this sounds more evocative than i mean, but the apple i knew has died.
look, the apple i knew has died several times over. i'm still not over the years of "the most advanced keyboard" which broke after two weeks, i'm still bitter about headphone jacks, and i'm sure you've all have your moments of disappointment with apple, and will continue to do so.
it's just apple used to be a company that postured itself "for creatives", and i only realised just now how untrue that is, how untrue that's been for years. i just never thought i'd see apple do the full heel turn on their 1984 advert and proudly announce "we crushed everything that brings joy"
from at least the late 80s through the 2000s, apple's advertising focus was on individuality, personality, creativity. i need not cite the late-90s-early-2000s ads that were literally just videos of people dancing that told you nothing about the product; apple sold us on living life full for decades. now they are a company about Productivity. it is obvious why this happened.
a few years after the iphone came out, apple quietly became aware that 99% of emails sent by executives said "Sent from my iPhone" at the bottom. a couple years after the ipad came out, apple quietly became aware that virtually every retail establishment in the US that was not part of a chain was using them as POS terminals. so apple is now a company that makes productivity tools. often for business, but not always - sometimes it's just about personal productivity, tracking your X, finding your Y, always being in touch with Z. apple makes products for workers to help them work better. this is depressing.
but let's not be disingenuous here: it is because a couple massive advances in technology - primarily: multi-gig NAND flash, but also wireless broadband - eradicated the consumer electronics industry overnight, years ago. during the obama admin, and not even towards the tail end of it. there will never be another Walkman or Discman or iPod or iPod video because all of those things were the product of escalating storage capabilities, and storage is now a solved problem, forever. there will not be a new hill to crest; 128GB will still be a lot of storage 20 years from now. the same is true for all the other technologies relevant to consumer desires.
all the music you've ever heard is in your pocket, brand new hollywood movies and TV shows can be called into existence in the middle of the forest, and you have a camera that (speaking to the average user) exceeds your skills or desires as a photographer or videographer and has functionally unlimited storage. there is nothing left to sell to the pure consumer. consuming is a solved problem, it is effortless and works incredibly well. the instrument is as good as it needs to be for 95% of people, they figured out the form factor over ten years ago, and there is nothing you can add with an accessory or peripheral that nearly anyone would want. they can't even show you the headphone wires jangling in space because they got rid of those, years ago, way easier than anyone ever could have imagined. in fact, most of their 2010s+ developments come down to what they removed rather than anything they added. we're mad about them removing the headphone jack and making the device thinner, but it's because there is nothing left to add, so they are forced to subtract.
consumer technology happened, and is now over. a macbook from 2012 is all the macbook most people will ever need in terms of normal, everyday tasks. apple has not come up with anything in over a decade that they can add that anyone really gives a shit about. M1? what, like your intel mac didn't run for like 8+ hours anyway? like it felt slow doing the things you typically do? the M chips are amazing, but as far as most people are concerned, they're marginal improvements where they aren't simply invisible. if you disagree, it's because you're part of an incredibly small group, to which Apple is now advertising exclusively, because what else can they do. there is nothing left to advertise other than features hypertargeted at professionals. there's nothing left to invent that will make a billion dollars off the everyman.
we are all lucky enough to be alive to witness the end of consumerism, at least as the last six generations have known it. the problem is that it is not going gently into that good night.
