I at all times knew that the Apple group had a bunch of various subcultures, however I used to be shocked when Apple introduced that it will add a brand new characteristic to iOS, and a bunch of individuals obtained offended about it. Why on the earth would you argue towards Apple including a brand new characteristic that can make the iPhone person expertise appreciably higher for a lot of customers?
The new characteristic is RCS, which can dramatically enhance the standard of textual content communication between individuals who use iPhones and individuals who use Android telephones. (And sure, the timing of Apple’s announcement makes it clear to me that that is very a lot designed to take among the political warmth off of Apple within the European Union.)
I’ve at all times assumed that the Apple group would agree that Apple’s merchandise must be nice. We use these merchandise, for work, house, and life on the whole. We like it after they’re good and hate it after they’re dangerous.
Few would deny that attempting to ship texts or pictures in Messages to Android customers has been fairly terrible for a really very long time. Why wouldn’t you need that to get higher?
Bunker mentality
Just a few many years in the past, Apple and the Mac have been struggling towards an unbeatable enemy: the Wintel hegemony. (Seems that in the event you wait lengthy sufficient, the unbeatable enemy turns into beatable–and even irrelevant.) All of us used to combat again towards misinformation in regards to the Mac as a result of we have been attempting to defend a down-on-its-luck firm that made the merchandise we cherished to make use of. It made sense.
Lately, it makes rather a lot much less sense. Apple’s obtained all the cash. The Mac is as wholesome because it’s ever been. The person base of all of Apple’s merchandise is at an all-time excessive. We’re not rooting for the underdog.
And but the previous tribal impulses nonetheless come out sometimes. When Apple introduced its RCS gambit–actually an IOU payable later subsequent yr–I noticed lots of people who have been dissatisfied as a result of they loved the truth that Android customers would not be as severely punished for his or her heresy. It’s a foul look, however I used to be additionally stunned that there was so little regard for the ramifications of that call for the purchasers who use Apple’s merchandise.
For any iPhone person within the U.S. who texts with Android customers, Apple’s cussed refusal to help one thing higher than old-school SMS and MMS codecs has been depressing to cope with. It degrades the iPhone person expertise by making textual content threads bizarre and unreliable and by decreasing the standard of media.
Shouldn’t the person expertise be crucial a part of the story right here?
Supporting RCS gained’t finish the bubble-color controversy, however it’ll make the texting expertise higher on the iPhone.
Apple
It’s merely enterprise
I’ve incessantly heard that Apple shouldn’t help RCS as a result of making the iPhone-to-Android communication expertise dangerous is a bare-knuckled enterprise choice to beat a competitor. It doesn’t matter if the expertise of iPhone customers is made worse, as long as Android is incrementally much less interesting–as a result of that makes the iPhone enterprise stronger.
Folks (together with, apparently, some Apple executives who despatched emails made public in lawsuits!) sincerely suppose that it’s good for Apple’s enterprise if the iPhone person expertise is degraded… as long as it’s degraded to serve Apple’s general strategic agenda.
These things pushes all of my buttons. In a previous life, I had a job that required me to defend the person expertise towards those that felt like the one good enterprise choice was one which resulted in a little bit extra money for the enterprise. Who would ever argue about not saying sure to much less cash?
However right here’s the factor: They’re all enterprise selections. A call to commerce the standard of the person expertise for a little bit little bit of a bonus over a rival just isn’t a no brainer as a result of that benefit comes at the price of the degradation of your product. A elementary a part of Apple’s enterprise is to have an excellent person expertise. It’s the core of Apple’s model and of Tim Cook dinner’s favourite statistic of all–buyer satisfaction.
Out of stability
I discover myself most in battle with the folks in our collective Apple-watching sphere after I criticize Apple for making selections that degrade the person expertise. I perceive why Apple advertises its companies within the Settings app, through the set-up course of, and by way of push notification–but it surely junks up the person expertise. I do know why Apple has elevated Mac safety during the last decade, but it surely’s additionally added a flood of pop-up alerts which have overly degraded the person expertise.
I don’t imply to suggest that Apple has misplaced its manner and doesn’t make optimistic product selections anymore. In fact, making nice merchandise is a part of Apple’s DNA. However up to now few years, after I discover myself being baffled by a call Apple has made, it nearly at all times appears to be associated to the corporate prioritizing some facet of its enterprise over the expertise of its prospects. And to repeat: the purchasers and the standard of Apple’s merchandise are features of the enterprise. They’re, in actual fact, the idea of Apple’s complete enterprise. Apple degrades that have at nice threat.
As for the remainder of us, I’d hope that customers of Apple’s merchandise can be most involved with them being higher, interval. Who cares if Android customers profit from Apple supporting RCS? It advantages iPhone customers in heterogeneous environments, too. There’s no have to be petty about it. All of us win when Apple merchandise get higher. That’s all that ought to matter to all of us.