The long slow decline of Apple software

I am a long time user of Apple computers, dating back to my first hand-on experience with the Apple Lisa in 1982. Ever since Steve Jobs died, it has been evident that software quality has not been a priority with the company.

  • The Apple productivity software (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) were released with brilliant interface designs years ago, but the Mac versions have been dumbed down to match the less capable iPad versions of the software. The original Numbers had the best spreadsheet interface I've ever seen, but they ripped it out for a much clumsier Excel-style/iPad interface years ago.
  • For at least a year and a half, I have not been able to use Apple's file sharing service between my desktop Mac mini and my older MacBook Air. I had assumed that it was due to the age of my laptop, but when I discovered recently that the same problem existing with a new MacBook Pro, I went searching online for a solution. What I discovered was that this is a problem that has existed for years and has been carried through numerous MacOS upgrades, without Apple ever bothering to fix a fundamental service.
  • I recently upgraded my iPhone to iOS 13.1, only to notice immediately that battery life was terrible. A quick online search revealed that this was a huge problem for many people. For the first time ever, I have to keep my iPhone plugged in and charging at work. I have never had to do this before. The phone loses nearly half its charge overnight sitting in the dark doing nothing. This is incredible.

Apple hardware, for the most part, is excellent. My eight year old MacBook Air still runs just fine, but Apple no longer supports OS upgrades for it. And that has been our experience at the office generally--Apple hardware just runs and runs, and it reaches end of life artificially when Apple will no longer provide software upgrades.

Apple has the money to put more time and effort into providing quality software; it apparently just chooses not to.