The worm that's eating Apple (APPL).

3.28.19

This week, Apple announced a video service, a news service, a gaming service and a credit card.

The exciting take on all this would be something like, APPLE SET TO DISRUPT HOLLYWOOD, THE MEDIA, NEWS, VIDEO GAMING AND BANKING IN A SINGLE BOLD MOVE.

The more realistic take is, "Apple announces some stuff."

What is going on at the once mighty Apple? Don't get me wrong, things aren't that bad, Apple still makes gobs of money, is still growing, has an Everest of cash, but it's missing its once mightiest attribute: buzz. There is just nothing exciting happening anymore and that is heartbreaking.

In the past, whenever Apple held a gathering like the one this week, I used to wait with anticipation, dying to see what they would announce, what "damn, that's insanely great" idea they would bestow upon the world. My reaction, this week, as in recent years, was a disappointed yawn.

I think what's missing at Apple these days is an obsessive desire to do something insanely great, to not settle, to push and push and break through and then do it again. Tim Cook seems like a nice guy but he's not driven to put a "dent in the universe" the way Jobs was. Jobs was an asshole, no question, but at least he was an asshole with a purpose. What's Tim Cook's purpose for being nice? What is he hoping to achieve? I have no clue.

I am holding out hope that the upcoming Mac Pro will be insanely great. In fact, I'm hoping it's so insanely great that I do the insane thing and buy one. But my expectations are crushingly low. Look at the "new" Macbook Pro. When it was released, it was insultingly bad. In fact, the one insanely great feature that Apple still has, a unique feature in fact (so rare these days), is the Mag-Safe connector and what happened to it? CUT. Why? What possible reason for this could there be? Fine, Apple, you want to simplify to the Nth with USB-C being all you need? Totally good with that. But there was no need, no possible benefit, to cutting Mag-Safe. Almost as bad, the processors for Apple's flagship laptop were old. I remember when Jobs vowed never to be last to get Intel's good stuff. Hell, he even pushed Intel to make a special processor for the Air. Nowadays, it's like Apple just doesn't care. And that's the most heartbreaking thing of all. Once among the world's most passion-fueled companies, Apple appears to be apathetic, releasing tired products, half-baked services, buggier and buggier software. It's tragic.