The reality behind Apple’s most unpopular choices: It is not about you

Twelve years in the past, my former Macworld colleague Lex Friedman and I had been at an Apple-focused convention the place we introduced a chat referred to as “Apple is Enormous Now (And That Sucks For You).” The lengthy and wanting it was that the Apple of 2012 was not the identical Apple of the Eighties, Nineties, and even the 2000s—now Apple was a large firm that would much less afford time worrying about you as a person.

A decade-plus on, it’s onerous to consider that Apple has gotten even larger and that, essentially, every considered one of us matter that a lot much less to it, but it surely’s unarguably true. Merely put, it’s a matter of scale—the corporate merely can’t afford to spend the identical period of time worrying about its clients that it may have 20 years in the past as a result of there are simply that many extra of them.

In its position as one of many largest purveyors of know-how on the earth, Apple has no alternative however to undertake a perspective of scale. This comes into play in all types of choices the corporate makes, from the most important of the massive to the smallest of the small.

Enter-output

Let’s take, for instance, the matter of {hardware} modifications—even people who could appear inconsequential. Apple this week launched new variations of its enter peripherals for Mac: the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad. These new revisions had been just about equivalent to the previous fashions, excluding swapping the Lightning port on the sooner variations for a USB-C port. That was a change lengthy anticipated by most Apple watchers, for no different motive than the Lightning port has already been phased out on many of the firm’s different gadgets. (People who stay are older merchandise nonetheless on sale, such because the iPhone 14, and people possible to get replaced within the close to future, just like the iPhone SE.)

Foundry

However the massive query on the minds of many is: Why is that the one factor that modified? It’s not as if these merchandise had been good. The Magic Mouse has lengthy been derided for its inefficient charging port on the underside; the Magic Keyboard has retained its unusual arrow key format, in defiance of the remainder of Apple’s keyboards adopting the basic “inverted T” design. Why had been neither of these “issues” mounted?

Whereas John Gruber gave a strident protection of the Magic Mouse that rings largely true, I believe you possibly can’t ignore the influence of scale. These gadgets are among the many most area of interest of Apple’s merchandise. Not solely are they equipment primarily (although not completely) used with the Mac, a product line that routinely accounts for a single-digit p.c of the corporate’s general income, however they’re additionally (once more predominantly) aimed toward clients of desktops, that are themselves the minority of Macs offered. Furthermore, I’d hazard a guess {that a} excessive proportion of the peripherals Apple ships are these included with a pc, similar to an iMac, slightly than purchased individually.

Making modifications to any of those gadgets would have required redesign and re-engineering efforts; modifications that, to these of us on the surface, may appear minor, however when stacked up towards the variety of these gadgets really offered merely could not pencil out: How a lot does it price to make modifications to the present manufacturing course of, how a lot does it price to check these merchandise to ensure they work appropriately, and what number of of those peripherals does Apple must promote to pay for that upfront price?

Along with all of that, there’s one other price that must be thought-about: the price of what you’re not doing.

Price-portunity

Within the final a number of years, Apple has taken just a few completely different stabs at including further fashions to its iPhone line-up. That got here first within the taste of the iPhone 12/13 mini, adopted by the iPhone 14/15/16 Plus. If rumors are to be believed, the Plus mannequin could observe the mini into the darkness subsequent yr, whereas a brand new, slimmer iPhone 17 takes up a spot on the prime of the lineup.

I do know various of us who bemoan Apple’s abandoning of the mini type issue. It’s clear that the merchandise weren’t blockbuster sellers—had they been, there’s little doubt that Apple would have continued to supply extra. However I’ve additionally heard the argument that these gross sales shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all. To wit: “If Apple can maintain across the iPad mini and the Mac mini, regardless of what are absolutely decrease gross sales, why not the iPhone mini?”

Foundry

The easy reply? Alternative price. The iPhone is Apple’s most respected product line by far. It accounts for half the corporate’s income. Apple sells tens of hundreds of thousands each quarter. Neither the Mac nor the iPad traces come even shut.

The issue is that the iPhone mini didn’t exist in a vacuum. The secret is development, and if the mini isn’t selecting up extra gross sales for the corporate, then it’s costing an excessive amount of cash. Apple can solely make so many iPhones complete; it doesn’t have the luxurious of spending the effort and time investing in a product that doesn’t promote as effectively—particularly when it may very well be making a completely different kind of iPhone which may promote higher. There’s a price to conserving round an underperforming product, particularly in your best-selling product line: parts, meeting, advertising and marketing, and so forth all nonetheless must be dedicated to that product, even when it’s not maintaining its finish.

That’s why Apple shifted gears to the Plus cellphone: to see if it may succeed the place the mini couldn’t, in gross sales. And if it too fails, as these rumors counsel, it will likely be subsequent on the chopping block.

Scale each mountain

All too usually, Apple’s choices can really feel private. Consider me: I used to be all set to purchase a brand new Magic Keyboard, however the lack of that inverted-T arrow key format made me hesitate. Why would Apple do that to me? The issue is that finally, with the variety of clients Apple has, every considered one of us is—at a while or one other—an edge case. An exception to the rule.

In the end, all the pieces Apple does nowadays must be seen from a place of scale. Given the dimensions of the corporate, the variety of merchandise it’s constructing, and its world attain, small choices can rapidly turn into massive ones. A battleship turns slowly, because the previous saying goes, and which means it’s much more essential for the individual steering to be assured that they’re making the proper flip—and that doesn’t all the time imply that every considered one of us will get to go alongside for the trip.