receive to our weekly Apple Breakfast newspaper column , which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy collation - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we conceive it goes majuscule with a Monday first light cup of coffee berry or tea , but it ’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
The only way is upsell
One of the quirkier narrative we pass over last week centered on asimple Velcro strap .
Apple ’s coming Vision Pro headset , you see , is rather gravid , and the fellowship seems to have addressed potential issues with comforter by adding on an superfluous strap that goes over the top of the user ’s head . But this strap is picture nowhere in the public press photos , and ( according to the Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman ) is probable to cost extra on top of the received $ 3,499 price tag .
If you pass that sort of money on a product , you ’d hope that comfort would be price in . ( And it ’s entirely possible , we should stress , that it will be . For now this is merely a hearsay . ) But the idea that the shoulder strap wo n’t be include in the box is woefully compatible with Apple ’s broader strategy in late years . Apple has become the male monarch of the upsell .
It all start up , for me at least , with the charger . In 2020 Apple made the determination to stop including a great power adapter with novel iPhones , using the pretext that most customers already own one , and that they were all ending up in landfill . Handy , then , that the move also enable Apple to reduce the size of it of boxes and cut costs without get down the price . And of course Apple will still happilysell you an adapterfor an surplus $ 19 if you have n’t got one rest around . The caller also stopped admit EarPods in iPhone boxes , which have in mind more AirPods sales .
To be clear , I ’m not saying the environmental justification was exclusively disingenuous . But I do strongly surmise that Apple found a authentically worthwhile idea more appealing because it could be used to squeeze out bigger profit . If the companionship sincerely want to reduce technical school waste in landfill , after all , it would make its phones compatible with a global connexion standard rather than a proprietary one before being forced to do so by regulatory pressure . But proprietary cables and chargers are better for upsell .
In 2022 , Apple kick the bucket all - out on the upsell strategy . It was n’t enough for customers to pass $ 799 on a Modern iPhone 14 ; the fellowship impart that gadget a yr - former central processing unit and generally did all it could to push customers who could possibly afford it to get the $ 999 14 Pro or else . ( In ourreview , we called the 14 “ basically an iPhone XIII . ” ) Similarly , the Apple Watch Series 8 was barely an betterment on its predecessor – why bother with the Series 8 , when you ’ve get the Apple Watch Ultra to push – and the AirPods Pro were hard pushed over the standard AirPods . Every company desire you to buy their most expensive models , but for Apple that class it became an obvious and calculated strategy to an extent never reckon before .
It ’s difficult to fence with decisions made by a troupe that just touched a$3 trillion market cap(again ) . But this sort of thing – squeeze out an extra $ 400 for steering wheel , when your customer has already shell out $ 6,999 for a Mac Pro – might not be fresh in the long term . It can get mass ’s backs up , wear away good will towards your brand , but more significantly , it make your entry - level products seem a piece , well , rubbish . And those who ca n’t afford the iPhone 14 Pro or the Apple Watch Ultra or the Vision Strap Plus might settle to give up on the idea entirely and expend their money elsewhere .
Have your say
Thanks to the readers who amaze in signature about last week’sSiri - sock column . I was assure to discover that some of you are even angrier about the state of Apple ’s misplay - prone personal assistant than I am .
Richard Raymond - Smith , for example , sound off bitterly about Siri ’s apparent infantile fixation . It used to be able to respond to born - language inquiry about a journeying ’s ETA , he note , but now unhelpfully replies along the seam of “ Here ’s what I found on the web about ETA … ” That ’s a liberal fail , Siri .
Robert Williams , meanwhile , finds it “ mystifying that Apple continues to sully its reputation for excellent intersection by muddling along with a ware that is VASTLY inferior to , say , Alexa , ” and ponders why any of the company ’s software package engineers would volitionally work on Siri , sacrifice the embarrassment agent when revealing this in conversation . And Gus Pistolis throw off down a challenge : “ How do we mount a grassroots effort to get Apple to make a better if not new Siri ? ” The campaign starts here !
Foundry
Reviews corner
Does anyone actuallyenjoy work at Apple , asks the Macalope .
Wallets out , everyone . A rareoriginal 4 GB iPhoneis expected tofetch as much as $ 100Kat auction .
Apple hasbagged Stardew Valleyin a notablecoup for Apple Arcade .
The rumor mill
Apple is plan to set up itsbiggest iMac ever . It could have a screenbeyond 30 column inch .
But there might be avery long waituntil thenext fresh Macarrives .
Thenext Apple Watch Ultramight arrivesooner than we thought .
You mighthave to pay up extrato make theVision Pro headsetcomfortable .
After ahuge June , here ’s everythingcoming from Apple in July .
And look further into the future , here’severything Apple contrive to releaseover thenext 12 calendar month .
Podcast of the week
The Apple Watch is getting its first major revamp to its operating system this fall . And can FaceTime goad Apple TV hardware sales ? Plus the fundamental change occur to all of Apple ’s operating systems , all in this episode of the Macworld Podcast !
you could becharm every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
iOS 17is in conclusion tapping into theiPhone 6 ’s full potential drop .
Visual Look Upis gettinga deal more usefulin iOS 17 .
And with that , we ’re done for this workweek ’s Apple Breakfast . If you ’d care to get even roundup , sign up forour newssheet . you’re able to also follow uson Twitteroron Facebookfor discussion of breaking Apple news history . See you next Monday , and stay Appley .
