I believe a major source of Apple’s software decline to be the self-imposed yearly deadlines which started after Steve Jobs. Prior to that, new macOS releases came out whenever they were ready. Maybe they were buggy, but by the end of each cycle they were fairly solid.
Compare to now, where they announce major features (Apple Intelligence), keep them in beta for over half a year, then have even less time than that before the next WWDC where they are expected to announce new stuff.
It’s bananas and unsustainable. There’s no time to do anything properly. No wonder everything is falling apart.
I think you're right. It seems all Apple is trying to innovate by is making things thinner. No real risk taking or seeking to make game changes. No iPod, no iPhone, nothing. I mean the god damn iPad doesn't even have a good native note taking App. I can just imagine Jobs going "founders mode" on someone because you can't zoom in.
But I really have to be clear, this isn't just an Apple issue. Windows is getting worse too. Google too.
I believe a big part of this is that all these systems are becoming more closed off. They make it harder for people to play around with and "hack". Taking power away from the user. I think the truth is that things are so complicated, that if you don't let the end user make fixes, debug, and write new things, then your product can only decline. Besides, you cannot know what people are going to use the thing for. The goal is to build an environment, not a product.
Compare to now, where they announce major features (Apple Intelligence), keep them in beta for over half a year, then have even less time than that before the next WWDC where they are expected to announce new stuff.
It’s bananas and unsustainable. There’s no time to do anything properly. No wonder everything is falling apart.