I doubt the blame lie at the very top (Tim Cook), but missing Black Friday/Cyber Monday by even a few days is a kinda a big deal. Obviously something went very wrong with Apple making a big splash about these with the iPhone 7 launch and announcing they would ship in November (or was it October?) and them still not available even for preorder. Will this have a significant impact on Apple's bottom line? Of course not. However, I have no doubt there are tens of thousands of people who are annoyed/inconvenienced by this delay. They would be more annoyed to receive a crappy product that isn't ready for prime time, but that's besides the point. I'm just saying this wasn't handled well (and still isn't being handled well). Apple or Tim could have tweeted "Really sorry for the delay, but we're working out some kinks so we'll have enough stock on hand to meet initial demand. Expect them to go on sale in mid-December and ship immediately." That's a million times better than crickets chirping and a leaked email. Or if the answer is "found a critical bug, probably won't be ready until February" say that.
LOL! Month's overdue and 3x more expensive than BT earbuds that blow them away.
name them. There are none that match the airpods:
1. have to be true wireless. Not this BS wire connecting the two pods.
2. have to match airpods 6 hours of play time
3. cost the same price or less
4. have instant pairing
OK show me all those BT earbuds that do all that for $159
Even without the added features that go along with the W1 chip when used with an Apple user, the AirPods seems aggressively priced. I can't recall ever seeing any decent BT headphones that were only $53.
The iron is cold, or at least luke warm. How many less do you think they will sell compared with how many they would have sold if it had been available from day one of iPhone 7 sales? People will now realise they can get by or have chosen other solutions. Apple will still sell a lot, but it will be a lot less.
But is even worse than that. It is a symbol of an Apple where the executive group is not focussed on what makes Apple great. The creation of a seamless ecosystem that just works right from the get go.
A couple of years ago Apple decided to remove the headphone port, a decision someone paid millions of dollars a year to make these decisions would have immediately realised might be a tad 'controversial', 'courageous' even. This decision maker would have immediately realised that Apple, the world champion of the ecosystem, should come up with brilliant ways to turn that potential short term negative into a winner and make a tonne of money. A high priority would be given both to a lightning EarPods to go in the iPhone box and in parallel, a really, really cool wireless solution. Which is what I believe is exactly what happened when the decision to remove the port was made.
However, it appears that in the years since that decision, the executive let their focus be on other matters, even ones not related to the company paying them millions of dollars, and the really cool wireless solution was not given the right priority to be ready for the iPhone 7 launch, and a potentially glorious execution and tour de force coordinated product release in late September did not happen.
Sort of like the Apple Pencil debacle just last year. Device shown, support grows, interest develops, wallets open and...no show.
Tim Cook's apple.
I pretty much lost all interest in Airpods
Steve's Apple wasn't much better:
Remember when Macs were announced in January and shipping in April? iPhone was announced in January, shipped in July. Mac OS X releases held back months. Someone has a short term memory and just wants to beat the hell out of a dead horse every chance they get. Can't you just get over it and move on??? You're making yourself look like an ass here.
Sort of like the Apple Pencil debacle just last year. Device shown, support grows, interest develops, wallets open and...no show.
Tim Cook's apple.
I pretty much lost all interest in Airpods
Steve's Apple wasn't much better:
Remember when Macs were announced in January and shipping in April? iPhone was announced in January, shipped in July. Mac OS X releases held back months. Someone has a short term memory and just wants to beat the hell out of a dead horse every chance they get. Can't you just get over it and move on??? You're making yourself look like an ass here.
Under Jobs they couldn't even get a white iPhone they promised out until a couple months before the next iPhone came out… but Tim Cook is an idiot¡
All this aspersion-casting is all well and good (not), but wondering about the actual why.
I'm going with concerns about the batteries. You'd only need one blowing up in a person's ear for massive bad press, so they absolutely have to NAIL this aspect.....
I generally fully support Apple, but this late delivery passed two important milestones: 1. Not available when the iPhone 7 went on sale (... and buyers were looking for Bluetooth earbuds) 2. Not available for the vast majority of Christmas shopping season (... which = much of the gift shopping for the full year)
That's bad. Someone screwed up. This product had significant financial potential, and much of that probably disappeared as customer bought alternate solutions.
I am curious why a very good summation of the situation by slprescott got a dislike? it isn't about cheering for the team, it is about the development and execution of what should have been a successful product launch.
I generally fully support Apple, but this late delivery passed two important milestones: 1. Not available when the iPhone 7 went on sale (... and buyers were looking for Bluetooth earbuds) 2. Not available for the vast majority of Christmas shopping season (... which = much of the gift shopping for the full year)
That's bad. Someone screwed up. This product had significant financial potential, and much of that probably disappeared as customer bought alternate solutions.
It's $159 retail. Financial impact is minimal at worst. I would seriously doubt that October came and millions of people decided to buy something else. The masses probably don't even know this exists. If they do, they probably don't realize it's late. You can bet your butt that as soon as they are released Apple will advertise the heck out of them and drive the demand. The product announcements only drive the demand from a very small group of people.
I am curious why a very good summation of the situation by slprescott got a dislike? it isn't about cheering for the team, it is about the development and execution of what should have been a successful product launch.
Agreed. He summed up my position perfectly without any snark or hyperbole. Oh well.
I generally fully support Apple, but this late delivery passed two important milestones: 1. Not available when the iPhone 7 went on sale (... and buyers were looking for Bluetooth earbuds) 2. Not available for the vast majority of Christmas shopping season (... which = much of the gift shopping for the full year)
That's bad. Someone screwed up. This product had significant financial potential, and much of that probably disappeared as customer bought alternate solutions.
That may be a screw up, but it's one that Apple been doing for decades. Accessory items are frequently behind their other items, even when the core feature of the primary item requires the accessory for its full utility.
Sort of like the Apple Pencil debacle just last year. Device shown, support grows, interest develops, wallets open and...no show.
Tim Cook's apple.
I pretty much lost all interest in Airpods
In mean this with all sincerity, if having to wait a couple months before the announcement of a new product and its release—when nothing else on the market compares to its technological advancements (unless you bought the Beats options with the W1-chip, which I doubt you did)—then you need to get your ADHD under control as it's negatively affecting your life in other ways.
ever heard of striking when the iron is hot? iron is ice cold now.
Plus you know the other brands will build their version of the W1 chip in a few months. I might just wait for that now.
Unless other brands design / make their own accessories that utilize their version of the W1 chip or license their version of it, I doubt it they will come out with one. There would be no point.
I generally fully support Apple, but this late delivery passed two important milestones: 1. Not available when the iPhone 7 went on sale (... and buyers were looking for Bluetooth earbuds) 2. Not available for the vast majority of Christmas shopping season (... which = much of the gift shopping for the full year)
That's bad. Someone screwed up. This product had significant financial potential, and much of that probably disappeared as customer bought alternate solutions.
It's $159 retail. Financial impact is minimal at worst. I would seriously doubt that October came and millions of people decided to buy something else. The masses probably don't even know this exists. If they do, they probably don't realize it's late. You can bet your butt that as soon as they are released Apple will advertise the heck out of them and drive the demand. The product announcements only drive the demand from a very small group of people.
From a shareholder perspective the margin on that $159 product would be awesome. That helps the bottom line considerably, and keeps Wall Street happy. If enough are sold, it would allow the possibility of slightly lower margins of mainstream products, boosting sales of those products and..peripherals like the high margin airpods. A virtuous circle.
the same is true of other highmargin peripherals (well for Apple anyway) like "it just works" routers.
The iron is cold, or at least luke warm. How many less do you think they will sell compared with how many they would have sold if it had been available from day one of iPhone 7 sales? People will now realise they can get by or have chosen other solutions. Apple will still sell a lot, but it will be a lot less.
But is even worse than that. It is a symbol of an Apple where the executive group is not focussed on what makes Apple great. The creation of a seamless ecosystem that just works right from the get go.
A couple of years ago Apple decided to remove the headphone port, a decision someone paid millions of dollars a year to make these decisions would have immediately realised might be a tad 'controversial', 'courageous' even. This decision maker would have immediately realised that Apple, the world champion of the ecosystem, should come up with brilliant ways to turn that potential short term negative into a winner and make a tonne of money. A high priority would be given both to a lightning EarPods to go in the iPhone box and in parallel, a really, really cool wireless solution. Which is what I believe is exactly what happened when the decision to remove the port was made.
However, it appears that in the years since that decision, the executive let their focus be on other matters, even ones not related to the company paying them millions of dollars, and the really cool wireless solution was not given the right priority to be ready for the iPhone 7 launch, and a potentially glorious execution and tour de force coordinated product release in late September did not happen.
Maybe they should've delayed the iPhone 7 then? Release a faulty product just to meet a deadline? What would you do, armchair Apple executive?
Sort of like the Apple Pencil debacle just last year. Device shown, support grows, interest develops, wallets open and...no show.
Tim Cook's apple.
I pretty much lost all interest in Airpods
Steve's Apple wasn't much better:
Remember when Macs were announced in January and shipping in April? iPhone was announced in January, shipped in July. Mac OS X releases held back months. Someone has a short term memory and just wants to beat the hell out of a dead horse every chance they get. Can't you just get over it and move on??? You're making yourself look like an ass here.
Under Jobs they couldn't even get a white iPhone they promised out until a couple months before the next iPhone came out… but Tim Cook is an idiot¡
Sure, these things happened on occasions in the past, there were even high profile product failures like the cube. The difference this time is there are is a list of these execution failures all at once, successful market differentiating features are being abandoned, and the executives swan around pleasuring themselves on non company matters. It isn't a good look.
Look, there is a lot of ruin in a large corporation [economist joke] and things will get better if the Apple leadership gets its shit together.
entropys said: The difference this time is there are is a list of these execution failures all at once
What list? Do you really have that selective a memory that you can't recall how long the Mac Pro kept the same case from the PPC days and the duration between updates?
successful market differentiating features are being abandoned
Example?
the executives swan around pleasuring themselves on non company matters.
Comments
But is even worse than that. It is a symbol of an Apple where the executive group is not focussed on what makes Apple great. The creation of a seamless ecosystem that just works right from the get go.
A couple of years ago Apple decided to remove the headphone port, a decision someone paid millions of dollars a year to make these decisions would have immediately realised might be a tad 'controversial', 'courageous' even. This decision maker would have immediately realised that Apple, the world champion of the ecosystem, should come up with brilliant ways to turn that potential short term negative into a winner and make a tonne of money. A high priority would be given both to a lightning EarPods to go in the iPhone box and in parallel, a really, really cool wireless solution. Which is what I believe is exactly what happened when the decision to remove the port was made.
However, it appears that in the years since that decision, the executive let their focus be on other matters, even ones not related to the company paying them millions of dollars, and the really cool wireless solution was not given the right priority to be ready for the iPhone 7 launch, and a potentially glorious execution and tour de force coordinated product release in late September did not happen.
Remember when Macs were announced in January and shipping in April? iPhone was announced in January, shipped in July. Mac OS X releases held back months. Someone has a short term memory and just wants to beat the hell out of a dead horse every chance they get. Can't you just get over it and move on??? You're making yourself look like an ass here.
I'm going with concerns about the batteries. You'd only need one blowing up in a person's ear for massive bad press, so they absolutely have to NAIL this aspect.....
1. Not available when the iPhone 7 went on sale (... and buyers were looking for Bluetooth earbuds)
2. Not available for the vast majority of Christmas shopping season (... which = much of the gift shopping for the full year)
That's bad. Someone screwed up. This product had significant financial potential, and much of that probably disappeared as customer bought alternate solutions.
it isn't about cheering for the team, it is about the development and execution of what should have been a successful product launch.
Agreed. He summed up my position perfectly without any snark or hyperbole. Oh well.
the same is true of other highmargin peripherals (well for Apple anyway) like "it just works" routers.
Look, there is a lot of ruin in a large corporation [economist joke] and things will get better if the Apple leadership gets its shit together.
Example?
Example?
LOL@anyone who buys BT earbuds that don't have the W1 chip in them, as that alone renders any other BT earbuds as inferior.