Apple’s Achilles Heel

Neil Cybart, in his weekly Above Avalon column last week, “The Mac Is Turning into Apple’s Achilles Heel”:

Apple’s decision to change course and develop a new Mac Pro has received near-universal praise from the company’s pro community. While developing a new Mac Pro is the right decision for Apple to make given the current situation, it has become clear that the Mac is a major vulnerability in Apple’s broader product strategy. The product that helped save Apple from bankruptcy 20 years ago is now turning into a barrier that is preventing Apple from focusing on what comes next.

I read this last week and it didn’t sit right with me at all. But I couldn’t put my finger on why until this weekend. It’s actually very simple: I think Cybart’s entire premise is completely backwards. The Mac is not Apple’s Achilles heel. The iPhone is. That’s why the rest of his column doesn’t make much sense.

The iPhone hasn’t suffered because Apple is focused on the Mac. New iPhones come out like clockwork every year. Apple has really gotten it down to a science in recent years. The Mac lineup, however — and the Mac Pro in particular — has clearly suffered from a lack of attention. Where did that institutional attention go? Surely much of it went to iPhone.

I’m not arguing that it’s a mistake for Apple to devote more attention to the iPhone than any other product. Smartphones are the greatest opportunity in the history of mass market consumer goods, and also the greatest opportunity in the history of personal computing. The iPhone epitomizes everything Apple stands for. But it’s a mistake to focus so much attention on the iPhone that other important products suffer.

★ Monday, 17 April 2017