The Shift
David Chartier thinks Apple’s recent transparency is a good thing for itself and its community, despite a few teething problems
David Chartier argues that an open Apple bodes well.
Part of Apple’s allure all these years has been its secrecy and tendency to ‘show, not tell.’ The company has often waited to announce products until the week, or sometimes even the day, they are ready to ship. Recently, though, Apple has been softening up this behavior. The effort has not been without obstacles but, overall, I think it’s for the best.
Take social media, for example. From chatting with a few folks, it seems Apple has loosened rules that previously barred employees from identifying themselves or participating in any public forum discussions regarding Apple.
These days, you can find a good number of users on social media who list the team, product, and sometimes aspect they work on. Some of them even discuss newly released products and solicit feedback — something unheard of when I joined Apple’s community way back in 2002.
Speaking of community participation, Apple spent five years quietly developing a major, flexible new programming language, called Swift. Not only did Apple surprise everyone with it in 2014, it released Swift as open source so anyone else could help improve it. It can even run on web servers and build Android apps.
Apple has also gotten more personal with the media, with executives Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller appearing on podcasts like John Gruber’s The Talk Show.
Then there is the handful of recent product preannouncements, one with surprising candor. In early 2017, Apple invited a handful of tech writers to Infinite Loop for a rare group interview about what had become the problematic design of the Mac Pro. Surprisingly forward about its mistakes, Apple revealed it was working on a major revamp, incorporating a lot of feedback from the professional community. It also broke from tradition by saying this redesign would not arrive for at least a year. And this year, Apple further clarified that it’ll likely be in 2019.
The preannouncement curse has not given Apple a pass, though. Last year it announced the HomePod and AirPower at least six months before they would ship. The former was delayed a couple times, while the latter has since missed its original target of “Early 2018.” As of this writing in late July, AirPower has not arrived and its target date is still just “2018.”
Overall, I’m happy to see a more open, participatory Apple. No, the world’s most valuable company is not our ‘friend.’ But Apple has become so important to our lives that many customers build personal bonds with its products.
The previous approach clearly got Apple far. But these days, people want more communication; they want companies to come back down to earth and have a voice. I’m glad Apple found one.