Jason Snell has published his excellent Six Colors report card, recapping and scoring Apple’s performance through 2023. Jason was kind enough to ask me, along with my colleagues Benjamin Mayo and Zac Hall, to partake in the survey this year.
Head to Six Colors to read the full thing. You can also find a breakdown of average scores for each category and how those scores have changed over the last nine years. Full comments from me, Benjamin, and Zac are below.
Mac
Chance: 4/5
The Mac continues to move forward at an impressive rate, even three years into the Apple Silicon era. The 15-inch MacBook Air is an excellent addition to the lineup that I think more people are buying than some of us think. The Mac Pro sits in an awkward spot, but at least it has Apple Silicon inside now. I’m still hoping that Apple can make that long-rumored ‘Extreme’ Apple Silicon chip at some point. Right now, it’s pretty hard to justify choosing a Mac Pro over a Mac Studio. At long last, 2023 was also the year the Touch Bar died. The new entry-level MacBook Pro is a far more compelling machine than its predecessor, even if it is a bit more expensive. That gorgeous ProMotion display is more than enough to justify the price increase in my book
Benjamin:
I think both the 15-inch MacBook Air and the base M3 MacBook Pro are very significant steps forward for the Mac. Their introductions meant that Apple finally divorced itself from pairing display specs with the processors those laptops run on. It was a great improvement for the lineup. The Mac Pro was a disappointment, although it doesn’t matter so much because the machine was of niche appeal anyway. But I hope that Apple can one day flex with a true trophy top-of-the-line Apple Silicon Mac
iPhone
Chance: 5/5
The new 5× camera has been a home run for me. I’ve already found myself looking back at pictures and videos from it far more fondly than I ever have pictures and videos from the 3× telephoto camera on previous iPhones. The ability to record spatial video for Vision Pro is also a nice bonus, even if you do have to make some compromises in video quality.
The new FineWoven iPhone cases are pretty awful. I hope Apple has already gone back to the drawing board and has something better planned for the iPhone 16 launch. iOS 17 was a solid upgrade, headlined by things like Live Voicemail and Stand By for me. Interactive widgets are useful, but not as useful as I had expected them to be.
Benjamin:
The industrial design of the iPhone 15 series is up there with some of the best of the iPhone. The matte glass treatment for iPhone 15 and the titanium casing for the Pro models will make this a memorable generation for years to come.
iPad
Chance: 3/5
There was no new iPad hardware in 2023, and that’s not a bad thing. I see nothing wrong with Apple taking its time to release meaningful iPad hardware updates. I certainly don’t think the world needed another update to the iPad Pro where the only change was a new processor inside.
iPadOS 17 made some very nice improvements to Stage Manager. I was happy to see Apple make these changes just one year after the feature first launched. We don’t always see Apple make those year-over-year improvements. For me, these Stage Manager upgrades mean I can actually use it without totally losing my mind.
Benjamin:
Addressed some of the critical Stage Manager problems just one year after the feature was first introduced with iPadOS 16.
Wearables and Apple Watch
Chance: 4/5
Does Apple really need to release a new Apple Watch every year? I don’t think so, and this year’s Apple Watch refresh was proof. I’m still a very happy first-generation Apple Watch Ultra user, and nothing about the second-generation even remotely tempted me to upgrade. I’m sure Double Tap is useful, but I truly don’t think it needed to be tied to new Apple Watch hardware.
The most impressive feature of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Series 9 is on-device Siri. It makes Siri noticeably faster, and allows you to ask Siri about your health data for the first time. But at the end of the day, it’s still Siri.
AirPods Max came out three years ago, and it’s embarrassing that Apple still sells them for $549. Don’t get me wrong, I own AirPods Max and I use them every day. I just wish Apple would pay them just a little bit of attention.
Benjamin:
Double Tap is useful, sometimes. watchOS 10 took some big swings, and somewhat succeeded. AirPods Pro keep getting better thanks to new software features. But AirPods Max languishes, and even the base model AirPods don’t have a USB-C case option.
Apple TV
Chance: 4/5
tvOS 17 made a surprising number of improvements to the Apple TV, including VPN support and FaceTime support. It also adds an extra column of app icons, so you can see six icons in a row instead of five. That sounds like a small change, but being able to put six icons in the top row of apps is very useful. I still think the Apple TV is the best streaming box money can buy, even though it didn’t get any changes in 2023. It does everything I want it to do, and it does almost all of it perfectly. I just wish it was a little bit cheaper.
Mayo:
tvOS 17 was a really strong update. You wouldn’t believe how much joy having one extra app icon per row on the home screen can bring. Features like FaceTime via Continuity Camera are begging for (future) dedicated hardware accessories, but being able to use your iPhone in a pinch is nice for now.
Services
Chance: 3/5
Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple TV+ all got more expensive in 2023, as did the corresponding Apple One bundles. This was the first year I’ve actually questioned my Apple One Premier subscription, which now costs $37.95 per month! The math still seems to work out in favor of Apple One Premier for me, but the buffer is a lot closer than before.
For instance, Apple TV+ is pretty hard to recommend at $9.99 per month. If it wasn’t included in my Apple One bundle, I don’t think I’d be a year-round subscriber. Apple News+ now includes The Athletic, which more than offsets the price increase for me. I’ve been a paying subscriber to The Athletic for years, so this is a big win in my book. Also, bonus points for Apple News+ adding crossword puzzles. I love crossword puzzles, and Apple’s are very good.
HomeKit/Home automation
Chance: 2/5
The Home app is still a mess, Matter has been a major disappointment, and Siri is still unreliable for even the most basic smart home tasks. To make matters worse, Apple botched the launch of a new architecture for the Home app and HomeKit. This feature launched with iOS 16.2, but was quickly pulled after people said it broke compatibility with a bunch of their accessories. Apple eventually relaunched the new architecture with iOS 16.4, but has anyone actually noticed any material improvements? On the bright side, Apple released a new full-size HomePod in 2023. Siri problems aside, it works great and sounds great. I still hope Apple has more in the works for smart home hardware, though.
Benjamin:
I love that Apple is making a regular size HomePod again, but it was a bit disappointing they changed almost nothing compared to the original from 2018. But I’m glad it’s back, at all. Not much new to speak of this year for Home overall.
Hardware reliability
Chance: 5/5
All of my Apple hardware is rock solid, and seems to be getting better almost every year. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is also the most durable iPhone I’ve ever owned, and my first-generation Apple Watch Ultra still looks as good as it did on day one. It’s been a few months since I got my 14-inch MacBook Pro in space black, and it’s cleaner than my midnight MacBook Air ever was.
Benjamin:
I’m struggling to think of any real reliability disaster from 2023. The thermal problems with iPhone 15 at launch do come to mind, but feel like a non-issue these days.
Software quality
Chance: 4/5
The software on all of my devices seems more reliable than ever. Apple is also getting better and better at addressing bugs quickly, especially on the iPhone. They aren’t afraid to release multiple smaller point-updates to fix problems, instead of waiting to bundle everything into one bigger update.
Benjamin:
Like hardware, Apple had a very strong year for software reliability. Everything worked well. Some features missed their original launch dates but still came out before the end of the calendar year, in good form.
Developer relations
Chance:
WWDC 2023 had a clear focus on getting developers as excited about Vision Pro and visionOS as possible. The developer labs for Vision Pro seem to have been quite popular and useful for those who attended them. Apple never lifted the so-called “pause” on casino and gambling ads in the App Store. I suppose that’s a point in their favor. For the App Store, big changes are coming in 2024 whether Apple likes it or not.
Benjamin:
Developer relations remain positive, especially for indies, but increasingly many bigger companies are getting rubbed up the wrong way by App Store policies. And yet Apple changes almost nothing until a government forces them to.
Environmental, social and societal impact
Chance:
Apple released its first carbon neutral products, which shouldn’t be overlooked as it works toward its goal of becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030. The Home app in iOS 17 also added a new “Grid Forecast” feature that shows you a prediction of when your energy provider will be generating electricity from carbon-neutral sources like solar and wind. Features like Grid Forecast and iOS 16’s Clean Energy Charging are still in their early days, but I think they could go a long way toward educating Apple users about how they can be mindful of their environmental impact.
I wish Apple had paused advertising on Twitter sooner than it actually did. I also didn’t appreciate Tim Cook’s lackluster justification for why Apple was still advertising on the platform in the first place.
Benjamin:
Shipping a carbon neutral watch is a big deal, even if 20% of that is achieved via purchasing carbon credits.
Any other comments?
Zac:
You ever think about the fact that Tim Cook could be the first Apple CEO to retire?
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