Opinion pieces & commentary

Apple’s switch from Intel processors to Apple Silicon is the most significant change to the Mac lineup in many years, and yet the exterior design of M1 Macs has been left almost completely unchanged. A few function keys aside on the new MacBook Air, there is no clue that the new machines are radically different from the old ones.

Some believe this is a very deliberate move by the Cupertino company. I agree, but not for the reason that has mostly been suggested …

Yesterday’s Apple event was the latest in a series of much snappier, more focused, pre-recorded presentations. The new MacBook Air was the undisputed star of the show. If it lives up to the promises Apple made – and there is every reason to believe that it will – it’s all the Mac most people will need.

That’s long been true of the MacBook Air through the generations, of course. When the average Mac user does nothing more demanding than email, web-browsing, and word-processing, they don’t need much of a machine to do it. But the new MacBook Air takes us into whole new territory …

Delayed iPhone 12 sales meant that the fiscal Q4 earnings Apple reported yesterday were massively better than the headline number suggested.

Apple reported revenue of $64.7B, making it flat against the $64B the company brought in during the same quarter last year. But the delayed availability of this year’s flagship iPhones mean that the two quarters are not remotely comparable …

A report from a reliable leaker says Apple will launch a HomePod mini this year, with the announcement likely taking place during next week’s iPhone 12 keynote.

I think that’s the right move to boost sales of Apple’s smart speakers, but it’s essential for the company to get its marketing right – which is something it hasn’t really achieved with the existing model …

An iPad widgets concept perhaps provides the answer to why Apple didn’t do what many of us wanted: allow flexible positioning of widgets on the iPad, in the same way as on the iPhone.

I raised the issue as soon as iPadOS 14 was announced …

We’re seeing a growing number of face recognition bans introduced around the world as local and national legislators respond to growing public unease over the privacy implications.

We’ve seen bans on public agencies or police departments using face recognition technology, and now one US city has gone even further, extending a ban to private companies too …

All the signs now point to two Apple events in the near future: the now-announced one on September 15, and a second one in October for the delayed iPhone 12 keynote.

Some still believe that the September event will include the new iPhones, suggesting that the scheduled two-hour slot is too long for just the new iPad Air and Apple Watch models. But I think it’s pretty likely the September event will not include the new iPhones …

It was suggested earlier this week that we might see an Apple Silicon 12-inch MacBook before the end of the year, as one of Apple’s first ARM-powered Macs.

If the report is true, I’ve already talked myself into buying one, despite one rather awkward fact…

I argued recently that Apple is at far greater risk than Epic in the standoff between the two companies over Apple’s 30% cut of in-app purchases. One of the risks I outlined is that Apple wins the case, but the publicity prompts antitrust regulators to make legislative changes.

That risk just increased substantially …

Regardless of who you think is right in the Apple/Epic battle, it’s hard not to admire the planning that went into the Fortnite maker’s surprise attack on Apple.

The company clearly knew exactly what it was doing. For the game company, there was really very little to lose …

A report earlier today cited a potentially huge WeChat threat to the future of the iPhone in China. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is concerned that the Trump administration could force Apple to remove the WeChat app not just from the US App Store, but globally.

Kuo warned that this could see a massive 30% reduction in global iPhone sales, and if that sounds hyperbolic, it’s likely not …

We’ve now had a chance to see the antitrust argument Tim Cook will make in today’s hearing, and it essentially amounts to: there’s nothing to see here.

Apple is arguing that it has done nothing wrong in the past, is doing nothing wrong now and sees no need to change the way it works in the future …

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A new Kuo report suggests that Apple may for the first time sell an iPhone without a charger this year. It follows an earlier report that the iPhone 12 box will lack a second standard iPhone accessory: a pair of EarPods.

Both moves would save Apple money, and by more than the cost of the accessories themselves. As my colleague Benjamin Mayo noted, this would reduce the size and weight of the iPhone box, which would reduce Apple’s freight costs…

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I recently suggested that Apple’s antitrust issues aren’t going to go away, and that the company should start taking action to address them. With iOS 14, Apple is doing exactly that.

The company didn’t pitch things like that, of course, but we got five announcements that directly tackle some of the antitrust claims facing it…

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None of us were surprised by Apple yesterday announcing that it was beginning the transition to ARM: In future, Macs will be powered by Apple-designed chips based on ARM architecture. We’ve been predicting the move for many years now, and the fact that this would be the year it was announced was leaked in advance.

There was a little more surprise at the first model being promised later this year rather than early next. Some were skeptical when 2020 was first suggested, in 2018, but two things seemed clear to us…

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Heading into WWDC, Apple isn’t exactly getting off to the best of starts. While outlining my view of Apple’s overall handling of the antitrust charges leveled against it, I mentioned one of the specific issues the company faces: the nature of its relationship with developers.

Developers should feel that Apple is on their side, but even ones who have had their apps featured by Apple are saying that they don’t feel this way. That Apple is, instead, an entity that can at any time and for any reason decide to kill their business.

Twenty-four hours later, things have gotten worse rather than better. First, Microsoft said that Apple and Google have a bigger antitrust case to answer than the Redmond company did some twenty years ago. But the even more damaging development came from Apple itself …

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Apple’s antitrust issues have again hit the headlines this week – not just once, but twice.

First, there were the two additional European Union antitrust investigations, which are just the latest in a long line of probes into Apple’s alleged anti-competitive behaviors. As a non-exhaustive list, there’s Congress, the Department of Justice, a number of US states, the EU, France, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.

Then Apple pulled Basecamp’s email app Hey from the App Store, just days after approving it …

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Some of us have been convinced for years now that ARM Macs are on the way, and there have been increasing indications that 2021 could be the year when it happens. If yesterday’s Bloomberg report is correct, those years of speculation will soon be at an end: Apple is reportedly set to make it official later this month.

I argued yesterday that we probably won’t learn all that much about the actual hardware we can expect …

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A Bloomberg piece this morning suggests that Apple will announce its plans for an ARM Mac at WWDC, even though the first model won’t be available until next year.

That makes perfect sense. This is a big shift, and developers need time to understand the implications and make plans to support the new platform. The big question right now is how much Apple will reveal, and how useful the information will be for consumers waiting to upgrade their Mac…

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There has long been debate about the future of the Lightning port in the iPhone. Will Apple stick to this, replace it with USB-C, or move straight to a fully wireless iPhone — one without any ports at all?

There’s fresh discussion today prompted by a claim that Apple will do none of these things, and instead use a Smart Connector on the iPhone 13…

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My colleague Filipe Espósito has discovered evidence that Apple plans to revitalize the Messages Mac app by creating a Catalyst version. This would mean that it would finally gain parity with the iOS app in terms of access to thing like stickers, GIFs, message effects and so on.

Although some might consider this a rather trivial thing, I think it’s actually a little more important than it might seem …

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