“It just works” no longer reliably working due to quality drift, but mastered chips and China-driven efficiency has allowed its massive success even though it has been free-riding on the fading...
I think you should include a third "extraordinary accomplishment." Apple's success at taxing the work of application developers. This should be considered by economists as one of the greatest and most egregious collections of "economic rent" in modern history. The idea that Apple has the right to impose a sales tax of 30% on applications developed by others is just only slightly less fantastical than the reality that so few people seemed concerned by this private tax.
Should Ford or Toyota be allowed to claim a 30% cut whenever their cars are rented? Should a supplier of coffee makers be allowed to tax the gross income of coffee shops? Should Microsoft tax its users 30% of the revenue generated by using Microsoft office? I don't think so.
The Apple tax, copied by many others, should be declared illegal.
If those are meant to be rhetorical questions, I'd say that's a bit like trying to satirize our political landscape. Can't be done. But perhaps that goes without saying.
Apple clearly has a group of people somewhere tasked with doing fundamental research, although they don't make noise about it the way IBM, AT&T Classic, and now Google do/did. I continue to think that group has dug very deeply into so-called "AI" and found that there is nothing there there that can be productized in a high quality way - but that the executive level can's admit that due to the need to generate Wall Street "AI" hype.
It feels like you are correct—that Apple's executives have rightly decided that there is nothing worth doing here save possibly the natural-language Siri interface wild goose chase, but dare not tell investors that...
On software etc: I recently “upgraded” to an iPhone 16; no big improvement for me as a user but it works. A couple of days ago I “upgraded” my system to 26.2. It does work though I don’t notice any advance in speed or convenience, and it looks terrible. Much worse. The clock and camera icons are particularly ugly. Moreover it keeps telling me to Finish Setting Up My Phone — which only means enabling Apple Pay. Now, why would they want me to do that? [Don’t all shout at once!]
There is also Apple's move into the entertainment industry, which is closely linked to the advertising industry, which is closely linked to the surveillance industry. This is a major change on Apple's old business model: selling hardware integrated with software. In this model, Apple's incentives are nicely aligned with those of its customers. The only wedge is the price, and consumers understand paying premium price for premium product.
But if you're selling ads, customers become the product. This breeds resentment and pushback. I'm not sure it's worth the revenue, especially since Apple sells itself, in part, on privacy.
I think you should include a third "extraordinary accomplishment." Apple's success at taxing the work of application developers. This should be considered by economists as one of the greatest and most egregious collections of "economic rent" in modern history. The idea that Apple has the right to impose a sales tax of 30% on applications developed by others is just only slightly less fantastical than the reality that so few people seemed concerned by this private tax.
Should Ford or Toyota be allowed to claim a 30% cut whenever their cars are rented? Should a supplier of coffee makers be allowed to tax the gross income of coffee shops? Should Microsoft tax its users 30% of the revenue generated by using Microsoft office? I don't think so.
The Apple tax, copied by many others, should be declared illegal.
:-(
It is illegal. But from their perspective, the fines are an unwelcome cost of doing business—preferable, to date, to compliance. An ongoing saga.
https://tech.yahoo.com/apps/articles/one-first-alternative-app-stores-162253422.html
If those are meant to be rhetorical questions, I'd say that's a bit like trying to satirize our political landscape. Can't be done. But perhaps that goes without saying.
Once largely fictional: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250223166/unauthorizedbread/
Now on display at CES.
Covered under #4?
Apple clearly has a group of people somewhere tasked with doing fundamental research, although they don't make noise about it the way IBM, AT&T Classic, and now Google do/did. I continue to think that group has dug very deeply into so-called "AI" and found that there is nothing there there that can be productized in a high quality way - but that the executive level can's admit that due to the need to generate Wall Street "AI" hype.
It feels like you are correct—that Apple's executives have rightly decided that there is nothing worth doing here save possibly the natural-language Siri interface wild goose chase, but dare not tell investors that...
Most of the time Siri’s response is, “Here’s what I found on the web”. All I use it for is setting alarms, timers, and reminders.
On software etc: I recently “upgraded” to an iPhone 16; no big improvement for me as a user but it works. A couple of days ago I “upgraded” my system to 26.2. It does work though I don’t notice any advance in speed or convenience, and it looks terrible. Much worse. The clock and camera icons are particularly ugly. Moreover it keeps telling me to Finish Setting Up My Phone — which only means enabling Apple Pay. Now, why would they want me to do that? [Don’t all shout at once!]
Regarding Apple’s poor software quality:
https://www.bugsappleloves.com/
There is also Apple's move into the entertainment industry, which is closely linked to the advertising industry, which is closely linked to the surveillance industry. This is a major change on Apple's old business model: selling hardware integrated with software. In this model, Apple's incentives are nicely aligned with those of its customers. The only wedge is the price, and consumers understand paying premium price for premium product.
But if you're selling ads, customers become the product. This breeds resentment and pushback. I'm not sure it's worth the revenue, especially since Apple sells itself, in part, on privacy.
For context:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
(It seems likely you've seen this, but not everyone has.)