2018 was widely considered a disappointing year for Apple on several fronts and most of its casual and power users were hoping that 2019 would present itself as a sort of rebirth for the company. It would slowly go back to the golden age of Steve Jobs at its helm by catering to their pro users with proper hardware and simplifying their hardware lineups to offer just the right amount of options for the right prices (including Apple tax).
In the week leading up to the event where Apple will announce their new video streaming and news subscription services, a sleuth of new hardware was announced, including new iPads, iMacs and AirPods. Unfortunately, it can all be summed up as a straightforward rehashing of the same formulas to cut costs wherever possible and maximize profits.
The iMac still looks the same. No changes whatsoever in a computer whose current design is now five years old. The screen is the same and, although this line-up has new processors, it’s safe to assume that its internals hasn’t been changed. This means that the cooling system will not be able to handle the top of the line 8-core i9 processor. It’ll start throttling way before it reaches the peak speed of 5 GHz. Oh, and this processor, along with the i5 processor in the most expensive configuration, are the only 9th-generation processors from Intel in these new iMacs. The rest are still 8th-generation processors which are over a year old, but still presented as being “top of the line”.
The iPads were another disappointment. The iPad mini has a better screen, a processor on par with the latest iPhones and compatibility with the 1th-generation Pencil, but it retains the same dated design and brings with it an entry price that is simply too steep. The iPad Air is everything we didn’t want the 10.5” iPad Pro to become. It drops the ProMotion screen and the quad-speakers for faster Bluetooth and, as with the iPad mini, a processor on par with the current iPhone lineup, while keeping the same design.
Apple still hasn’t figured out how to market USB-C. If it’s a pro feature, why would it be used in MacBooks and MacBook Airs? But if it’s not a pro feature, why only use it in iPad Pros? Why not include it in iPhones and the remaining iPad line-up (aside from the cheap iPad)? It’s clear that the accessory market brings in a lot of money and keeping the Lightning port on some of its devices is a smart business decision, but selling iPhones and iPads that users cannot connect to their Mac computers without buying additional cables, adapters or dongles is abhorrent.
In some capacity, I’ve been using Apple devices for the past 12 years. I would really like to keep using their devices, but at this point, there isn’t a single computer that Apple offers that interests me in the least bit. Their phones are ridiculously overpriced and their tablets have followed suit in the past 18 months. I feel ready to step away from Apple as a customer. From the many Apple devices in the household, my iPhone 6S Plus is the only one I can truly call my own and I really like it. However, I see more exciting features in mobile devices coming from the Android camp at competitive prices. My personal experience with Android devices hasn’t been the greatest, but I plan to move back and give them another chance (as soon as finance permits).