Apple Is Entering Its Slop Era

Apple is portrayed as a once-distinctive company losing its footing in an AI-driven era and settling for imitative products and hardware gimmicks. The author argues that new CEO John Ternus, a longtime Apple executive associated with divisive designs such as the Touch Bar and butterfly keyboard, is steering the company into a less confident phase. Siri’s AI is described as poor, a $300 Apple Watch-based home device as an awkward substitute for a family gathering place, and Apple’s new foldable iPhone as a conspicuous failure after reports of cracked screens. The announcement of a touchscreen laptop adds to the impression of a company reviving ideas Steve Jobs and Tim Cook had rejected, rather than offering products that feel genuinely new.

The criticism is colored by the author’s longstanding personal resistance to Apple’s social status. In 2010, while managing a clothing store, he was mocked and pressured by coworkers to replace his Motorola Razr with an iPhone because it better projected the image expected of a sales-floor manager. He chose an Android phone instead and has remained an Android user, though he later bought a MacBook and considered switching to an iPhone for its privacy features. Apple’s current stumbles bring him satisfaction: the company’s loss of prestige makes its products feel less like compulsory markers of belonging, and its cracked foldable gives him a petty sense of vindication after years of resisting the brand.