badgolferman wrote on Tue, 10 Sep 2024 15:05:36 -0000 (UTC) :

> Apple has long been famous for its bravery-or, in the words of Apple
> executive Phil Schiller, courage, which he famously used to describe
> Apple's decision to "move on and do something new that betters all of us"
> by removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7.

To put it more directly, it was greed that made Apple remove the hardware
so that its poor customer base would be stuck with fewer options, such that
Apple could steer the customer more easily toward their #$$$ money-making.

All Apple ever does is *"remove choices" & "copy Android"*, mainly because
Apple spends almost nothing in R&D & almost everything in pure marketing.

> It was hardly Apple's first couragous act.

What Apple always does, strategically, is remove your options so that
you're forced to take the least onerous leftover $$$ choice Apple provides.

> It took courage to release the
> MacBook Air, a computer so thin it could house only two USB ports.

As always, Apple's strategy is to reduce the consumers' choices, so that
Apple can more easily steer that hapless loyal Apple customer to $$$.

> It took courage to remove the iPhone's multifunctional home button.

I recently picked up a handful of the iPad 10th generation iPads, which is
the first iPad for me without that convenient home button (now fully gone).

I'm not actually sure how Apple made money by removing the convenient home
button, but you can rest assured $$$ was Apple's motive from the get go.

> It took courage
> to start selling Earpods that only worked with the iPhone's proprietary
> lightning cable once the headphone jack was gone, and it took even more
> courage to sell some pricey new Bluetooth headphones at the same time.

Always, Apple's fundamentally brilliant strategy is to fuck the customer
base leaving them very few options - always providing an $$$ Apple choice.

> It
> took courage to release a MacBook with a keyboard so bad it clearly played
> second fiddle to making the design just a touch thinner (and cost the
> company $50 million in a class action lawsuit). It took courage to finally
> update the iPhone to USB-C-and then saddle it with USB 2.0 transfer speeds
> from, literally, the year 2000.

Apple doesn't want USB-C to work. They want you to use $$$ Apple options.

> But y'know, it also takes courage to admit when you're wrong. And while
> Apple didn't say it was wrong while unveiling its new iPhones this
> year-admitting you ever made a mistake with a past product is not a very
> Big Tech thing to do-that's actually the message I took away from Monday's
> iPhone 16 presentation. After spending years patting itself on the back for
> the trend of removing basic hardware functionality in the name of pushing
> people to new products and more svelte designs, Apple's tactily changed
> strategies.
>
> We're now in Apple's "buttons and ports are good, actually" era.

Huh?

> This new, throwback-to-the-old-ways Apple wasn't just born today, but I
> think the iPhone 16 reveal event did crystallize what has been a notable
> Apple trend forming for the last few years. The big new thing is this: the
> iPhone 16 has not one but two new physical buttons on it that last year's
> phone didn't have. One of them is the "action button," brought over from
> the iPhone 15 Pro. This is just a great button: you can map a range of
> functions to it, so you finally get to decide what it does instead of being
> stuck to whatever Apple thinks you'd use a physical button for the most.
> When a phone is in your pocket or you want something you can press without
> looking at the screen, it sure is nice to have a physical button!

Android has had that since, oh, I don't know, let's just say forever.

It's another case of Apple's strategy of spending almost nothing in R&D
innovation and focusing, instead, on copying Android features from forever.
> The other button, even more exciting, is the "camera control" button, which
> offers capactive feedback meant to somewhat mimic the experience of using a
> real camera shutter. You click it to open the camera or take a photo, but
> can also do a light press or double-tap to swap between camera settings
> before snapping a pic. That sounds pretty great to me, considering how
> often I feel like I'm awkwardly holding the camera with one hand while
> trying to use the other to slide my finger on the touchscreen adjusting
> zoom or exposure.

Notice there's only one Camera app? That's because Apple's fundamental
strategy is to drastically limit their admittedly loyal customers' choices.

If it works, that's neat - but what would be better perhaps, is a better
camera app - something the iPhone has sorely lacked for quite some time.

Android has plenty of useful camera apps that do rather wonderful things.
> This move towards dedicated physical buttons feels to me like a complete
> reversal from the years of the iPhone 7 (when Apple ditched the headphone
> jack) and the iPhone X (when it ditched the home button), which were both
> watershed moments for the iPhone. For a few years in between the iPhone
> design has been more iterative, but now, it seems, the iPhone is worthy of
> physical controls again, without everything being shunted onto the same
> poor overworked power and volume buttons.
>
> https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/7-years-after-declaring-it-took-courage-to-remove-the-iphones-headphone-jack-apple-has-finally-decided-buttons-and-ports-are-cool-again/

Apple doesn't innovate because Apple can't innovate because Apple spends
almost nothing (compared to its size) in R&D so all Apple can do is
1. Apple MARKETING removes customers' choices to funnel them to Apple $$$
2. Apple R&D can't innovate so all they can do is copy Android innovation

The Apple zealots might not like hearing the truth - but it's still truth.
*Apple can only remove features and/or copy the innovation of Android*

That's because Appel is all MARKETING and almost no R&D (for their size).