Up until a few years ago, Apple loyalists were (reluctantly) living in Jony Ive’s fantasy world where devices were slimmer before they were sensible; where essential ports were rendered ancient and features preceded functionality. Those were strange times, indeed, when Apple – the cool nerd – decked up like a supermodel just to turn more heads.
It was around the same time when your favorite AppleSutra transitioned from a personal fanboy blog to a proper tech portal. Our website traffic was noteworthy and social media followers had grown exponentially. People loved us for the in-depth, yet jargon-free, articles we wrote, even the ones where we were gleefully bashing Apple! But we fell in the same ditch as our lofty idols: What we wrote about was dictated by what we thought most people wanted to read about. A rookie mistake!
Then came the Mac Pro
Tim Cook always maintained that Pros were important to Apple. The launch of Mac Pro (the ’trash can’ version) was the first manifestation of that intention. Yes, it wasn’t the device that the pros wanted but it laid out the blueprint of the side-lane for the old guards to move along on the highway. Since then Apple has gotten better and better at juggling casual users (with products like iPhone XR and iPad Air), Prosumers (with AirPods Pro and MacBook Pros), and Pro Users (with iPad Pros, iMac Pro, and the recently updated Mac Pro). Well done, Tim!
What about us? When did our course correction take place? It didn’t. Not until now, at least. AppleSutra got stuck in the worst kind of limbo wherein we went from posting the wrong things, to anything and everything, to nothing at all.
Just like with Apple, our true fans kept encouraging us to get back to doing what we do best. Just like Apple, we took years to take notice. But now we have. Not only are we getting back to the good old days, but we are also adding a lot more to the mix in the form of more variety of content, better design language, and many new features. Basically the new AppleSutra is AppleSutra Pro!
Of course, there have also been many sceptics who have diligently reminded us about our inability to keep AppleSutra relevant. As a tribute to them, I would like to end with Phil Schiller’s famous words spoken during the launch of Mac Pro, “Can’t innovate anymore, my ass!”
