The presentation from Apple wasn't bad, always good to listen to Spielberg, and Aniston was a refreshing appearance there. However why have this event unless the service release is imminent - they end up getting stuffed by circumstances, announcing airpower before its availability was a classic example. In my mind it seemed like Jobs would announce something unexpectedly and it would be available immediately, but perhaps that's just my flakey memory. For streaming, they are just one more entity in the market, with deep pockets though, and their own streamer device owns a fraction of the market. However, Apple's attempts at services haven't been great, and the income they cite quarterly from "services" largely comes from the App Store and direct payments from Google. Apple excels at being a hardware/software company -I'm optimistic for the AR glasses when they arrive - not just another take on what's already out there. Licensing AirPlay to Samsung and other vendors indicates to me that Apple (through necessity) is moving out of its comfort zone, which is good.
The fact that this opinion piece exists means that the fanboy base is worried.
They should be.
Nonsense.
The only time we would be worry when Apple stop trying.
Ummm.. in case you missed it, Apple has given up all hope of growing its hardware businesses and has instead moved into the realm of me too offerings such as News+ (exact same thing as Texture but now Apple only), credit cards, and internet streaming. They also cancelled AirPower after it went into production, along with all their excellent (if pricey) wireless products. Not trying on the hardware front it a big deal for Apple.
Now let me ask a question- who here is planning on tuning in every day for a morning lecture on gender issues from Jennifer Aniston? The far left makes TV so bad even other far left people can't watch it (e.g. Disney Star Wars) although they still lecture other people that they ought to be watching it.
No one has any idea what Steve Jobs would have thought.
Let's not forget that 'The Steve' thought a number of things were good, which weren't; no arrow cursor key on the keyboard, the original iMac hockey-puck mouse and the iTunes based social media thing, whatever it was called, spring quickly to mind. If you care about Apple, it's best to drop comments about Steve Jobs in reference to current technologies, movements in cultural values and global market economies and politics.
After all, it is perfectly possible, if Steve were around today, he might say, "You know, 'whatever', I'm kinda bewildered about the world at the moment, so I'm just not going to comment".
The fact that this opinion piece exists means that the fanboy base is worried.
They should be.
Nonsense.
The only time we would be worry when Apple stop trying.
Apple hasn't stopped trying to be a successful company, but they've surely stopped trying to be a leading computer - MAC - company. I am worried, because I fear the day will come when someone will say "Remember the MAC? I think Apple used to make a computer like that once."
This reminds me off people who throw out the “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” quote (from Palm’s then CEO) any time there is skepticism over a new Apple product/service. As if anything Apple does is guaranteed to follow the iPhone path or its impossible for Apple to release a product or service that’s not successful.
The peanut gallery always forgets what “the iPhone path” actually was. Then they negatively compare whatever Apple is doing now with a fictional version of Apple’s prior history.
Most of of the time, Apple rollouts follow iPhone’s actual path, which was a long-game of wobbly rollout with incremental improvements until success was achieved, at which point everyone suddenly thinks it was an instant success.
And no, not everything will succeed, and when something doesn’t, the peanut gallery will crow about how they were right all along, ignoring all the many other successes they also first declared to be sure failures.
Last week’s services announcement was part of a long game. It’s a strategy of developing services, hardware and software together, all reinforcing each other. That strategy isn’t geared to quarterly earnings reports or the online commentariat. To see if it’s working, check back in maybe five years.
The fact that this opinion piece exists means that the fanboy base is worried.
They should be.
Nonsense! It means that he is annoyed by the silly chorus of Apple haters who are almost always wrong! There has not been a single release Apple has done that they haven’t disparaged in since the original translucent iMacs 20 years ago. The things they claim Apple will have to copy from competitors to survive many times is the undoing of those companies. So, like a bad weather man, do the opposite of what they suggest. If they say it will be sunny and clear, take your rain suit.
Apple haters have one thing in common, they are consistently wrong while Apple has hit after hit after hit. The horses the haters pick continue to be supported as they quietly cancel failure after failure while Apple sucks all the profits out of every market they enter into.
Like Daniel, I used to feel sorry for those people , but now am mostly annoyed that they keep talking and dragging uninitiated non tech consumers into their echo chamber of falsehoods.
Your reply sounds like someone who deep down inside is worried, but is yelling loud in hope that makes it fact
This reminds me off people who throw out the “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” quote (from Palm’s then CEO) any time there is skepticism over a new Apple product/service. As if anything Apple does is guaranteed to follow the iPhone path or its impossible for Apple to release a product or service that’s not successful.
The thing is, I don't care if it is successful or not. And, that's the problem from where I'm sitting. It's utterly irrelevant, aside from +/- potential on Apple's bank account. Since I don't own stock, I don't care. This isn't 'make the world a better place' kind of stuff, or even anything useful. It's Apple hoping to get a piece of the content pie, which if successful, might just enable them to be even more lazy on the things I do care about from them.
With slowing hardware sales I fear we’re going to see a lot more from Apple that we don’t care about. It’s all going to be stuff where Apple can charge a monthly fee or will get a cut of someone else’s monthly fee. But it’s ludicrous to me that we should assume anything Apple does will be successful because iPhone. Heck even Warren Buffett is skeptical about Apple getting into original content and said the company is allowed to fail now and then. That’s certainly not a ringing endorsement.
This reminds me off people who throw out the “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” quote (from Palm’s then CEO) any time there is skepticism over a new Apple product/service. As if anything Apple does is guaranteed to follow the iPhone path or its impossible for Apple to release a product or service that’s not successful.
The peanut gallery always forgets what “the iPhone path” actually was. Then they negatively compare whatever Apple is doing now with a fictional version of Apple’s prior history.
Most of of the time, Apple rollouts follow iPhone’s actual path, which was a long-game of wobbly rollout with incremental improvements until success was achieved, at which point everyone suddenly thinks it was an instant success.
And no, not everything will succeed, and when something doesn’t, the peanut gallery will crow about how they were right all along, ignoring all the many other successes they also first declared to be sure failures.
Last week’s services announcement was part of a long game. It’s a strategy of developing services, hardware and software together, all reinforcing each other. That strategy isn’t geared to quarterly earnings reports or the online commentariat. To see if it’s working, check back in maybe five years.
People throw out this quote to mock skeptics/naysayers. I saw someone use it last week in response to a comment from a credit card exec who said they were already doing everything Apple announced in the keynote. They didn’t refute what this exec said, they just threw out that quote in a snarky way.
There was nothing Apple announced last week where I thought wow this is better than what exists right now. IMO all these services are driven by financial considerations not great products that solve problems and delight customers.
Yes. Steve Jobs would have been very proud especially about the TV & TV+ presentations because his dream will come true... AppleTV hardware and software will eventually become the defacto standards for TV because it simply works better.
tvOS apps are more responsive because the OS is better architected and it is also more feature rich. SIRI integration in tvOS has greatly improved to fully support CableTV applications like Spectrum, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue and soon Optimum etc... using single signal or zero signal. (No competing platform does this.)
When you say Tune to CNN, regardless of what app is currently running, tvOS knows whether to launch your cable application and Tune it to CNN or launch the CNN app etc... This fully integrates on demand and live television using SIRI/AI. (No competing platform does this.)
Apple is pulling all the right strings despite resistance of cable companies and it is working.
Actually, while smooth, the Apple TV suffers from the remote.
I once suggested on here that tvOS should be licensed and I still think that is the only way to really cut the cord.
The fact that this opinion piece exists means that the fanboy base is worried.
They should be.
Well you know DED had to get in a hit piece on Joanna Stern who is a real journalist at the WSJ just because she brilliantly pointed out that Apple stills sells a flawed keyboard. I just hope that she appears in the News+ feed. I'm shocked that he didn't take a dig at theVerge for something that hurt his feelings about Apple./div>
You must be joking. Stern is an ex-Verge hack. Verge being a gross den of haters and pro-trolls. She’s one of the clueless who suggest taping up your Mac’s webcam to thwart hackers. Nonsense, and debunked by Gruber:
You forgot to mention the failures of Siri and iCloud, so all non local (server) projects failed execept iTunes.
Neither Siri nor iCloud are failures, you’re high. All voice assistants are of limited use, and Siri is no different - texts, reminders, home automation are the bread and butter. iCloud is fine, I use it daily without issue as do millions.
I dont even know what you’re trying to say about the other projects.
The fact that this opinion piece exists means that the fanboy base is worried.
They should be.
Nonsense! It means that he is annoyed by the silly chorus of Apple haters who are almost always wrong! There has not been a single release Apple has done that they haven’t disparaged in since the original translucent iMacs 20 years ago. The things they claim Apple will have to copy from competitors to survive many times is the undoing of those companies. So, like a bad weather man, do the opposite of what they suggest. If they say it will be sunny and clear, take your rain suit.
Apple haters have one thing in common, they are consistently wrong while Apple has hit after hit after hit. The horses the haters pick continue to be supported as they quietly cancel failure after failure while Apple sucks all the profits out of every market they enter into.
Like Daniel, I used to feel sorry for those people , but now am mostly annoyed that they keep talking and dragging uninitiated non tech consumers into their echo chamber of falsehoods.
Your reply sounds like someone who deep down inside is worried, but is yelling loud in hope that makes it fact
SO many Apple-haters, so little intelligence.
Thank you, DED, for pointing out the thoughtless thought that passes for insightful analysis these days. And then there are the click-panderers, who earn a few shekels by spewing out anti-Apple drivel.
So any response to these purveyors of FUD means the responder is “worried”? That’s just unmitigated cr*p. Calling out bullsh*t is essential if you want a chance of a balanced picture. And this other cr*p about how DED shouldn’t be talking about what Steve Jobs would have wanted? How else should he respond to those using Steve Jobs to underpin their hit pieces?
It’s just amazing the contortions these Apple haters go through to support their false narratives....
tl;dr Pathetic advocacy piece of the pathetic lack of vision.
Pathetic astroturfer comment. Apple Card: brand new. Arcade: brand new. The other media services are unknown. But the point is Apple is adding services revenue to their existing kickass hardware. There is nothing wrong with that and is what people have been whining for previously.
The fact that this opinion piece exists means that the fanboy base is worried.
They should be.
Well you know DED had to get in a hit piece on Joanna Stern who is a real journalist at the WSJ just because she brilliantly pointed out that Apple stills sells a flawed keyboard. I just hope that she appears in the News+ feed. I'm shocked that he didn't take a dig at theVerge for something that hurt his feelings about Apple./div>
You must be joking. Stern is an ex-Verge hack. Verge being a gross den of haters and pro-trolls. She’s one of the clueless who suggest taping up your Mac’s webcam to thwart hackers. Nonsense, and debunked by Gruber:
I had no idea you considered his word so authoritative. BTW have you ever been wrong about anything and if so does that mean you should not be trusted either just like you suggest for Ms. Stern?
This reminds me off people who throw out the “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” quote (from Palm’s then CEO) any time there is skepticism over a new Apple product/service. As if anything Apple does is guaranteed to follow the iPhone path or its impossible for Apple to release a product or service that’s not successful.
The peanut gallery always forgets what “the iPhone path” actually was. Then they negatively compare whatever Apple is doing now with a fictional version of Apple’s prior history.
Most of of the time, Apple rollouts follow iPhone’s actual path, which was a long-game of wobbly rollout with incremental improvements until success was achieved, at which point everyone suddenly thinks it was an instant success.
And no, not everything will succeed, and when something doesn’t, the peanut gallery will crow about how they were right all along, ignoring all the many other successes they also first declared to be sure failures.
Last week’s services announcement was part of a long game. It’s a strategy of developing services, hardware and software together, all reinforcing each other. That strategy isn’t geared to quarterly earnings reports or the online commentariat. To see if it’s working, check back in maybe five years.
People throw out this quote to mock skeptics/naysayers. I saw someone use it last week in response to a comment from a credit card exec who said they were already doing everything Apple announced in the keynote. They didn’t refute what this exec said, they just threw out that quote in a snarky way.
There was nothing Apple announced last week where I thought wow this is better than what exists right now. IMO all these services are driven by financial considerations not great products that solve problems and delight customers.
People mock the skeptics/naysayers because the vast majority of the time the skeptics/naysayers turn out to be wrong or mostly wrong.
This forum is littered with a trail of skeptics/naysayers who pronounce whatever Apple just introduced as uninteresting, uninspired, incrementalist humdrum that is dead on arrival. Yet, time after time these pronouncements are proven wrong after they're long forgotten, so there's no accountability for the skeptics/naysayers.
Don't like the iPhone example? How about Apple Watch? When it was introduced, the skeptics/naysayers assured us all that no one even wears watches anymore, and that there was very little reason for anyone to want one. Now, go to any populated area, and you'll see Apple Watches all around you. Is that a guarantee that everything Apple proposes will work? No. But when the skeptics/naysayers lean on the same tired criticisms in their pronouncements of doom, it's a pretty good bet to roll out the same mockery in response. Odds are that the naysayers/skeptics will be wrong once again.
This keynote for me was the day Apple lost its edge and became the new Microsoft. Services will make lots of money just like Office for Microsoft. I’m a huge Apple fan and have been since I was a kid. Are used to come to Apple insider.com several times a day hoping to catch a glimpse of what Apple was working on with great excitement. Now I come to this website maybe once a week and I’m thoroughly unimpressed with everything I read and everything Apple is working on. Tim Cook has done a great job at Apple CEO to maximize profits for shareholders and to maximize dollars spent in the apple ecosystem. He should be commended for that. However, Apple will need to innovate to stay competitive in relevant long-term. I just don’t see Tim Cook is being the guy for that.
Comments
The only time we would be worry when Apple stop trying.
Now let me ask a question- who here is planning on tuning in every day for a morning lecture on gender issues from Jennifer Aniston? The far left makes TV so bad even other far left people can't watch it (e.g. Disney Star Wars) although they still lecture other people that they ought to be watching it.
Well, that article quickly went off the rails into familiar territory. Though, I’m pretty sure I only saw the word “pundit” used once.
"Steve Jobs would have been proud..."
This sounds creepily religious.
No one has any idea what Steve Jobs would have thought.
Let's not forget that 'The Steve' thought a number of things were good, which weren't; no arrow cursor key on the keyboard, the original iMac hockey-puck mouse and the iTunes based social media thing, whatever it was called, spring quickly to mind. If you care about Apple, it's best to drop comments about Steve Jobs in reference to current technologies, movements in cultural values and global market economies and politics.
Most of of the time, Apple rollouts follow iPhone’s actual path, which was a long-game of wobbly rollout with incremental improvements until success was achieved, at which point everyone suddenly thinks it was an instant success.
And no, not everything will succeed, and when something doesn’t, the peanut gallery will crow about how they were right all along, ignoring all the many other successes they also first declared to be sure failures.
Last week’s services announcement was part of a long game. It’s a strategy of developing services, hardware and software together, all reinforcing each other. That strategy isn’t geared to quarterly earnings reports or the online commentariat. To see if it’s working, check back in maybe five years.
There was nothing Apple announced last week where I thought wow this is better than what exists right now. IMO all these services are driven by financial considerations not great products that solve problems and delight customers.
I once suggested on here that tvOS should be licensed and I still think that is the only way to really cut the cord.
https://daringfireball.net/2019/02/on_covering_webcams
She’s tabloid-level quality, at best.
I dont even know what you’re trying to say about the other projects.
Thank you, DED, for pointing out the thoughtless thought that passes for insightful analysis these days. And then there are the click-panderers, who earn a few shekels by spewing out anti-Apple drivel.
So any response to these purveyors of FUD means the responder is “worried”? That’s just unmitigated cr*p. Calling out bullsh*t is essential if you want a chance of a balanced picture. And this other cr*p about how DED shouldn’t be talking about what Steve Jobs would have wanted? How else should he respond to those using Steve Jobs to underpin their hit pieces?
It’s just amazing the contortions these Apple haters go through to support their false narratives....
Pathetic astroturfer comment. Apple Card: brand new. Arcade: brand new. The other media services are unknown. But the point is Apple is adding services revenue to their existing kickass hardware. There is nothing wrong with that and is what people have been whining for previously.
I had no idea you considered his word so authoritative. BTW have you ever been wrong about anything and if so does that mean you should not be trusted either just like you suggest for Ms. Stern?
This forum is littered with a trail of skeptics/naysayers who pronounce whatever Apple just introduced as uninteresting, uninspired, incrementalist humdrum that is dead on arrival. Yet, time after time these pronouncements are proven wrong after they're long forgotten, so there's no accountability for the skeptics/naysayers.
Don't like the iPhone example? How about Apple Watch? When it was introduced, the skeptics/naysayers assured us all that no one even wears watches anymore, and that there was very little reason for anyone to want one. Now, go to any populated area, and you'll see Apple Watches all around you. Is that a guarantee that everything Apple proposes will work? No. But when the skeptics/naysayers lean on the same tired criticisms in their pronouncements of doom, it's a pretty good bet to roll out the same mockery in response. Odds are that the naysayers/skeptics will be wrong once again.
Tim Cook has done a great job at Apple CEO to maximize profits for shareholders and to maximize dollars spent in the apple ecosystem. He should be commended for that. However, Apple will need to innovate to stay competitive in relevant long-term. I just don’t see Tim Cook is being the guy for that.