“Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller made an appearance on a podcast on Friday, with the executive discussing the 30th World Wide Developer Conference for nearly an hour,” Mike Wuerthele reports for AppleInsider.
“The Accidental Tech Podcast with presenters and developers Marco Arment, Casey Liss, and John Siracusa hosted Schiller, in a recording published on Friday night,” Wuerthele reports. “Topics were mostly limited to WWDC, and Apple’s focus at the event.”
“In reference to Apple paying attention to customers, Schiller mentioned that they read forums, and hit Apple-centric websites ‘as much as possible’ — and are always listening,” Wuerthele reports. “Schiller appears during the first hour of the two-hour podcast, with a diversion into high-performance cars in the last 15 minutes of his appearance.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Accidental Tech Podcast‘s episode, “317: WE’RE CUSTOMERS TOO” is available here.
We’re especially excited for WWDC 2019 this year as we expect some very interesting things to be revealed, including 🤞🏻 Apple’s all-new Mac Pro!
SEE ALSO:
Visionary: Hear Steve Jobs, at the dawn of App Store, predict the future of mobile (and mention MacDailyNews) – July 26, 2018
Good to know Phil. A few ideas to mull over then…check your pricing strategy. High prices for Apple prices are fine but the top end is unjustifiable even for folks who can afford it. 1800 for an iPad and 1600 for a phone is silly. “Thinner” is not better than longer lived battery, please add 50% to iPhone and iPad. If you’re going to swap charge cables then please make sure to significantly increase data throughput when connected directly to a computer. FaceID is ok but the speed and ability to unlock your phone with TouchID is actually more convenient. Both would be fine, but don’t lose TouchID. On Macs, if Apple doesn’t do something significant relatively soon that might actually justify how slowly they have been refreshed then your next releases are probably DOA. We wish you well on your upcoming TV streaming project but I’m getting less certain about staying “all in” on Apple services since so much of your product line seems to have wilted on the innovation front. AR still doesn’t look like the “killer ap” yet worth buying new hardware for. Why can’t 4K movies be downloaded and are instead streamed even when purchased? Dropping your wifi products seems like a mistake. Lastly, the promise of so many Apple services never seems to materialize, e.g., homekit. Is there something Apple is doing badly in agreements with other companies that makes so few of them support your vision and hardware? I’d love to understand that better.
I’ve long loved Apple, but these days am left underwhelmed and with a lot of questions. As a shareholder I’m pleased by the dividend but as a customer I am wondering whether I should ever be excited about anything the company is doing anymore. If you want to focus on a problem, channel Steve’s advice and work on the “delight” a good deal more again. Thanks for listening.
“Pro” in any product name ought to mean user replaceable key components whether due to a needed upgrade or a component failure; PERIOD.
I can’t remember how many keyboards I have ruined and had malfunction even without my help.
I’m with you 100% on everything you stated. Been with Apple since 1989, lots of Macs, iPhones, iPads since. It’s a joke for Schiller to say they are always listening, they may listen but certainly don’t take any notice.
And if you really do read these sites Phil and company….bear in mind that we followers of this site probably were your strongest supporters over the years. And we’re turning. In my family, the wife and I were called “the Mac faeries” because of how many Apple products we bought and gave away to family members every year like clockwork. We evangelized. No more. Apple needs some rational decisionmaking. If you can’t “delight us with products that just work” the way you used to, at least try to deliver what your customers are asking for. Otherwise that giant sucking sound we heard when you crushed Nokia and Blackberry and were swamping Microsoft will probably begin to sound a lot closer to home. I still will own lots of your products but I won’t replace them with vigor any longer at this rate.
And I too have been with Apple since the Apple II in our business and with me personally since the 512k, then SE30, Mac II, FX, the first PowerBooks, etc.
But guess what, I’m now sticking with a couple 2009 black laptop, a 2009 17″ MBPro and a 2011 MacMini.
I’ve upgraded RAM and hard drives to SSDs, but am not about to upgrade unless it is to a used 2014-15 Mac model. iPhones are useful, but I’m not obsessive enought to upgrade my 5s, until they stop supporting the 3G cell service & then I’ll get a used iPhone that does work.
My world has changed in 30 years and I no longer want to be an early adopter, when I can’t get what I want.
Shiller = Listening, Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“You’ll take what we decide to give you…….. and you’ll will like it.
Good. Bring back the 4 inch iPhone and give us black AirPods!
“black AirPods” — Magic Market might work or some black tacky latex or similar to keep the Pods in place.
Like GM is the late 70’s and 80’s. They almost went out of business 20 years later and should have.
Indeed!
Note however Schiller said “Apple-centric”. That clearly would exclude MDN. Apple ignores the Mac user and MDN is increasingly a forum for extreme rightists rather than a helping guide to Macs.
Disagree on two counts.
MDN is the most “Apple-centric“ website on planet Earth. If Apple chooses to ignore us, then their arrogant skin is thinner than I thought possible.
All political views are well represented here. I don’t see any majority shift left or right…
Looking forward to a new iMac!
Time to #vetobeto and time to #maga
MDN remove this nonsensical trash from your supposedly Apple oriented site.
Looking forward to posts from the artistic John Dangler to actually make sense and yes, bring on a new Mac Pro, new AirPods 2 and an Apple where it really does listen to its customers, instead of faking that it’s listening, much like John Dingler, artist, fakes intelligence.
Is Phil’s statement, combined with reality, evidence their reading level is remedial, or reading frequency overstated?
A company that, when very tardy (5 years) with a product serving a very longstanding and critical customer sector, publicly proclaims they now are seeking input from this sector for the next build of this product (Mac Pro), there’s something profoundly askew. Fyi, I’m not a power user and, therefore not personally impacted, so my statement is not fueled by a “personal pain.” I guess Phil wasn’t reading/paying attention back then?
Phil . Read this
Gore out the board .
An updated iPhone SE
New Mac Pro
good luck
Unfortunately, Phil only claimed he’s reading.
That’s not a claim of DOING.
Notability App answered my request to have two documents open side-by-side on an iPad.
The same request was made to Pages and has gone nowhere.
I hope by requesting it here we may receive a reaction.
Pages and Numbers need to have the ability to open two documents side-by-side on an iPad.
One idea is to give us two copies of the application an “A” and a “B”
This would allow us to open two documents Side by Side on an iPhone too.
Like when we have two apps open slide side-by-side.
Notability’s solution is great too
I just want “insanely great” products that “just work.”
Too bad these days I feel like Apple’s products are really good, but they are not the intuitive, user friendly ones of the past.
With meloncholoic reminiscing of the awesome yesteryears. Me and my son went to Macworld in NYC the year the Magic Mouse was introduced and boy were we excited. It was like Christmas Eve. Today, I will get to the “Special Event” when I can.
Deep inside there is a tiny spark hoping they can make it happen again.
2¢
It makes me wonder if Tim Cook even has a team review process of everything Apple makes (hardware & software) daily to be able to be on top of things? And not let truly unforgivable neglect as happened to the Mac Pro occur or occur again?
That alone would keep a CEO mighty busy.
The likelihood of Apple taking input from Apple-centric websites to the extent it actually change their direction or product plans are minute. – Particularly when they are propped up by a favorable company valuation. That is taken as confirmation their direction is right, and the few complaints that breaks through are all taken as noise.
It is only when things start to go downhill a change in direction is on the table, but to turn the company is like turning Titanic away from the iceberg. There is simply too much momentum in the system and major changes to product plans have a 2-3 year execution horizon in most cases.
What is most dramatic for them is that the core of Apple supporters that stood by them when things were rough in the past have, or are in the process of abandoning ship. For the Mac there is no reliable communication that can be trusted that any business, EDU institution, pro user or even regular users can base their decision or planning on.
One of the remaining strongholds for private desktops are gaming, and Apple never even entered that market, so here they have even more to prove. With the pathetically locked down systems or awkward TB3 connected add-ons they offer, most potential buyers in this category will balk and look elsewhere.
Well, Silver, there is one answer, but Cook won’t want to hear it.
As with Filemaker Pro, put the Mac Family in a separate company with separate facilities and then we will see true innovation.
“as much as possible”
this phrase should be interpreted with many grains of salt. look instead at Apple’s recent track record of being completely tone deaf to repeated user requests for even the most trivial fixes to known problems. Apple leadership cares only about their personal wealth.
i don’t believe a word Cook, Schiller, or Cue say.
Are you saying “FU Schiller as much as possible”
That’s what it sounds like 😉 😉 😉
Whatever it takes to innovate his ass!
“Many grains of salt” ?
how about with “Lots Wife” – as in a pillar of salt ?
Apple leadership seems so far removed from normal peoples reality – likely through their absurd levels of wealth and Past Successes – that they live in a hubristic bubble.
They still cling to outdated dogmas that once applied – under the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs- like “people don’t know what they want until we show them” but now, not only fall flat under current vision impaired leadership, but are counter productive as well. The trash can Mac pro was a real master stroke huh?
They have fallen under the spell of the bean counters and bankers and seem more interested in growing the company – and their stock options – at the expense of wonderful products that “just work” and empower people – now they seem more interested in products that entertain and preoccupy.
Why not try doing both? Remember, it was building, updating, sustaining and ADVERTISING those wonderful products that built the company’s solid foundation in the first place. What is so hard about that?
Enough with thinner is better, enough with the premature emphasis on mobile devices taking over from desktop “trucks” . that day will come but it isn’t here yet, so quit neglecting existing legacy product lines, and quite giving away profitable and viable markets to others.
What ever happened to the education market? You once owned it and thereby set the table for future sales to young people who were introduced to macs in grade school? – Oh, yeah i forgot – you decided to focus on marketing “premium products for premium customers at premium prices”
I guess it was beneath your dignity to make and support macs that school districts could readily afford, and so utterly gave away that market. My wife is a retired educator and used to order up new macs for her schools on a regular basis, now, as she travels to various school districts overseeing educational testing programs, Guess what, chrome books rule.
You boys need a serious reality check.
If Schiller is reading sites like this, how were they surprised by the poor reception of the Trashcan Pro? They show no sign of responding to anything that everyone complains about here. It’s almost as if they are intentionally driving away pro users in favor of the “special snowflake” crowd that the last-ever mac commercials highlighted.
Shiller and the boys were more enamored with making a cylinder look interesting than in actual performance. They mistakenly believed that Thunderbolt 2 would be the answer to every Pro’s needs and the 3rd party accessory makers would fill all the gaps in functionality.
They were 100% wrong. But instead of correcting their mistake they have now spent 6 years sitting on their thumbs.
The disrespect to actual Mac Pro users is unbelievable. To this day there are things a 2012 Mac Pro workstation can do better than a new Trashcan. Internal PCI expansion is just one thing that makes the big old box better.
Mr. Schiller, do you know how to read?
I thought Schiller and Federighi were just fine. I have no doubt that Schiller as a marketing chief was always keenly minding the voice on the street. They have been around during the Jobs era too anyway. But they are awfully quiet since Jobs left us.
I believe it was their boss who had a different (or no) idea with no forward vision with indecisiveness, totally blinded by the money that the iPhone was pumping out and became complacent. He was the one who examines his G/L every day with a calculator (and his iPad).
Eddy Q and Jony Ive were just a drag. They need to be replaced with younger and more talented people whom I am sure Apple has plenty. Apple needs to replace these people (Tim Cook included) and invigorate the corporation. Everything else has always been there and readily available. Otherwise, I am not hopeful much would happen (and sustain). I do hope that the recent downturn of the iPhone sales was a rude wake-up call for the current management, and something new (approach, that is. Not necessarily an exciting and game-changing product etc.) might actually happen. Fingers crossed.
Well, the dilemma that we are faced with is that even if Apple’s problems are as simple as Phil & Craig actually knowing what’s needed but merely not getting the time of day from Tim/etc … the problem is that until something big at Tim’s leadership level changes, nothing is going to change.
At best, after APPL tanks & goes Chapter 11, they’ll be able to go over to Tim’s $100M Yacht and say “I told you so” … at which point Tim will simply point to his Yacht and whimsically shrug his IDGAF shoulders.
Apple is listening to the wrong people!
Apple seems to pay great attention to 18-22 year old tech writers who crave having something new to write about. Apple is paying attention to pundits.
Apple needs to also focus on the people who need a reliable computer to make a living. The “crazies” who produce art, products, apps, use their computers to advance knowledge.
Apple has become one sided – too much focus on pundits, not enough focus on the producers.
Prices:
Apple is way overpriced on memory and storage. I can purchase a top of the line Dell XPS 15 with an i7 processor, 32gb ram, a 4k display at Costco for $1899. The equivalent MacBook Pro costs $3,300+.
Apple is making the same mistake they made in the early 90’s. By the time Apple realized their mistake it was almost too late. Consumer preferences can shift quickly, don’t aggravate them with ridiculous prices.
Thanks for F’n up the keyboard Phil!
Phil: 17” MacBook Pro with fully upgradable/repairable internal components and the same old thick keyboard it had way back when….
Keep the toy bar.
30” monitor to dock when working at home.
Is that too hard for you Phil?
STOP WITH THE PRODUCT GLUT…