argos.panoptis

Hello everyone, you make some very good points, technically.  Financially, however, you're all ignoring the obvious.  Apple remains a corporation geared towards profits, not technical perfection (what a world that would be!).  i.e. while I would kill for a convertible iPadOS/MacOS iPad, the reason I would kill for it is that I could ditch my Macbook Pro or my iMac.  And Apple would loose 2-3 grand by cannibalizing its own sales.  Now this may not be strcitly true, as I am and always have been an Apple idiot since the Apple II+.  I would probably end up spending that money on ludicrous earphones and a silly watch, but I doubt i would spend the full 2-3 grand.  Maybe 1000-1200.  And most others would spend less. 

Apple is looking for the ideal marriage between technical excellence (innovation and progress) and financial excellence (a ginormous bottom line).  I wish them luck, even though it will probably condemn me to the poor house. 

What Apple has lost, and I doubt it will ever get back, is its vision (risk? not Apple).  Where's the Newton?  Where's the G4 Cube?  Commercial failures, perhaps.  But that's how you break new ground.  iPod? iPhone?  iPad?  Small failures lead to great successes, that you can build on for decades (ages, in IT time). 

We used to watch WWDC with baited breath together, gathered around a table, on edge during, elated after, and kicking ourselves for not being able to attend the sessions.  Now? Well, I frankly couldn't care less about the latest Super Mario game or its 6 month exclusivity, minor interface tweaks that I can look up later (or not at all), and tweaks or feature bumps that are treated as headline news.  I knew it was over for Microsoft when the only changes between versions of Word were an icon rehash and an excuse to bill you.  Apple isn't there, but it's dangerously close to that path.

And one more thing.......  I miss Steve.  Apple's mind remains intact, but he was its heart and soul.