Among other things during his radio program, Mac, iPhone, and iPad user Rush Limbaugh on Friday wondered if Apple were losing their edge.
The 3-hour Rush Limbaugh Show — the highest-rated, most-listened-to talk-radio program in the United States with some 13.25 million unique listeners — airs daily on a network of approximately 590 AM and FM affiliate radio stations. The program is also broadcast worldwide on the U.S. Armed Forces Radio Network.
Limbaugh responded to a caller from Colorado Springs, who complained “that it took over 500 days for a new MacBook Pro to come out” and mentioned reports that Apple took “all of their engineers away from their Airports line of routers, even though J.D. Power just made them number one in customer satisfaction” and bemoaned Apple “looking to LG to fulfill high-end resolution displays.”
From the live on-air transcript:
Rush Limbaugh: Apple has — it’s a wild guess — anywhere from 115 to 145,000 employees, and so it’s hard to understand why anything’s late to market. It’s hard to understand why, with that many people, how they would have to shut down their line of airport and airport express routers and the time capsules and all that. I’m like you; I want Apple to thrive. I want Apple to just win and win it, ’cause I love their stuff. I want Apple to continue to innovate. I want them to be on time. I want them to be leaders. And my big concern with Apple recently has been they can’t build what they’re designing.
You talk about the length of time with the MacBook Pro, but let’s look at the iPhone 7 Plus. Do you realize Apple stores could not get stock of the iPhone 7 Plus until the first week in November? They announced those devices on September the 15th or 17th, something like that, and if you ordered a jet black iPhone 7 Plus on announce day, they told you November. And their stores couldn’t get them.
You talk to people working the stores, they didn’t understand — I mean, it’s the brand-new iPhone, it’s the same shell as the 6s. What in the world is the delay here? Then the [AirPods], you know, they take the headphone jack out of the iPhone and replace them with these wireless ear pods, and they announce they’re gonna be available in October, then they say, sorry, they’re not ready, and nobody knows when they’re coming. And so people are going out and having to purchase replacement Bluetooth wireless headphones to use with their new iPhone 7 [units], and they’re missing out on the sales they could be racking up now, these new [AirPods].
Your MacBook Pro story. How about the Mac Pro itself? Three years and no update. What confounds all this is they don’t tell anything anybody. They’re so shrouded in secrecy. They may have decided to cancel the Mac Pro and haven’t told anybody. My guess is there’s gonna be a super-duper MacBook Pro refresh in three or four months and you’re gonna be cursing yourself for buying the one you did.
I think they’re putting everything they’ve got in the iPhone right now. I think that’s their moneymaker. I think they’re putting all their innovation in the iPhone, and nobody really knows because they are so secretive. But, look, I’m like you. I wish we knew more about why there were delays. I wish that they were able to more easily manufacture what they can design, because the stuff they release is just super. It’s just the best. It becomes iconic and the best, and you want more and more of it. But I think they’re gonna be fine. The iPhone is still the only phone in the world that matters, for example, and their laptops, ditto.
Full transcript here.
MacDailyNews Take: Great publicity, Apple.
Meanwhile, Tim Cook is tilting at windmills in China.
If you haven’t noticed, Mr. Cook, many Apple product users have noticed that if the company were a car, right now it’d have three square wheels*.
*iPhone is the round wheel. Mac, iPad, and Apple TV just aren’t rolling nearly as well as they should or rather easily could be.
SEE ALSO:
AirPods: MIA for the holidays; delayed product damages Apple’s credibility, stokes customer frustration – December 9, 2016
Lazy Apple. It’s not hard to imagine Steve Jobs asking, ‘What have you been doing for the last four years?’ – December 9, 2016
Tim Cook: Apple will begin to ship AirPods over the next few weeks – December 1, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook still hasn’t introduced a mega-hit and investors are growing impatient – November 23, 2016
Apple lost their edge on October 5, 2011.
…and that is the brutal truth.
…it’s just taken us a while to figure it out.
Maybe you but not everyone
It’s not true that Apple lost its edge with the passing of Jobs. To suggest that is lunacy.
Perhaps your buddy, Comrade Trump, will bring them back to innovative glory.
that miracle would require the ousting of Pipeline Timmy, Trump has more important things to do.
Like replace the CIA with the KGB, Going from Chief Birther to Supreme Leader?
lol, okay pal.
Tim Cook, another John Sculley.
I’ve been telling you guys this since Jobs died, and you didn’t listen.
Jobs said it all regarding Cook in his biography: “He’s not a product guy.”
He’s still better than Scully
you don’t need a product guy as CEO when you have Jony Ive. ever notice how none of your 4, 6 and 8 year old MacBookPros all still look good? It’s time for analysts to stop getting their panties in a bunch over product lines and chintz apple doesn’t care to sell to basement dwellers.
and where’s my 4K Apple TV
Where is my Apple Pro Desktop that blows away the competition in terms of speed, processing power, storage and upgrade options?
Answer: Dead air.
Where is my 4K Apple monitor?
Answer: Dead air.
Where is my Apple router?
Answer: Highly rated product lines tossed into the dustbin of history. Why, Apple, why?
I could go on … very sad. Apple is rotting at the CORE of their legacy business.
Yes but….Most MBP will be lost to upgrades in three to four years. I have one that is lost, I own two more that are over 2 years old and they will be lost in 2017. I refuse to purchase another Apple laptop every time it becomes archaic. At least Windows will support a OS for ten years and even longer for security updates. It may run slower than hell, but at least it runs.
Interesting perspective, Mike.
To follow your train of thought, you buy a new Apple computer that already lags behind the competition in speed, upgradability, and price. Then in the next few years Apple bricks it by not releasing updates and renders the OS OBSOLETE!
Never thought l’d see the day and sorry to say a smaller company like Windows treats their customers better over time than Apple. Unbelievable! 😡
It has. I know that Tim Cook will tell you there’s a lot of amazing products in the pipeline, but that’s not enough. If you love your customers, you don’t leave them waiting for updates. You don’t drop product lines without providing better alternatives. You don’t deliver products, only to keep people waiting. And you deliver new products in a reasonable amount of time. There’s a rumble in the Apple faithful. Things need to change.
It doesn’t help the business if things never come out of the pipeline
Mores the pity – Never-EVER put a salesman in charge (Microsoft), your business is doomed if you put the accountants in charge (auto industry in the 70’s, and if you throw in with the Logistics guy…WTF! the Logistics guy? Why not just merge with FedEx. Steve was not perfect by any means. But Tim just doesn’t get it – nothing but shadows and echos.
As I said in an earlier story, Apple is not meeting the needs of a large percentage of their users. I’ve been an an early adopter of virtually all mac hardware and software who, between my home and lab, has bought over 150 Macs since 1985. When people like me are questioning where Apple is going, that is a bad sign. It is indeed a rare issue that Rush and I would land on the same side of a debate showing that true Apple fans really are becoming concerned.
Not a large percentage. A highly vocal but insignificant minority.
Very short-sighted view.
When Jobs came back in the 90’s one of the first tasks he took on was keeping the “power users” in the Mac community. Todays Apple seems to care nothing for the “power user”. Within my University (50,000+) I’ve watch the Mac go from insignificant numbers among faculty and students to becoming the majority. Now, over the last two years I see Mac numbers DECREASING and decreasing rapidly – especially among students.
So, Apple is profitable, but of declining influence. I worry, that Apple could become the Blackberry of 2020. It took only 2-3 years for Blackberry going from owning the “smartphone” market to become a non-entity. Peak profits can rapidly tank to huge losses. Apple could go this way – especially if the “perceived” expert (i.e., power users) abandon them to other platforms, with the net result that the “average” user figures the other platform is superior.
I believe that is exactly what will happen. Apple got two big like IBM like Microsoft etc. they get too big and they just become incompetent
@ thelonious: please provide your data to support your judgement that disaffected Mac users are insignificant.
Canada Mark is correct. The number of people who can’t justify paying premium prices for stale hardware and limiting unintuitive software is large and growing. Sales numbers for the last year bear this out.
The #1 complaint of the new MacBook Pro isn’t about the USB-C ports, though that is an annoyance. The real beef is that it offers poor value — it’s got negligible CPU performance gain from last year’s model but prices went up big time, even before adding the usual connector adapter tax. And Apple hasn’t updated any desktop models, so no surprise people aren’t going to buy a new Mac with 2-3+ year old technology in it.
As Cook continues to drive Apple to become the iPhone Fashion Company, the risk of losing the Mac market looms larger all the time. The hardcore power users, educators, engineers, photographers, video producers, etc are already leaving in shocking numbers. If Apple can’t make a complete line of computers at better prices, then at some point the fashionista hipster social media crowd will find a more attractive new fashion computer to buy for a lower price as well.
The only thing that is saving Mac market share is that the other premium/trendy (thin laptops?) products from of makers are actually just as expensive. I think that Apple is making a mistake of overpricing the bottom end of the market though. With the sudden dominance of chrome books in education, there is a whole new generation of kids who are being trained to do their work on cheapo Google spyware products and who will not understand why anyone would pay 3-10x the price of a chrome book to buy a Mac. Then they are lost to the Apple ecosystem as they will go android for mobile
A $500 watch band isn’t that innovative? Put some effort into building an ATV that’s actually good. The newest ATV is the biggest atrocious mess we’ve ever seen. The Apple Watch is OK nothing more than that. The improvements to the night iPhone have been nice but that’s the point all Apple has become is a one product pony
I think that may be true but those ‘loyal’ Apple users are becoming a smaller group vs the ever growing ‘casual’ Apple user. If Apple makes a mistake, ‘loyal’ users will likely still stick around. With the ‘casual’ group (which I would say is now close to 90%) any future large mistake will not show immediately, but in future sales dipping drastically. (Current users will use the product till it fails and replace it with a non-Apple alternative) This will probably be most evident in their Services area 3 years or so afterwards.
Whoa … Your most clueless post ever!
Good to note your opinion on this matter, does not change Clueless Cook and lazy Apple.
I’m surprised you are not informed on this matter.
Post Jobsian Mourning era is over.
Now we are entering new era
– The Second Fall of Apple.
Hard to believe but they CAN’T innovate any more.
Oh no. Apple isn’t meeting the needs of a large percentage of their users even though they are selling more of everything than they have in the past. Everything Apple produces doesn’t work at all and nobody is buying them anymore though, right?
That point needs to be better explained. It might help clear things up. It can’t be both prosperity and abject poverty at the same time.
“Meanwhile, Tim Cook is tilting at windmills in China.”
Ouch!
Great, very pointed writing, MDN.
If MDN …LOL😂….” if you haven’t noticed, Mr. Cook, many Apple product users have noticed that if the company were a car, right now it’d have three square wheels*.”
if company were a car right now.. …most of us would be stranded on a side if a road or would be in energency rooms.
sorry, no if at the beginning
Why would Rush say those things?
Not the obvious answer…because he’s right.
Rush sees this as a chance to sack Tim Cook and replace him with a Trump-friendly successor.
You even made the liberals in this office laugh.
Rush doesn’t want to see Tim Cook sacked. He just wants to see timely updates, like the rest of us users. He is as mystified as any of us at the slow pace of innovation. In short, he is an Apple fan like any other, wanting things and not getting them.
Apple is unique in being susceptible to unrealistic expectations. Yes, unrealistic. Ask yourself if your expectations of Microsoft, or Comcast, or General Electric, or Exxon, or any government agency, or your corner drugstore, or your relatives, can be reasonably considered realistic from their point of view. — It is axiomatic that we see everything from one point of view, our own, no matter how cloistered and parochial.
That being said, Donald Trump has a unique opportunity to provide all things to all people. It has never been done before, but I would like to see it, if pnly as a miraculous proof that human nature can actually be overcome by fiat.
i hope Rush’s public critique will engender some sort of response from Apple, some specific response, the the issues he has raised. The refrain that we’ve got a great product pipeline is getting old. I want to know, should I go ahead an upgrade my router with a system from someone other than Apple? Come on. Keeping that a secret is not keeping anything secret from your competitors. A router is not the same thing as a watch. What about a 5K display? What the heck is going on here? To say nothing of the Mac itself. My late 2012 iMac just started crashing on startup a couple of days ago. I have to take it in. It’s AppleCare has expired. I’d like to make an intelligent decision as to whther to repair it, get a new Mac, or wait a while and limp along on my MacBook Pro for now. Hey, Tim Cook, you are NOT delighting this customer.
bombard Apple, Tim and Phil with your concerns ….. directly
Need a router? Don’t even bother looking for one from Apple.
and he used to be one of the best advocates of Apple products .
F-ing WAKEUP APPLE ! sigh ……..
Rush has been an Apple fanboy for as long as I can remember. He is Apple’s numero uno unpaid spokesman and he gives away scores of Apple iPhone’s, iPads and even Macbook Pro’s on his show; like he has been doing the past three weeks. This unbelievable free good will, and it makes Apple’s brand comfortable for his followers who would normally not pay one iota attention to Apple’s products because of what Cook has said in the past about conservatives and with Algore being on the board. If Apple doesn’t listen to Rush’s Rants, then they are beyond help. I remember when he was ranting before the Apple Pro Desktop was offered. All Rush had were several Power Pro desktops he used to store all his audio programming. He wanted a new, powerful, desktop for his needs and they weren’t forthcoming from Apple. This went on for MONTHS, with Apple getting banged each time he complained, and, as far as we know, Apple never contacted him directly concerning his wants. IS this what Apple does to people they don’t like? Or is this something that is foreign to Apple, contacting people, even those opposite of Apple’s political spectrum, to ask for their input. If there is anyone who needs to be on Apple’s board, it’s Apple’s Numero Uno Fan Boy Rush Limbaugh, not Algore.
Well said. 🤗
The sooner they finish the space ship campus (and campus #2) and move in, the better.
That has got to be a distraction.
All future products the Jobs had in his little black note pad, have been created & sold. Apple has reached the page that’s blank & are scratching their heads trying to think of something great. Apple, Apple, Apple, you can’t even get a set wireless ear pods out on time & you try to distract us with silly emojis.
judging by how fat he is, you can guarantee that Rush hasn’t lost his edge. In fact, he seems to be growing like some fungus mat.
For once I would like the comments to stay on topic and not be a gratuitous trashing of a viable Apple grieving point.
just posted this in the MDN article Lazy Apple:
—-
“the other day someone argued with me that Jobs didn’t really care about Mac, that he sort of half heartedly made a ‘few fruity iMacs’.
My reply was that AFTER the said the “PC wars are over” quote he returned to Apple , about faced and did the fantastically difficult transition of OS9 to OsX (complete different as OSX was based on Nextstep) and PowerPC to Intel.
AND he did all the Macs below ( incomplete list as different models in each segment not shown. Note also the GIANT changes in design for each line like iMac from Bondi Blue Plastic to Lampshade to Flat).
For the Article ABOVE the list is relevant to emphasize HOW HARD WORKING JOBS and his STAFF (much much smaller those days with less cash) was.
In just a few years he did ALL this plus all the other stuff (IPOD, ITUNES, APP STORE, IPHONE, IPAD, APPLE STORES etc… )
IMac :
bondi blue,
multicoloured,
Graphite IMac
Lampshade flat Panel
G5 Flat Panel
Intel Aluminium
Macbook:
iBook Colored Clamshell
Powerbook g4 Plastic
iBook White
Powerbook G4 Aluminium
Macbook Intel White
Black Macbook
Macbook Intel Aluminium
Macbook Pro
Macbook Air
Macbook Aluminium Unibody
Desktops:
G4 Cube
Mini G4
Mini Intel
Unibody Mini
Tower:
G4 Graphite Plastic
G4 Silver Plastic
Power Mac G5 Aluminium
Mac Pro Intel”
——
as Ken Segall in the other article said Jobs would be asking Apple staff : “What have you been doing the last few years”.
Good question at the end .
Apple Before
Under-promise, Over-deliver, …….and then one More thing. 😀
Apple lately
Over-promise, Under-deliver……..and then then one Less thing.😒
Why is the richest company in the world , Apple, moving at snails pace now……steadily falling behind?
Where are the results of The Massive R&D budget… or are there massive amounts of waste and leaks ?
perplexing, bewildering , mind boggling …etc ..etc.
yes.
and friends NOTE TOO:
that a lot of stuff Jobs did was NEW , i.e CREATION vs the ‘incremental updates’ today like for the iPhone.
Jobs CREATED the iPod, CREATED (or at least RADICALLY MODIFIED) iTunes, iPhone, iPad, Apple Stores etc etc.
(look at Apple stores , from ZERO retail experience to No.1 per square foot most profitable chain in the world, similarly to iPod , iPhone etc )
The only major new hardware platform extra today NOT done by Jobs is the Watch.
(the other day when I said this some one flamed me and said “they also did the Wireless Airpods’…. and all I can say is that that is a evolution from WIRED earbuds and BESIDES THERE AREN’T ANY ON SALE … )
Of course we’ve got NEW stuff UN DREAMED OFF BY JOBS:
coffee table books
Christmas trees
Fashion shows like the Met Gala
the years in the making “Sex filled romp of Dr. Dre’s life”
Meanwhile the neglected Mac (ever see an iMac advertisement?) still makes more money than iPads, Watch, Music, Beats etc.
My recent experiences remind me of Balmer’s Microsoft. Right now on my iPhone, I have 27 app updates that won’t install. Like many longtime Apple users, I have 2 Apple IDs. My apps and music are on ID 1 and iCloud is ID 2. I am currently logged to the iTunes and App Store as ID 1, but when I try to install updates, I get a pop up asking me for my password for ID 2. There is no way to get the pop up let me enter the right ID. Another painful example is spell check, which even when turned off changes words to idiotic alternatives I type pretty fast, so I don’t even get the chance to reject the change, which means grabbing the mouse, running up to the change and clicking. Maybe Balmer is moonlighting.
I despise Rush Limbaugh, but must admit I agree with everything he has said here. I’m a defender and a loyalist- Windows and Android still suck, not options. Regarding replacing my dead 2007 iMac, trying to decide whether to get loaded 2015 model or risk waiting a year or more for bug-free ultimately released 2017 (or 2018?) successor.
you despise reason.
Apple hating trolling here at MDN may very well turn out to be correct.
Lets forget innovation. Apple is failing on its everyday job.
I’ll put it quite bluntly for all: No matter what comes out of TC’s piehole, the fact of the matter is, Apple just doesn’t give a shit anymore.
Apple under Tim Cook and Eddy Cue (Fat Eddy) is a slow car crash. Very sad to watch. Tragic. Don’t believe me, listen to the last earnings conference call on Apple.com/investors and hear an analyst as atom Cook if he had a 3-5 year grand plan for Apple or if he was simply a fast follower. Pathetic and tragic. Also Eddy Cue saying we don’t want to be Netflix. He makes shareholders as myself look like fools. Arrogant out of touch. That seems to be the Executive suite at Apple. Let’s pray these overpaid arrogant out of touch idiots get fired sooner than. Later.
Mac Daily Whines
Welcome aboard everyone. What have you been waiting on. The problem now is whether there is any chance of Apple recovering its former self. Tim Cook has run the once great company into the ground. We have some good phones and a watch. Meantime, all the rest has fallen into the company of all the rest that used to be the ordinary ones. Now the Mac and all its potential is gone as it has become ordinary. Sad, sad outcome. But, I told you so and you just stuck by the loser CEO like the lemmings you are. How’s that working out for you?
The sad truth is that the tsunami of mammoth profits will continue to secure the CEO’s legitimacy in the view of Apple’s Board of Directors. Those folks do not pay much attention to glitzy issues like innovation, only to sustainable profits. The only way to divorce Tim Cook is to convince people to stop buying iPhones, and that is a very tall order.
The sad truth is just as you wrote.
Dollars are more important than sense. ☹️
Rush is by far Apple’s greatest spokesman (far better than Cook and crew). Hes spent a lot of time recently giving away iPhone 7s to callers and often gives tech advice, frequently praising Apple’s products. Even mild criticism coming from his is pretty damning. Apple’s secretiveness worked when they consistently released awesome, excellently functioning products. Having duds shrouded in secrecy and then released with a whimper has the opposite effect.
Apple under Timmy and Jonny is pathetic. The only new product that wasn’t part of the Jobs era was the Watch, and its a flop. Cook and Ive have no original ideas. Emojis. Watch bands. Gimmicky touch bars. Cook spends far more time promoting his far left wing agenda than he does promoting Apple. The Mini and Pro are dead. The new MacBook Pro is an overpriced gimmick. No more routers. No more displays. The entire product line these days is the iPhone, which is on top for the moment but is hovering precariously. The Surface phone with Continuum and Win32 apps is going to take a big chunk of the iPhone’s market share. All the cool, innovative stuff is coming from Microsoft these days.
I thought your judgment in the final episode excessive, your honor.
Nope. Russ Limbo is losing the edge. Don’t teach the most successful CEO anything because you don’t know a shit.
Rush Limbaugh is worth much more than Tim Cook, son.
Apple today has a serious disconnect with many hobbyists, power users and professionals. The fickle but huge consumer space occupies all its energy, unfortunately. iWork should have evolved into an MS Office killer but Apple dropped the ball. And the Mac is nothing but a shell of its former self. And what is its obsession with thinness? A little heft and solid build has always been associated with quality. One can only hope Apple will come to its senses before it precipitously marches down Blackberry trail. There is some serious low hanging fruit that Apple is spoiling the fruit that kept it in business during hard times. Long term ain’t looking so good, folks; no matter how fat the coffers are today. Ask IBM, Sony, Blackberry, or any other company that once had it all.
Cook decided to waste his time on gay rights, transsexual toilets, choice based on if someone has a vagina or penis, loon left immersion and fundraising, and making Apple simply political. He does anything but innovate. That moron is living off what Jobs left him, and he has done zero to continue the legacy.
I won’t insult Tim Cook or denigrate his achievements. Because that dirty work has already been done by blackguards. I don’t feel right throwing acid into the wounds. But I can’t forget the shock of reading what people wrote when Steve Jobs died. It was far worse—brutal sexual assault; abuse of the spirit and of the corpse, dragging his body through the streets exactly like Benghazi. The people that did that to Steve Jobs were ideologues, but they forfeited their right to be called people.
There may be no shame any more, but revenge will always be out there lurking on the horizon. Just saying.