The Arrogance of Apple

Apple is currently no longer trying to appease their current customers with service quality. Also, Apple is no longer making the best products on the market.

The other day I went into the apple store with my MacBook to have it looked at because it was consistently losing Wi-Fi connection. The operating system was working fine and the computer had no other real issues. First, of the wait to get an appointment was ridiculous and incredibly long. If Apple cares about its customers it will find a way to service their existing customers sooner and better. Once I did have an appointment I should up early to check-in and wait well past my appointment time. Several people did come up to me to ask me if I was being helped but when I let them know I was waiting for an appointment they just veered off in the other direction. When my appointment person did show up they did apologize for being late and then we started to process of trying to figure out what happened to my computer. After 3 hours the verdict was that my hard drive was going bad. Solutions; I could buy a new computer; or a new hard drive from Apple; or a new hard drive from a third party and install it myself. I opted for the third option and went back to apple to have them install a fresh new OS. Well in a few days I started getting the same issue of consistently losing Wi-Fi connection. Online solutions were to no avail.

That’s my store, but it’s not really just mine. While I was at the Apple store getting a fresh OS the guy next to me stepped up to the genius bar with the same connectivity issues. The online community was a littered with similar complaints (and computing issues). Apple has grown big, fast, and along the way has lost its core focus- creating imaginative great things that just work. Apple is now more corporate than ever. Their main focus is on bringing the new and existing customer the next big thing. But if you’re a customer with Apples last great thing you generally no longer their target audience. If you’re not spending hundreds of dollars to buy their latest great product or connecting to Wi-Fi to download their latest operating system then they basically turn their nose up at you and their backs on you and leave you to figure it out on your own. If you have an iPhone that predates the 6 you will know that you can’t even update to the next software operating system because your phone is not compatible with the new system and “you” do not conform to what Apple now believes is a “valued” customer, someone who has shelled out the money to kept their corporate cog of machine going.

This being said the time is ripe for another company to come in and fill the void that Apple has created. Alienating their existing customers for new customers or forcing current customers to pay for upgrades or be left out in the cold. Easy ways to exploit the gaps in Apple’s armor first you have to create the operating system from the ground up to work seamlessly with the hardware and software and any other ancillary products. Android has not been able to accomplish this because they don’t realize the uniformity of the product is part of the appeal. Every android phone looks clunky and messy apps of different sizes and shapes, it’s not uniqueness, its clutter and leads to the paradox of choice. Create a culture built around customer service, with employs that are trained in all facets of the product and own the product. Third in the design of the hardware don’t copy Apple at all, do something completely different. If Apple is rectangular go circular. Apple shocked the world by doing away with the buttons, but it wasn’t the loss of buttons that shocked the world it was that the phone still works great without them. Make sure the phone works superior in all things that it does. Especially the phone part that’s where Apple lacks the most. Apple cycle is known now, they will release the iPhone 7 sometime around September followed by the iPhone 7s in the following year. The 7 will have a major redesign and cool features to boot, the 7s will just be an update of the 7. This gives an incredible two-year window to release a superior new product and take market share.

To be fair this is a difficult endeavor and near impossible, Apple still has the most beautiful product and the most loyal customers. However, it is debatable if their products are better anymore. Other phones have better cameras, front facing lights, better screens resolutions, waterproof, and sometimes even great designs but not all in one. But this can be done not everyone is the King forever, Alexander the Great fell, and Exxon is not the juggernaut it once was, Disney is trembling in its Mickey Mouse boats at the thought of Netflix,  and Microsoft is no longer the most admired and well-known computer company in the world. Sooner or later Apple will falter and if it is not by the eyes that read this now it will be another set.