For the longest time they were the only tech company that really cared about design, and most people don't encounter good or thoughtful design or ever really see behind the scenes or think about design and designers.

Jony Ive and Steve Jobs really glorified design I think rightly in many ways, and elevated what industrial design could be in technology and engineering companies that historically had treated design as something you paid an external agency to do.

Most people don't know Dieter Rams or Donald Norman, tech people maybe know Edward Tufte. Loads of people know Jony Ive.

Unfortunately the only good ideas Apple have had this decade are the M-series processors, which are fantastic. Their software and hardware are otherwise lacking, across all categories.

So, when Apple releases _anything_ people hope it's (a return to) good, of all the consumer product makers I think Apple has the highest level of goodwill, people are excited and hopeful that the next thing they release will be great, and are disappointed when it isn't.

My pension. When "jokes" like this hit the frontpage of HN, I am reminded that every dollar I put into my 401k will never see the light of day. The FTC should be mauling Apple for resting on anticompetitive laurels, but instead they're letting them grow fat and become a high-risk business. If you're not filing for retirement tomorrow, you should be considering the consequences this will have when you turn 65. Letting Apple fuck off and manufacture high-margin designer is terrible for America in the long-term.

The economy is not as simple as "don't buy the product then" at Apple's scale. Look at how John Deere transitioned from a blue-chip brand to an Oracle-level scourge on humanity. I don't want Apple to head down that same road, but we might be too late to save them at this point.