Welcome to our weekend Apple Breakfast newspaper column , which include all of the Apple news you missed this hebdomad in a ready to hand sting - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we conceive it goes great with a morning cup of java or teatime , but it ’s cool if you desire to give it a read during dejeuner or dinner party hours too .
The false economy of cheap products
I ’ve written before about theVimes Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness , which uses the exercise of leather rush maintenance to demonstrate the surprisingly high toll of being poor . But you ’ve plausibly not learn of the related Cook Theory of Anti - Value , which argues that consumer would rather bribe expensive product than chintzy one and explains much of Apple ’s behavior in this decade .
Apple products are proverbially expensive : ask someone outside the industriousness to key out an iPhone in 10 words or less and “ crummy ” is improbable to feature . But for most of its history , the company has still grapple to deliver enough value , living up to the onetime saying that you get what you pay for . Those who can afford an Apple product can wait beautiful aim , course of study - leading build caliber and reliability , a exploiter - friendly interface and strong spectacles . You devote a agiotage price shred , you get a premium merchandise .
From time to time , Apple has dallied with the other end of the marketplace , hinting that it desire to deliver something altogether more low-cost . But this never seems to quite do work out . The iPhone 5c from 2013 , talked up ahead of launching as the great budget iPhone , merelylookedcheap , and altogether run out to deliver the aspirational lifestyle scene that is so much part of the iPhone experience . ( Ourreviewerreported that its design was praised by a toddler , which is n’t quite the testimonial Apple was look for . ) And the later iPhone SE line , which began more promisingly , tailed off as Apple completelyfailed to understandwhat it was about the gimmick that people liked .
harmonize to reports , Apple has now informed suppliers that there wo n’t be an iPhone SE 4 as design , which suggests that the company has decide to give up on the budget smartphone market rather than address the restriction that smite the most recent model . It also reportedly gave up last year on the idea of abudget Apple Pencil , which would have offer almost none of the premium features that made the original model ( and particularly its stellar heir ) such a winner . Even the popular $ 329 9th - gen iPad was replaced by a $ 449 10th - gen iPad in 2022 , give the feeling that Apple would rather cannibalize its own iPad Air sales event than focus decently on the budget tablet market .
It hold sense that Apple is prioritizing the premium end of the market because that ’s where it has determine the most success . Premium , high - margin product can be enormously profitable if your epitome is right , and effigy is Apple ’s trump lawsuit . Conversely , a premium brand dabbling in the budget marketplace is liable to subvert their image and in round , reduce the appeal of their flagship machine . In hard time , companies move back back to their core business concern , and Apple ’s effect business is expensive high - quality technical school .
Which makes it all the more confounding when we hear persistent rumors of other cheap merchandise . Such as the so - calledAirPods Lite , which a reliable beginning say we can expect to pay $ 99 for in late 2024 or other 2025 . Pundits think Apple is bedevil to be missing out on the possible revenue from budget earbuds and mean to access this securities industry with a less ambitious twist that still carries the worthy AirPods brand . ( Apple already sells the $ 70 beat Flex , but that ’s not quite the same . ) Whether the AirPods brand will keep to be desirable after consumer have tried out a bring down - price model , shorn of the high - death features , weak in reasoned quality , and in all probability afflict with a garish design to single out the cheapskates who would n’t pay top whack , persist to be seen .
Any student of Apple account can see that the AirPods Lite are improbable to be a success . In fact , it seems likely that development will blockade before it even bring to that degree and we ’ll instead get an AirPods 3 Mary Leontyne Price cut when the fourth - gen arrive out . The real mystery is why the most successful Lord and seller of insurance premium tech intersection in history still expects different results .
IDG
If Apple wants itsReality headsetto succeed , maybe itshouldn’t actually sell it .
Did Samsung reallygo full iPhonewith theGalaxy S23 ?
The Macisn’t tantrum for a touchscreen . For a touchscreen MacBook to work , the Macneeds to change .
AsBiden point Big Tech , Apple hasgood grounds to be nervous – and pleased , too .
TheMac Prois suppose to be the ultimate Mac . If it ’s not , why does it survive ?
Apple ’s AR headsethad better be good – becauseeverything else is doomed .
Little things can make a liberal departure . We round upthree small waysApple can make abig impactin 2023 .
The rumor mill
Yournext MacBook Procouldhave a touchscreen .
New AirPods Maxand$99 AirPodsare in the pipeline , concord to a new report .
TheApple Si Mac Pro , when it lastly lands , might be thebiggest disappointmentin class .
A15 - in MacBook Airis coming tosave the 2023 Mac lineup .
January 2023 is likely to be aquiet month for Apple , butbig releasesare hulk .
Malus pumila ispoised to at long last switchto superiormicroLED displaysin 2024 .
TheiPhone 16 Promight have aDynamic Circleinstead of an Island .
Apple’sAR headsetmightget its own eventthis spring .
Apple justcancelled the iPhone SE , sources say .
Podcast of the week
What should we require fromApple in 2023 ? Well , establish on late reports , it ’s going to be all about Apple ’s venture into AR , VR , a headset , and an operating system to make it all exercise . The future tense is near , and we speak about it on this instalment of the Macworld Podcast !
you may get every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own situation .
Software updates, bugs & problems
Thebest iOS 16 featureyou’re not using will make your iPhone 14 Proso much considerably .
iOS 17 and macOS 14 could have‘fewer major changes’this year . Which might be good news on thereliability front .
