I'm an applehead and think the company lost its way about a decade back, which saddens and annoys me because I'm essentially lazy when it comes to finding new tech products, and it takes time to check out various versions of similar items from different companies, checking specs, trying out the products, etc.
I have a first generation Powerbook that is comfortable to use because there is a thin strip of plastic around the outer edge that makes resting my forearms on it easy. It's still running, albeit on limited functionality as it can't run new Os, being stuck somewhere around SnowLeopard or thereabouts.
Then Jonny Ive got a wild hair to be "ecologically responsible" and came up with the aluminum unibody. There are videos of him waxing poetic about this great innovation. I seriously question just how ecological this is when you take into account the amount of energy it takes to convert Bauxite into aluminum, to produce the extruded aluminum blanks, then to tool each body individually, polish, check allowances and that sort of thing. On the plus side, you can recycle aluminum, so that's a little less waste at the end of its life.
Another failure is in the realm of "human factors" (ergonomics). When I was interested in buying a new laptop, I declined, because the unibody has a harsh sharp edge where the upper and lower cases meet. When it's open, they chafe my skin as I rest my arms on the body to type. It was a deal breaker. I opted for an iMac instead. If I get a new laptop, it's unlikely to be a Mac.
My iPhone 6 rarely recognizes my finger print. I routinely have to type in a number code to gain access, which is annoying and inconvenient. It demands that I upgrade to iOs X even though I would prefer not to. It won't leave me alone and there's no way to turn off these insistent and disruptive reminders in the Settings. Still, it takes good photos and I like many of the features. It's a little large for my hand, but I can understand the tradeoff between screen size, visibility and making it physically comfortable to hold or to slip into one's pocket.
I also am not so keen on the lack of support for older devices. Got an original iPad? Well we can't be bothered to issue upgrades to iOs for you, so deal with it. That's the general attitude they have, and I can't help but think that it's elitist and privileges people with money. "Can't afford to buy our latest product? Well too bad." We're a business, first and foremost, despite all our warm and fuzzy advertising.
