Dan M., writing on Medium about the state of Apple as a pre-mortem:

It is not easy to evaluate a company I love as if they have failed. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on Apple products, and devoted countless hours studying, admiring and defending the company. However, I started noticing too many uncharacteristic cracks, and I realised turning a blind eye would not help Apple.

I don’t agree with all of the assumptions and conclusions taken for granted in this piece. For all its problems (above all, a slow rollout of third-party domains), I wouldn’t call Siri “souped-up Voice Control”. I don’t feel comfortable with any third-party narrative around Apple’s leadership and internal conflicts inferred from the outside. And, I’m not sure rethinking watchOS and iOS around “contextual triggers” would be the best idea for the majority of customers who, unlike techies, just want to open their 5 most-used apps quickly. In general, it feels like there’s a disconnect between some of the realities painted in this story and how I see people in real life use Apple devices and software.

But, there is also a lot I agree with: the Apple TV analysis is pretty much spot-on, and Dan raises solid questions about Apple’s approach to services and how their privacy stance may prove problematic in the future. Besides personal opinions and experiences, this article outlines potential problems with today’s Apple fairly, and it’s worth reading and discussing.