Right... but the take presented in the article which is that Ive believed Apple should be innovating more in product categories and moving further and further into peoples lives through devices rather than milking their customers for subscription services.
I think it's a salient point that Apple has moved more into a phase (not permanent) where getting us to give them $$ per month is more important to them than creating the future.
I was relieved when things got a bit thicker, batteries got better, thermals got better, Apple Silicon came to the Mac etc etc but that's not independent of what the article states Jony was getting at.
The positive spin on the Services' focus is that Apple wisely decided to compete with the software companies on the phone (Netflix, Spotify, Google, Facebook, Twitter). The way they know how to compete, and how they believe the relationship should be, is that you give them money for a service. Even when the competitor is free, they charge us. This is an opinionated decision on their part NOT to offer free services subsided by intrusive ads.
I think my personal opinion is between what I just said and what you said.
I hate the "with ads" nature of a lot of services.
With Apple TV for example, you pretty much get... Apple TV.
I include the box and the subscription.
That much more expensive smart TV starts sticking ads all over the interface (ugh!). Same thing with Roku (those buttons etc). Yes - short term gain I'm sure for those folks, but long term loss of trust by users in my view.
Charge me, and do what I would want.
One problem with all of this - their service execution has been somewhat poor in my own view? Apple Card doesn't integrate with Quickbooks Online / Mint type products. I still find myself using Google Maps. iMessage is not cross platform (could I pay $1/month to get x-platform I message or something where others could message me).
I wonder how much of that shift to services was a necessity due to the pandemic. It’s very difficult to ideate new software products when everyone is wfh, I imagine that’s doubly difficult with hardware. Perhaps Apple’s drive to get people back in the office is because they’re worried the product pipeline has stalled.
I think it's a salient point that Apple has moved more into a phase (not permanent) where getting us to give them $$ per month is more important to them than creating the future.
I was relieved when things got a bit thicker, batteries got better, thermals got better, Apple Silicon came to the Mac etc etc but that's not independent of what the article states Jony was getting at.