Jason Canon's Shot

My appeal to the employees of Apple in 2022

Steve Jobs made Apple products the BEST products in the world. They were known for their design simplicity and intuitive user features.  It disappoints me to say that the Apple ship has run aground and is in desperate need of someone like Steve Jobs at the helm.   I used to love how simple to use my iPod was! I declared it to be the BEST invention of the 21st century for music lovers. Technology evolved to smart phones but for the past 5 years my smart phone has grown significantly more difficult and frustrating to use.  For example, what used to be a simple yet effective electronic calendar application has grown into an application that I can no longer satisfactorily use. Way too many unnecessary bells and whistles clogging up the ability of users to do simple things with a simple application.  

As a programmer I know everyone can’t be pleased with every change but how about digging out the original calendar code and updating it to the current IOS? Let users choose if they want to run a simple easy to use calendar or if they prefer spending hours trying to find the ability to add a single entry.   One of the main reasons I was delighted to leave the Microsoft world was the beauty and simplicity of the iMac world!!! Microsoft still builds overly complex products that could do gee wiz bang things if you were willing to spend half of your life learning how to use them.  Instead of remaining true to the simplicity that Steve Jobs brought to the world Apple has turned its back on easy to use in favor of layer upon layer of features that are not needed nor wanted by the average user. So we now have Apple fully doing the exact same thing as Microsoft. Zero differentiation. 

Today, I can barely use favorite applications like Garage Band and Photos because they are overburdened with features that are NOT needed by average users. The real features I want to commonly use in Apple applications have been buried layers deep. Seriously, offer applications so complex that only the top technology people who live in Silicon Valley can use if you like but also give us basic simple versions as well! Performance is another area where OS X has taken a nose dive because it is way overburdened with processes that are NOT really needed.  Instead of providing an operating system with every single bell and whistle turned on by default how about giving us an efficient OS that actually performs well not only on the latest processor but also on older ones. Clearly the reason Apple is going backwards by inventing CPU chips again is because the programming is way too rich with capabilities that should not be turned on by default.

I understand the game. You have a staff of programmers that you put into a room and tell them to come up with new innovations. So they go off and add a few hundred thousand more lines of code without regard for how it will impact the average user. Apple, your model is broken!!!! You would be far better off to give your programmers tinker toys and lock them in a room away from all coding machines for 20 years. That might at least give both technology (CPUs) and people (users) enough time to catch their breath and be ready for something new.  Your current model is seriously broken.  Apple needs to return to basics. If you want to get creative do it with hardware (not by proprietary CPU chips) like better resolution or something actually useful. Stop making the software more complex. It’s going to collapse under its own weight. Bring back Steve Jobs. Bring back simple beautiful application programs. Bring back compact efficient operating systems. Cut about half the lines of code from OS X and start over. If your end product does not run much faster go back to square one and do it over again until it does. That would show true Steve Jobs innovation.  

Signed,

Frustrated Apple users around the world.