LeeinAZ

I used to use Apple products for everything, I have been an Apple user almost exclusively since 1987.

As time goes by I am using less and less as there are better solutions, at least for me.

While I use Apple Music, I use a Sonos system to play the music, I use Fire TV instead of Apple TV for media and I use Waze rather than Apple Maps for navigation. As I have a car that has Android Auto as well as CarPlay I have started moving my SIM card over to a Galaxy S7 Edge for longer car trips to use Android Auto as I find, other than messaging, which is something I kind of avoid while driving anyway, CarPlay is useless and more often than not responds with 'I am sorry, I can't search the internet while you are driving' which makes the CarPlay experience useless and frustrating. I kind of thought that being able to use voice to do things like find a gas station or see if a store is open was kind of the idea.

I applaud Apple's commitment to security and privacy, I don't know how important that is to the average user, how many people read EULAs? My point is that until that becomes important to people, and that would require a certain amount of analytical thinking, I don't think that is something that will be fully appreciated.

The truth is that Apple services and hardware, when you take the entire experience into consideration is still a compelling ecosystem. The problem is that few of the parts are class leading, I mean, really, what person having used both products is going to use Apple Maps over Waze, or iCloud over Google Apps for Business, even Microsoft with Office 365 has a more compelling offering than Apple, why is this?

All companies go through cycles, ups and downs, and Apple has become a huge behemoth of a company doing far more than it used to. With scale, the ability to be nimble and respond to a market becomes more and more difficult. Looking at when they announced HomeKit and it's current state is really disappointing. The integration of HomeKit and Siri is also a big disappointment. I have a bunch of HomeKit stuff and have more or less given up on using it as it works 75% of the time.

Siri does some things really well, interacting with a calendar, replying to text messages, setting a timer, things like that work really well. The problem comes in when you want to use it to do more than that, Google Assistant is a far superior product for things like inquiries about businesses, getting directions, looking up random information. This is because Google is a successful search company and Apple is relying on Yelp and Wolfram Alpha.

I am involved in tech and of my friends 60% probably use iPhones, I don't think any of them uses Siri on a regular basis, as it just does not work well enough. To add on to that, there is little documentation. I have just ordered an Amazon Echo on the recommendation of a friend who has been using it to control all his HomeKit devices. Maybe my Home automation devices will get some use again, and it is another thing I will stop using an Apple solution for.

Just as Google acquired Waze, and I know that Apple does quite a number of acquisitions, they could stand to do more.

I don't think Apple has to be the best at everything, that is an impossible expectation. The do however have to be good at enough stuff that as a whole they compelling for users to commit to their products and services. Time will tell if they are able to pull that off now that competition is heating up.

They might need a new CEO, someone who knows how to implement web delivered services, because right now they have a supply chain guy, and web services (something Apple has not had the best reputation of getting right) and hardware supply chain are two very different things.

As others have pointed out, for every service Apple offers, someone else does it better. Siri as a web assistant is downright awful when compared to Google's offering. Their productivity stuff, mail contacts and calendars are not as good as Microsoft and Google's offerings. Their music is not bad, but not any better than Spotify. iCloud storage does nothing that cheaper and better (cross platform) services like Dropbox offer.

The company is at an inflection point, and if I had to bet, they will go the way of IBM, Dell, and Balmer Microsoft. That is to say, they won't be going out of business any time soon, but their inability to continue to innovate and deliver new products after the unfortunate death of the companies visionary, will lead to a period of malaise.

If their pro product offerings including the most recent pro laptop tells us anything, the are no longer able to deliver products that get anything greater than a 'meh' from the people that have historically championed the brand.

I for one, am not in a hurry to subscribe to new Apple services, on the contrary as time goes by, I find I am happier with non-Apple services. I have been using a Mac since 1987 and recently have been finding using Apple products less appealing, due to instability and unnecessary complication of software and questionable design choices in both hardware and software. For me it is not so unappealing that I will be using my Surface or Galaxy 7 Edge as my daily drivers, but I no longer see it is an impossibility.