Mobile Technology

Here's what Apple should do to bounce back in 2017

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How Apple could recover from 2016 weak lineup and faltering public image
Deposit Photos/remixed by Emily Ferron
The MacBook Pro Touch Bar, populated with emojis
Will Shanklin/New Atlas
Google Daydream compatibility would be a boon for the iPhone
Will Shanklin/New Atlas
Apple Watch Series 2
Emily Ferron/New Atlas
Storage and iCloud woes are familiar to any longtime Apple user
iPhone 7 Plus
Will Shanklin/New Atlas
How Apple could recover from 2016 weak lineup and faltering public image
Deposit Photos/remixed by Emily Ferron
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2016 was not a banner year for Apple. It rolled out a series of underwhelming products and faced lawsuits, increasingly impressive competition and wavering sales. After such a weak year, what steps should Apple take to reclaim its reputation and revenue in 2017?

2016's product releases included all the characteristic Apple shortcomings (high prices, fewer expansion ports, lack of game readiness) without the type of drool-worthy innovation or elegance on which the company built its reputation. As a result, it's getting harder and harder to choose an Apple device over one of its competitors. From our point of view, here's what would turn the tables in Apple's favor.

Nail the 10th-anniversary iPhone

2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone. Not only was it an enormous success for Apple, it was one of the most pivotal pieces in consumer technology history. It's unlikely that next year's iPhone will be quite as revolutionary, but in a high-profile year, there's pressure to do the line justice.

That means the iPhone 8 (or whatever moniker is bestowed) should be more than an incremental improvement over the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. What will that look like? If rumors are to be believed, it will receive a promising redesign featuring an edge-to-edge display with capacitive TouchID, camera, and home button.

iPhone 7 Plus
Will Shanklin/New Atlas

Smartphone photography is already following an intense uphill trajectory, so the next iPhone will need to stick its neck out to stay on top. We're hoping for an updated version of the iPhone 7 Plus' dual-lens camera in all of the 2017 flagships, along with more DSLR-like bokeh effects.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were probably Apple's best 2016 releases, but they didn't bowl us over. Over the years, many of iPhone's innovations have been imitated or improved on by its competition. If Apple doesn't make some exciting improvements to the iPhone, it will continue to blend in with – and even get surpassed by – its strengthening pool of competitors (we're looking at you, Google Pixel).

Give consumers a mobile-inspired laptop they actually want

2-in-1 tablet/laptops, also known as convertibles, are having a moment. These devices unite the touchscreen and extreme portability of a tablet with the full-size keyboard and computing power of a laptop. There are many iterations of 2-in-1s – some are laptops first, while others are essentially accessorized tablets.

Apple bigwigs have publicly dismissed the idea of a touchscreen MacBook, but they are not in denial that mobile inspiration is hitting desktop computing in a big way. The iPad Pro can be outfitted with a Smart Keyboard and Pencil (sold separately), and the new Touch Bar option brings mobile navigation and gestures to the MacBook Pro. Still, neither of these approaches garnered much praise, and the Touch Bar's high price point and low perceived value earned it a slew of condemnations.

The MacBook Pro Touch Bar, populated with emojis
Will Shanklin/New Atlas

The time is right for Apple to release a truly compelling iteration of a convertible. The form factor is popular enough not to raise raise any eyebrows (we can't say the same for nixing the headphone jack on the iPhone 7) but no one has fully perfected it. It's an opportunity to fulfill a consumer desire in a uniquely Apple way. Done well, a powerful 2-in-1 would be a perfect showcase of "designed in California" elegance.

At the very least, the MacBook line needs a facelift. Even though their aluminum unibodies are growing lighter and thinner, they have had the same basic form factors for years. Next to flexible, multi-input machines like the Microsoft Surface Book, MacBooks look almost dowdy.

Streamline the Apple Watch

Apple released the Apple Watch Series 2 last year. Like its predecessor, it's a leader in smartwatches, but that's not saying much, since sales for the wearables are majorly lagging. With its integrated GPS and heart rate monitor, its use as a fitness tracker seem to be its headlining feature.

Apple Watch Series 2
Emily Ferron/New Atlas

We don't expect smartwatch trends to change direction much in the coming year, but we hope that new versions of the Apple Watch are more streamlined and sophisticated. With its current bubble-like setting and rounded corners, it's physically reminiscent of an early-generation iPhone. It has a simple design, but it's too big to be truly minimal, and looks out of date.

A smaller version would also make it easier to use as a fitness tracker. To this end, an altimeter should also be added to track elevation during outdoor workouts.

Embrace VR

2016 was a year of firsts in virtual reality, but Apple's been on the sidelines so far. Its desktop lineup does not support PC-powered headsets like the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, and iPhone is not compatible with the existing mobile VR headsets (Gear VR or Google Daydream).

Google Daydream compatibility would be a boon for the iPhone
Will Shanklin/New Atlas

But VR is gaining momentum fast, especially on phones. Widespread mobile VR compatibility (and possibly even augmented reality technology like Google Tango) seems to be in the pipeline for Android devices, which could leave iPhone in the dust.

Apple has hinted that augmented reality (AR) is where it sees the future, but it would be foolish to continue ignoring VR, and should take steps to embrace this cutting-edge platform. Google Daydream compatibility would be a plus, and seems like a more likely move than launching its own VR headset.

Solve the storage issue and alleviate iCloud headaches

One of the biggest headaches that comes along with using Apple devices? Lack of storage and the consequential wrangling with iCloud.

Across the board, Apple's phones, laptops and tablets tend to come with significantly less built-in storage than their Windows and Android counterparts. In 2016, they did boost the storage levels for both iPads and iPhones, but at the same time, they also hacked expansion ports and jacks off of everything from iPhones to the MacBook Pro. All of your content needs to go somewhere, and it's getting harder to move those files using peripherals.

You can always save data to the iCloud instead of an individual device, which has the perk of making it available across all of your Apple devices. iPhone backups are also automatically saved to the iCloud. However, the iCloud only comes with 5 GB of free storage, and for more, you'll have to pay.

Storage and iCloud woes are familiar to any longtime Apple user

In short, Apple products seemed designed to drive you into purchasing iCloud storage by way of pure inconvenience. Without careful maintenance of your content and settings, you'll be plagued with those "storage full" notifications in no time. And you'll probably get the dreaded "Unable to take photo" message during a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

These annoyances can be avoided with third party apps like Google Drive or Google Photos, but we'd really like Apple to step up. Increasing free iCloud storage would be one way to please long-time customers without disrupting the current ecosystem, but such a move would be downright magnanimous coming from a historically inflexible company like Apple.

To look back on Apple's 2016 lineup, refer to our full-length reviews:

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5 comments
TomCarrolan
Headline rewrite: "Apple products failed to catch fire in 2016"
DanielTurkewitz
The one thing Apple could do that would make the biggest difference is kill the everything must be as thin and light as possible mentality that’s infested everything they do. Not only have they hit the point of diminishing returns, they’ve past it, to the point where they’re damaging products in the mad effort to shave mm and ounces. I have no idea if my iPhone is thinner or lighter than Samsung’s best, and I don’t care. Never did.
Maybe for some consumer-level products it makes sense, but for anything with the Pro name in it, with a Pro price tag, power and upgradeability trumps thinness. Fatten up that MacBook Pro so we can have the SD card slot back and put in more RAM. Give us a nice, fat iPhone Pro with a bigger image sensor.
It’s time to Think Different!
Nicolas Zart
Apple needs a complete inside-out rehaul. Get fresh new young talents, cut down on bureaucracy, streamline excess money, remove officers who don't innovate. I haven't seen an Apple product that moved me in seven years. That's sad.
My last MacBook Air (2010) had a faulty motherboard 11 months after buying it. After that, the new one they replaced it with had the SSD die. Both were replaced very reluctantly... Then the screen blew a pixel, as with most other Fujitsu laptop that shared the same screens. I was told it must have been my fault from a so-called Genius. I've been handling computers longer than they have. Those things never happened the previous decade, and certainly, Apple would fix it in a jiffy. They are so arrogant now. I never walk in an Apple store after being treated like that.
Apple became more interested in tiny devices and less with laptops. There is little to no choice with desktops either unless you sink $2000 for one form factor. iCloud is an oddity today when most companies give you 50Gb, syncing included, for free. Coming from the richest company that has more money than our government, I see Apple as stingy and cheap.
They just don't have the hunger they had in the 2000 decade, Jobs or not. The culture needs to change and their products will improve, not the other way around.
On the flipside, it made me rediscover Linux. Faster, cheaper, not as pretty but it works. It simply works.
Apple, wake up!
Daishi
Apple doesn't really sell a device that uses desktop class hardware. The iMac and Mac mini use mobile parts. People always defend them saying "Why would you need desktop hardware with a dedicated GPU when my Macbook does everything I need it to do?" but the Mac Pro is going the route of being ultra-portable when my Mac Pro needs to double as my workstation. Doing things like running another OS inside a VM is super taxing and slow on it. In general the Apple thing just hasn't been for me. I still use windows other places but I'm switching my work stuff back to windows soon too.
Bill Babcock
I've been an Apple hater (ran an advertising agency--had to be half Mac, hated that) then an Apple fan (retired, and enjoyed having hardware that just worked) and now I'm swinging back toward hate. That such a successful company seems to care so little about their customers that they gouge them at every opportunity is unconscionable. It appears to me that they are willing to compromise the user experience to make a buck, or make a design statement. The "convenience features" they add to the phone infuriate me--they get in the way of simply using it. I recognize changes are necessary to move feature sets forward, but in the absence of substantial benefit why do I have to take four steps to make a phone call where previous it took two? And no, I don't care a bit about thinner/lighter. I view it the same way that phones used to get smaller all the time. At some point it the benefit disappears--Apple is well beyond that point. Last, but not least, their refusal to deal with products failing from obvious design or manufacturing errors is absurd. It costs them customers. I'm running on inertia with them, but the that's just about done. If Android/Windows stuff just continues their improvement path I'll be gone in a flash.