Apple’s new strategy is to give — not tell — users what they want

Image: Apple

It used to be that Apple spent more time telling its customers what they wanted rather than just giving it to them.

MacBooks were removed from the market with a number of features, including a traditional laptop keyboard, and a butterfly keyboard with a touch bar. The redesign of the Mac Pro failed at the basic task of keeping power-hungry components cool.

Yesterday's announcements, which include the powerful and port-rich Mac Studio and a new monitor that costs a fraction of the price of Apple's previous attempt, are now consistently doling out consumer-friendly features.

Take a look at the display. It is much more expensive than most monitors on the market, but Apple's previous monitor, the $4,999 Pro Display XDR, did not come with a stand.

It's still far from a mass-market product, and I think most people are going to stick with more generic black rectangles. Quality-of-life features that are sure to make it popular with a certain subset of Apple's users are included in the studio display. There is a built-in six-speaker system, a built-in 12-megapixelWebcam, and mics with beamforming. It's also 5K resolution, which is a relative rarity outside of monitors from other companies, and is packaged up in Apple's trademark slick industrial design.

Image: Apple

The Mac Studio looks to be a more powerful Apple Silicon Mac mini with almost all the ports a professional user could ask for. There are four Thunderbolt 4 ports on the rear of the car, and the majority of users still need them. The design of the machine evokes nostalgia for Apple's Power Mac G4 Cube, with ports and an SD-card slot on the front.

The Mac Studio is a halfway house between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. The iMac Pro all-in-one, which Apple discontinued a year ago, appears to be the basis for a powerful replacement. After watching Apple compare the performance of the M1 Ultra with the kinds of Intel Xeon processors it used to include on its professionally focused all-in-one, I came to the conclusion that it was a good thing.

The iMac Pro's computer inside a screen is more flexible than the Mac Studio and Studio Display. The iMac Pro starts at $4,999, while the Mac Studio with Studio Display starts at $3,598. The fact that the two components are sold separately is important. Even Apple's $4,999 monitor can suffer from issues with off- axis viewing and iffy black levels. These aren't problems for the majority of users, but anyone doing professional color work will want something better, and Apple's more flexible approach means they can buy a Mac Studio and get the display they want elsewhere.

James Bareham / The Verge

There was good news for budget-conscious buyers of phones. With the launch of the new iPhone SE, 5G support is no longer exclusive to Apple's flagship phones. It's a decision that may have more to do with appeasing carriers than consumers for now, but given how rarely Apple upgrades its entry-level smartphones, 5G might end up being far more essential before this device reaches its end of life.

Many users say they want other things, but Apple doesn't want to give them them. MacBooks were upgradeable in the past, and it was even possible to upgrade the components in the previous iMac Pro. With the switch to its own Arm-based Silicon, Apple has completely eliminated user-serviceable parts, with everything from RAM to storage soldered onto the computers. The best Apple could tell us was that customers have a variety of system memory options to meet their needs, and that users can upgrade.

The Mac Pro is the only modular computer Apple sells, and who knows how much will change when Apple Silicon comes along.

It's hard to say when Apple's thinking changed. Apple's new MacBook Pro lineup last year was the clearest evidence yet that the company was prepared to listen to its most vocal power users, but I think the shift began years earlier when Apple admitted its trash can Mac Pro was.

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Jony Ive's departure from Apple was announced just weeks after the Mac Pro. The timing of the announcements wasn't lost on some commentators, who pointed to Ive's history of form-over-function design gaffes. His focus on Apple's new headquarters might have been a distraction.

Even if the latest Magic Mouse still insists on charging from the bottom, Apple has continued to walk back many of the most controversial design decisions of the Ive era.

Image: The Verge

I don't want to overstate Ive's influence at a company that's as successful as Apple. It's hard to ignore the fact that a product shift is happening at the company with each passing Apple event. MacBooks are growing useful ports and reverting to thicker and more reliable keyboards, TV remotes are replacing confusing trackpads for intuitive D-pads, and even the humble iPhone is getting thicker to make room for a bigger battery.

Sometimes there is value in making bold decisions for your customers. When Apple dared to announce the original iPhone without a physical keyboard or when Apple first released the now ultra-popular AirPods, people said a lot. These were product categories in their infancy, and Apple made big decisions about what form they should take. The quote from Henry Ford about horses is almost certainly fake, but it continues because it expresses something that feels true, and because Apple's Steve Jobs famously quoted it himself. Tim Cook has been known to overrule Steve Jobs-era decisions, like the idea that Apple's customers shouldn't get a larger iPhone.

Tech like laptops and desktop computers have been around a long time. They are established product categories, where customers have a clear idea of how they like to work and what they need to get the job done. Apple isn't just telling people how to use its products. The company is showing that it can listen as well with its latest announcements.