instead of spreading them out over a 2hr drive away sometimes. Put the hardware teams into another section where they can better collaborate on projects, and then since the software team is also in the same building, they can also include them for their important input instead of doing whatever it is they're doing now whether its FaceTime conferences or making team leads drive 1-2hrs to Cupertino and then drive 1-2hrs back, wasting half the day just driving.

While I agree that the building construction has little or nothing to do with day-to-day development, one does have to wonder who at Apple is supervising the construction and making decisions when issues come up.  Is it Cook?  Ive?   who?   And you know there's going to be all kinds of problems once the building is complete:  HVAC, leaks, noise, etc.  There always is even in traditional and easy office construction.  This always takes away from productivity.  

Furthermore, Apple development over the last few years, with the possible exception of the Apple Watch, has been highly iterative.  I often wonder what all those employees aside from those who fill the distribution channels are actually doing.   I've seen all kinds of numbers about how many people Apple employs, but one from early 2016 claims 120,000 (I presume that's worldwide and includes retail).  

Not that I ever truly believed Apple was really building a car, but that project seems pretty much dead.   The Apple Watch certainly hasn't taken over the world.  The iPhone obviously does very well, but when was the last time Apple added something to it that made a substantive difference?   The OLED strip on the new MBPs is original and interesting, but everything else about the machine is iterative and it's way overpriced as well as being completely non-upgradable and pretty much non-repairable.  And now Apple seems out of the monitor business and out of the router business and maybe out of the Mac mini and Pro tower business.   Aside from minor upgrades, they seem to have abandoned the pro applications.  Every time they touch the consumer applications, they seem to make them worse.   They seem to constantly make small changes that are incredibly annoying, like a recent change to Safari so it no longer displays the size of images as it used to.    In iOS, a recent upgrade to iTunes now orders Songs by artist instead of alphabetical by song title.   What the fuck is the point of that?  What idiot made that decision and who let them?  Why do they constantly break things that were working?

I don't believe Watch sales are great, otherwise Apple would break them out.   Pad sales seem slow.   So really - what the hell is everyone working on, especially since they can't seem to advance the art until Intel gets their act together.  While the word is that once the new building is complete, Apple is keeping the other campus (although supposedly getting rid of all the leased space around Cupertino), that probably means a substantial increase in head count.

So if a year from move-in, this results in a constantly flowing line of great new products, then everything will be fine.  But if it means just more iteration of the existing product line, I think Apple will really have blown it and the very expensive new building would have been a waste (except as a giant tax deduction).  I sincerely hope that will all that headcount,  space and R&D facilities that Apple has a bunch of very big things up its sleeve that we haven't even thought of yet.   I've always thought that 15 years from now, Apple would be an AI and Robotics company, but people usually think I'm nuts when I say that.   But something must be going on, otherwise they're building an empty monument to a company that while still is very successful financially, has lost its mojo.   And Apple cannot survive as a one product (iPhone) company.

Apple's other big Achilles heal is its arrogance.   While I agree with the Jobs mantra that customers don't necessarily know what they want, Apple doesn't seem to listen to its customers at all.   Apple may know better when it comes to UX and UI (although I think that's been inferior to the past in recent years), but customers understand their own workflow far better than Apple does.   And this business of prioritizing form over function has to end and it won't until Ive decides to leave.   Ive is like the anorexic girl who never thinks she's thin enough.    I've been with Apple products since Apple's beginning, but I'm seriously thinking of buying a Windows laptop as my next machine.  As much as I hate Windows, I simply can't see paying what it will cost me for a new topped out MBP when there are alternatives at half the price with pretty much the same components inside.   

fastasleep said:

huckdaisy1 said:

Another high priced "talent".  Where are the results for all this talent they have hired over the last few years.  That's right, they do have a new book out.  Apple is like the New York Yankees.  The highest payroll yet they are in last place.  

Troll Points:
- First post
- Asserts Apple is somehow in last place