Nobody ’s perfect . We all make mistakes , from the littlest kindergarteners to the world ’s most valuable and hefty corporations . What ’s most important is how we respond to our fault , of course . Do we find out and uprise ? Do we abnegate and deflect ? Or do we just give up ?
What I ’m enjoin is that Apple sometimes take its failures and learns of import deterrent example that inform its next attempts … but sometimes , it seems to just give up .
Adorable failures and their reactions
Apple is a lofty company that hates making mistakes and hate have up to them even more . When Apple corrects a misapprehension , it in general does so by pointing out how much unspoiled the correction is and how customers are just going toloveit . It does n’t brood on the past times – and does n’t desire anyone else to do so , either .
In 2015 , Apple introduced a unexampled keyboard that it bragged about . It was tenuous and wakeful and intelligibly an improvement on what had come before . The “ butterfly stroke keyboard , ” it turned out , had limited central travel that turned off many laptop computer users , andreliability problemsthat made it a nightmare for others . ( And , of course of action , laptop computer users ca n’t swap out their keyboard for an alternative – so it was a pretty vital failure . )
For years , Apple tried to qualify the keyboard to make it more authentic . Did it last succeed ? It ’s hard to say because in 2019 , the company began replacing the butterfly keyboard entirely . The new “ Magic Keyboard ” design was more like the outside keyboard of the same name . When the company excuse just how much effort it had enthrone in researching and designing the new keyboard , it came about asclose to apologizingas it ’ll ever do .
The problem with the Touch Bar was that Apple didn’t do anything to improve it.
My favored Apple failure chemical reaction issue forth in the wake of the debut of thethird - contemporaries iPod Shuffle . If you do n’t commend , theiPod Shufflewas a very small iPod euphony player with no CRT screen , just a set of buttons to control drama / pause , next / previous , and volume up / down . But for the machine ’s third generation , Apple introduced a role model with … no buttons at all ! Instead , to control the iPod Shuffle , you had to apply compatible headphones with a mike ( for voice control ) and a bent of inline control condition buttons . If your preferent earpiece were n’t compatible , well , ruffianly .
It was a tragedy . A minuscule over a twelvemonth later , Apple released a “ fourth - generation ” theoretical account that was a complete reversion to thesecond - generation model , with a complete set of control on the equipment . I do n’t be intimate if I can recall another time when Apple right away toss out a unexampled design andreturned to the old one . What a failure ! But at least it go the subject matter and respond .
The problem with the Touch Bar was that Apple did n’t do anything to improve it .
The problem with the Touch Bar was that Apple didn’t do anything to improve it.
IDG
Papa Homer, you are so learned
As Homer Simpson taught us , when you go wrong , you get word the most of import lesson of all : never try on . Sometimes , Apple reacts to failure by range away from the shot of the crime , never to return . I do n’t really wish it when this happens because if something ’s worth doing , it ’s worth try on until you get it right .
Take the Touch Bar . A lot of mass are still out dancing in the streets at thediscontinuation of the last Mac laptop with a Touch Bar , which happen last month . And I agree : the Touch Bar was a failure for so many reasons .
But is the deterrent example that Apple should just never attempt to do anything unexampled and different with its keyboards ? I for sure desire not . Sitting next to my Mac ’s keyboard is a 15 - cardinal programmable keyboard postscript from Elgato bid aStream Deck . I be intimate it . I can programme each key to do something different and create a custom icon for each one . I can even apply keys to switch to other screens , allowing each key to abide different commands in different context .
The Vision Pro is an ambitious product, but it’s unclear as to how Apple will gauge whether it’s a success or not.
in person , I think the Touch Bar fail because it was a featureless strip that did n’t allow use by spirit – you had to look right at it to apply it – and because Apple never countenance substance abuser ( or app developers ) to customise it . I get the sense that Apple was so burned by the Touch Bar that it ’s never run to send a keyboard with anything but standard use winder , but I ’d love a customizable , programmable exercise set of tactual key like those on my Stream Deck at the top of my laptop computer keyboard , too . Apple just needs to take another fissure at it .
Or consider the12 - inch MacBook , ironically the laptop that introduced the butterfly stroke keyboard pattern . That laptop computer was underpowered , overpriced , and only offered a single USB - atomic number 6 port . It never view on , and it fair chop-chop vanished from Apple ’s offerings . But now , in the era of Apple silicon Macs , could n’t an ultra - thin , ultra - little Mac laptop be more affordableandoffer plenty of performance ? There are rumors that Apple ’s working on a new 12 - inch MacBook , but I in earnest doubt it will be an ultraportable . Instead , it ’ll likely just be a MacBook Air with meretricious character .
The Vision Pro is an ambitious product , but it ’s unclear as to how Apple will gauge whether it ’s a success or not .
Petter Ahrnstedt / Foundry
What’s next for failure?
I also think about what current Apple products or features might one solar day pass to retrenchment or denial . Will Apple ’s switch for leather , FineWoven , betray well enough for it to subsist , or will Apple take another crack at a more leather - like cloth ? After the failure of theAirPowercharging sheath and the discontinuation of theMagSafe Duo , will Apple seek to make groundbreaking gimmick chargers , or will it give up and leave that as a third - company opportunity ?
Then there ’s the Magic Mouse . I assume the next model wo n’t shoot down via aport on its belly that renders it unuseable , but who knows when Apple will everupdateits mouse ?
lastly , I marvel about theVision Pro . It ’s not even out yet , but it ’s still worth considering : what will it take for Apple to evaluate it as a success ? How many years will Apple give the program before it makes a determination ? And when it does figure out what ’s incorrect or right-hand with the Vision Pro , what will its reaction be ? After so many class and so much money , you ’d believe it would be aggressive in making changes and fixing whatever pain the product . I sure desire so . It would be a shame if Apple just give up , walked aside , and dissemble the whole thing had never happened .
