If I could steer Apple for a bit
Tags: VR, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Apple

Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

If some kind of 80’s movie magic happened and I was suddenly asked to make decisions — there are things I’d want to change.

Apple makes devices and services I prefer using regularly and I think they could be a whole lot better. Why are things the way they are? Mostly I think it’s their strategy for profit to sell more devices.

Apple certainly does that. I have two problems with that as a primary strategy though.

Apple has already made sooooo much profit. The company can go the other direction on a few things and still be perfectly fine. There’s only so far you can go with that strategy before you start trying to push device-as-a-service (DAAS)—which I’d argue is kinda what the iPhone Upgrade Program is. The hardware isn’t really made to be sold sustainably as a subscription, so that doesn’t quite work.

Simplify the hardware line

The first thing I’d address is the device fragmentation. I think enough profits have already been made to stop creating these devices to be so single-purpose and single owner. Particularly in light of Apple Silicon for Macs, the barriers between devices should really fade away. The overall product range of Watch, Phone, Tablet, Laptop, Desktop, Station still makes sense but the middle can blur and a lot of the variations are needless.

Let’s start with the very middle:

iPads and MacBooks should become one thing

Why would anyone really NEED both a 12" iPad + keyboard and a 13" MacBook if they could really just do each other’s job? Being constrained on both devices is logistically frustrating. Looking at the prices buying both is financially frustrating. Using similar devices that run Windows and ChromeOS is a frustrating workflow. Here’s what I would do to fuse these two into a “PadBook”:

Choices of this merged device are in 10", 13", or 16" sizes.

All run MacOS/iPadOS interface and apps, supporting multiple accounts.

All can be purchased with or without a detachable keyboard.

Keyboards can be “Air” for minimalism or “Pro” to add extra battery, processing, and legacy ports to the device.

All have support for touch, Pencil (1 and 2), multiple external monitors, splash resistance, wireless charging, and LTE/5G.

All have at least two Thunderbolt 3 ports with new MagSafe adapters to increase the life of the port and protect your device.

If folding screens can work at this size, let’s have them.

iPhones and iPads

Between the largest phone and smallest tablet, are they really so different? I think they also could get merged into easier devices to choose from:

5.4", 6.7", and 7.9" screen sizes.

All have a Thunderbolt 3 port.

All have a minimal exterior, made to attach easily with cases.

Can also connect with the larger device keyboards for enhanced capabilities.

Folding screens? Yes please!

Watch Mini — you know, for the kids

The Apple Watch is great and so fashionable but it’s really not appropriate to put anything over $50 on a child’s wrist. Of the many smartwatches and fitness trackers out there for kids, there really isn’t much available that aims for general utility. They’re all centered around either paranoia (gps tracking + calling), exercise (steps, etc.), or distraction (games, photos, music).

Now that we’re in #CovidLife, kids learning remote are expected to manage their own school schedules and handle their own school/life balance—as if they’re suddenly little adults in white-collar jobs. There’s not much yet to help them with that. A Watch Mini just might allow them to keep on schedule and on task. Particularly if we could get more school software to offer Watch apps.

Sized for a kid’s arm

Ruggedized for the impacts it will certainly endure

Priced for the misplacements that are bound to happen

Gamified reminders and notifications

Subset of the other Watch features

Desktops and stations

If these can also gain ARM chips for everything they do, why not allow them to also dock with the mobile devices directly—not just sharing across your Apple ID account but utilizing your local profile and files.

Do we need the Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro still? I can’t answer that because I’m too far from needing desktops these days. Someone else will have to address if anything else needs to change with these products.

I do think there is definitely a good place for stationary home devices of some kind though, whether that’s a desktop Mac, a TV, or a HomePod. While these do a good job connecting to Apple online services, I’d push for them to seek a little less profit by allowing people to use these home devices to keep the majority of their photos, videos, and file backups—vs keeping them all in iCloud for greater and greater monthly fees.

iCloud should work differently depending on whether you want to invest in online storage vs online routing. Then either the HomePod and Apple TV should support the routing method with additional storage, or add another Pod that just handles storage.

Online storage: Everything is backed up to the cloud and stays there. Storage requirements for any devices are low. No home devices are necessary. Subscription cost depends on library sizes.

Online routing: Everything is backed up through the cloud but stored on and continually accessible from target home devices. Libraries of photos, music, etc. can grow as big as you have storage for without effecting subscription cost.

New devices? AR/VR please.

The Watch is a great wearable but you know what would be an even better wearable for a lot of the work I do? Augmented or Virtual Reality glasses. I personally can never have enough screen space and unless I need to show things to people in person, I’d be so much happier working with an infinite document space projected around me through a nice headset, goggles, or glasses.

Whether it’s a tethered device or a self-contained thing like the Quest, I’d welcome this with open arms. The only headsets out now have nothing to do with any of Apple’s products. Great for Windows things like games but bad for work I prefer to do on a Mac.

VR/AR features I’d try to get:

Connects to all the Apple devices, wired and wireless.

Lets me use all my apps in fully immersive 3d around me.

Easily switch between AR and VR modes.

Send apps to and from physical screens to allow precise physical touch or Pencil drawing.

Advancements like hand tracking, varifocal tracking, and foveated rendering to remove the last visual barriers.

Works with WebXR and of course AR Kit.

Software: Open the walled garden

While I understand that one of the reasons for running a tightly controlled App Store is to insure a certain level of quality—it hasn’t really worked out that well. There are plenty of terrible apps in the stores, while some great apps are excluded. The stores don’t scale well by any measure. The sheer number of apps and lack of community controls make curation for quality or finding useful apps nearly impossible. I’d do the following:

Introduce common store controls to make shopping easier: wishlists, comparisons, price tracking, and $ales! If Valve has taught us anything, it’s that offering frequent sales on software makes a lot O’ money.

Add community controls for curation: public lists, updating reviews, and adding photos/videos to reviews.

Establish acceptance tiers: Highly trusted, Acceptable, and Unknown. The first level is full compliance with store guidelines and a history free of badness. The second level is basically apps that pass the min bar but aren’t going out of their way to gain favor of store employees checking the apps. The last level is basically open country, the wild west. Apps can do what they please but are marked as such and can be removed if reported as doing something egregious.

With the new acceptance tiers, let apps that should sell or stream other things be free to do so. So you could finally buy books in the Kindle app, download games in the Steam app, stream games with a GeForceNOW app.

The new tiers also allow Mac apps that currently have to offer non-store versions just to offer their full capabilities.

Software tweaks to the smaller things

Fully support Progressive Web Apps. Native apps are fine and great but the reality is, most apps on the Store will never be found or installed. Even in the face of App Clips. Most people just use the web version of anything because, well, there’s Google Search. Let’s not forget that it was iOS Safari that basically made everyone realize mobile web was a thing—which is now the dominant thing for most sites.

Make Apple LTE/5G devices fully support Google Fi, with smart network switching. Telecom companies currently operate as unkind monopolies, so anything that allows people use them more like a basic utility is better for society in the long run.

Lower the prices of iCloud subscriptions. When it’s something like our personal photos at stake, people really shouldn’t be price gouged.

Go the rest of the way with identity

“Sign in with Apple” is a great start but there are still many holes in identifying yourself online/digitally that could be addressed by Apple in coordination with other major identity providers.

Your true ID should be sharable and instantly replaceable—rendering it meaningless to spammers and criminals

Your contact/confirmation loops should be any or one of the following: app, email, sms, phone, hardware key

Your ID should not rely on passwords—ending the era of forgotten access and cracking data breaches

Your identity and permissions for every site and app should be viewable and editable by you at any time. Activity that doesn’t look right to you can be removed.

Your ID should work across all major devices and platforms

Getting all of this right and gaining industry support, people could participate in and remove themselves from any site or app without friction or spam.