A bold move for Apple
The most significant move for Apple in 2020 might not be switching to Apple Silicon.
I think there is a much more substantial shift happening in 2020 and it’s far more critical than adopting a new architecture.
Intel vs Apple
Fourteen years ago, Apple switched from using the PowerPC to Intel Processors for better performance, better battery life, and a much better scope for improvement in the future. No wonder Apple’s decision was right. Intel currently has the largest market share when it comes to the total number of CPUs produced in a year, 64.9%, according to cpubenchmark.net. But recently, we see the downfall of Intel, mainly due to their inability to create more advanced microchips, faster than AMD, their direct competitor.
Intel uses a 10nm process, which, although it is just a way to keep track of generations now, usually refers to the microprocessor’s greatest precision achievable, which would be the shortest distance between two transistors. Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that a 7nm process is better than a 10nm and a 5nm is better than either. Smaller transistors also mean that more of them can fit in the same volume, thereby increasing the processing power. Apple and AMD have working 7nm processors with apple set to drop the new iPhones in 2020 with the A14 SoC ( System on Chip), which is based on, you guessed it, a 5nm Process. This means that the next iPhone could be more powerful than a lot of laptops, just like the iPad is, at the moment.
Apple Silicon in the iPhone and iPad
Now that Apple is ahead of the industry with its custom “Apple Silicon,” they can finally switch the powerhouse of the MacBook to their in-house designed processors. Of course, this will be based on the faster ARM architecture. So this must be one of the most significant shifts Apple has seen, right? In a way, yes, but I think there is a much more substantial shift happening in 2020, and it’s far more critical than adopting a new architecture for processors.
We have always associated Apple with luxury, premium, and exclusivity, or overpriced technology if you dislike Apple. But recently, we have seen a shift in the way Apple handles its brand impression. Yes, they still charge $700 for wheels and $1000 for a stand, but those sales numbers are nothing compared to what Apple makes in the iPhone segment. Year on year, we have seen a steady rise in the popularity of iPhones and simultaneously a steady drop in price for entry models. This is most definitely not a coincidence. Although it is still riding the initial hype wave generated by Steve Jobs, the iPhone has come a long way. It has evolved into a highly capable device, much more in some areas than others, and has always been the dream phone just because it’s an iPhone. But that wasn’t enough to convince the masses to buy one. After all, we all have a dream car, a dream house, and a dream job, but they are just dreams that are too hard to attain, at least for most of us. And that’s why the iPhone remained as a symbol for an expensive piece of technology that only a few can afford. Recently though, we have seen our dreams come closer to reality. With the iPhone entry model dropping its price by a noticeable amount, many more people have realized its time to dream no longer and decided to buy the new iPhone. With the entire industry producing cheaper phones with more features, the premium market sees fewer interested buyers, especially since the flagship killers offer almost similar specifications at a much lower cost. So Apple took a different route to focus on consumers and show them how important they are to Apple.
Customer first for the first time?
With the increased emphasis on privacy and security on the iPhone, Apple has been pushing the fact that an iPhone user’s data is the safest in Apple’s hands or at least the safest while on their iPhones. After enough marketing, more and more people have realized the importance of these two key selling points and have welcomed the iPhone with open arms, myself included. This gradual increase in numbers is giving the iPhone more traction in the smartphone market. With all this attention, Apple has decided to make it easier to make people feel that they listen to them.
Honest mistake or intentional disaster?
Since the latest WWDC, where Apple launched the new versions of their Macintosh OS macOS Big Sur and mobile OS iOS 14, among other operating systems, there have been few features that stood out to me. They felt out of line, almost like Apple planted them there for us to notice. The fact that a company like Apple would do such a thing makes it seem more like an intentional flaw than an honest mistake or bad judgment.
All new Siri screen
I am, of course, talking about the weirdly lousy design for the new Siri function. Before iOS 14, Siri would, when called for, cover up the entire screen blocking you from seeing what’s on your screen and was very inconvenient. In the new announcements made, Apple has made it such that Siri only takes up a small portion of your lower part of the screen, allowing you to view your content while you talk to Siri. However, the weird thing is that the result produced by Siri will slide down from the top of the screen, sort of like a notification. Yet during this whole process, you cannot interact with the screen other than the Siri button or the result of your request. What I find crazier is the response received when Marques Brownlee, a YouTuber with the channel MKBHD, asked Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, about the issue. Craig stated that they had been testing another version of Siri, where you could interact with the screen while talking to Siri, but preferred the current option. Despite that, they are ready to change it to whichever one the beta testers, us consumers who have downloaded the beta version, prefer. Right after that, he directly asked Marques what he feels the UI should feel like and then seemed to be interested in his suggestion.
The infamous battery icon
Another commonly hated object is the battery icon in System Preferences, which has a design that’s definitely unlike Apple’s usual design language. Again I have strong feelings that this design was chosen on purpose so that when Apple finally changes them in the final launch, people will feel that Apple is listening to them. This reminds me of the Extremely uncanny trailer of the movie “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which took the internet by storm, making the anticipation of the newer better version of the trailer so much better and the movie even more hyped, despite the delay. I can’t help but feel that Apple is trying to pull something off in a similar manner and might even succeed in doing so. I don’t hate them for that, but I think that there is an unusual amount of attention Apple is paying to its consumers and that they might continue to do so in the future.
If this is a real attempt to accept ideas from fans and consumers, I would be glad that Apple is finally listening to us. It’s great for both them and us. We get the features we want, and they get more sales because more people now see Apple in a better light.
References:
Intel vs. AMD market share: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/market_share.html
Marques Brownlee’s interview with Craig Federighi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2aaCDNjWEg
