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Apple lacks strategic vision

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Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#161

Post by scarface_74 »

JasonBee wrote: post #118
st3fan wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the number one reason is that Siri is an embarrassment. And that has become so much clearer now with ChatGPT and Claude next to it. Everyone is simply thinking: why can't we have that. Why do we have to talk to a low quality agent that can't answer basic questions while i can also walk around with my airpods in having a full conversation with ChatGPT. I understand it is not that easy. But Apple has been neglecting Si…

Maybe it’s due to cost? I’m curious to know whether Apple fine tuned the Siri LLM to run lean in order to save money, and in the same vein that OpenAI loses money on even the paid queries. It has to break even somewhere unless hydro becomes miraculously free.

There is no Siri LLM. It’s a dumb pattern matcher on a static list of phrases and intents.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#162

Post by scarface_74 »

wolvesechoes wrote: post #133

Apple doesn't have that many customers, but has a lot of followers. You can see them in this thread. This says all you need to know about futility of discussing their vision, innovation etc.

Apple has 70% market share in phones in the US and even in other countries a large share of affluent users have iPhones.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#163

Post by scarface_74 »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #61
slwvx wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Tim Cook has bad product and design taste [1], and see no reason to think that there are enough good design people at Apple to make a good car. I think they likely got stuck looking at making a car version of the gold Apple Watch Edition [2] and rightly shut the project down. [1] https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/07/31/ep-428 [2] https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/2/23900158/apple-watch-edit...

What sort of backward company allows their CEO to have any design input? Gross.

There was this guy named Jobs…

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#164

Post by Micoloth »

getnormality wrote: post #153
kllrnohj wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waiting until others struggle with early pains before swooping in with a polished version after the idea has been demonstrated is also Apple's consistent playbook. They've never been innovators, that's not their strength. They're polishers.

They did have usable file system search decades ahead of Windows.

I mean.. Does window have it now?

Debatable at best..

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#165

Post by oumua_don17 »

flohofwoe wrote: post #147

Apple not hopping on the AI hype train might actually turn out to be an advantage when the next AI winter arrives ;)

Yes and it isn’t just a matter of in but when the bubble pops. Then everyone will be hailing apple as the strategic visionary, fun times!!!

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#166

Post by troyvit »

ZeroConcerns wrote: post #5

Well, as we speak, Apple is still one of the most valuable companies in the world, shareholder-value-wise and (most importantly) consumer-preference-wise. So, being an absolute Apple-skeptic, I don't blame them for not having a crystal-clear future direction right now. VR/AR? Nah, probably not happening. AI? Probably huge, but in which direction? Who knows? And they've got products in all these markets, just not obvi…

> AI? Probably huge, but in which direction? Who knows?

This is a really cool take that actually aligns with Apple's walled garden. They've built the garden wall (their hardware), they've prepped the soil (marketing, sometimes not great), and now it's time for them and their partners to start releasing local apps that take full advantage of the M2/M3's power to execute LLMs locally.

Apple has made bets like this before, both on the CPU and peripheral side. Historically, for better or for worse, they've done the whole "build the hardware (AltiVec, Thunderbolt, even USB-A) and the software will come" thing. With their latest ARM CPUs they're doing that with AI & LLMs, and it's a huge chance to change the direction of this tech from SaaS centric to user-owned. I too am not an Apple fan but I think they are going to come out of this looking pretty good.

Edit: I didn't mean to imply that Apple "built" USB-A, just saying that when they released the iMac it relied heavily on USB-A and people were pretty surprised at the investment they made in that tech.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#167

Post by rogerrogerr »

worthless-trash wrote: post #120
rogerrogerr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh great, where can I buy a non-Mac with the same performance, battery life, thermals, weight, premium materials, and a trackpad that doesn’t feel like styrofoam coated in oil? Since you say the competition has caught up, I assume it’ll be easy to send an Amazon link to the evidence.

Not OP but that's the thing right, you've talked a lot about feels which means there will never be an answer that overcomes the emotion built in your head. I wonder what it would take to win you over, and i don't mean the rational you, which i'm sure you can justify, i mean the irrational 'i'm in love with the product' you.

It’d take these very objective things:

- 7+ hour battery life while running a bunch of Docker containers and IDEs, at the same screen brightness nits I run my MacBook at.

- Those things run not-perceptively-slower than on my Apple hardware

- No perceptible fan noise while doing the above

- The chassis does not creak when I pick it up from one corner

- Does not weigh more than double my MacBook

I’ll even relax the trackpad requirement and allow a 60Hz HiDPI screen instead of the 120Hz screen my MacBook from four years ago drives while doing all of the above.

Is there anything that can check those boxes?

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#168

Post by dmonitor »

ryanobjc wrote: post #57
unethical_ban wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has historically been a little behind the curve in technology, but then excelling at execution and user experience. If they could (quickly) come out with a personal assistant which was really useful for people's planning and shopping and productivity, which knew how to navigate the apps and services on a person's apples phone/computer/cloud data, and do it locally and/or privately... They'd be in a good positio…

I think the reason why Apple hasnt come out with such a useful personal assistant AI is because the underlying technology just doesn't make this so easy. Apple is the only company so far that seems to be unwilling to accept a poor user experience with generative AI, so their efforts have been "lackluster" in terms of "AI integration" - as if "maximally integrating generative LLMs" is the goal in and of itself! Of cou…

> their efforts have been "lackluster" in terms of "AI integration" - as if "maximally integrating generative LLMs" is the goal in and of itself!

That does feel like the ultimate goal with many of these AI initiatives. I have a suspicion that a lot of the negativity thrown towards Apple's AI integration comes from people hoping Apple will legitimize their product, not from people wanting their phone to be better.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#169

Post by wolvesechoes »

scarface_74 wrote: post #162
wolvesechoes wrote: post #133

Apple doesn't have that many customers, but has a lot of followers. You can see them in this thread. This says all you need to know about futility of discussing their vision, innovation etc.

Apple has 70% market share in phones in the US and even in other countries a large share of affluent users have iPhones.

Nice! I am not sure what does it have to do with my comment, but good to know.
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