The reading comprehension on HN is pretty bad lately. OP didn't say Lattner had anything to do with those examples.
The point is that Apple's been dropping the ball a lot lately. Lattner leaving is either another example of that (why didn't they make him a better offer to keep him?) or a consequence of it (what smart person wants to work for a company that's constantly screwing up?).
>The point is that Apple's been dropping the ball a lot lately.
They might, but the examples for that are bad themselves:
>Macbook with less ports
Which has always been something Apple pushed for. Dropping deprecated ports early (to complains) and adopting new ones. Few doubt USB-C is the future, even if they complain about the dongles.
>copy&paste iPhone with no originality
The iPhone, like the iPod before it, had always had incremental updates. What originality exactly should it had at it's 10th year? Magic pixie dust spray? Can you point to some competitor doing anything original?
Besides, while everyone is always about how "Apple is all about style and no substance", nobody pays attentions to the large internal changes inside the iPhone year over year, with new processors, boards, camera setups and other internals designed by Apple. Processors, than, in all tests, leave the competitive top-end Android phones behind in single/multi core performance.
>imac/macpro with old CPUs :-(
Intel announced Kaby Lake CPUs suitable for the iMac just last week (Jan 03).
Mac Pro, yes, but it's probably a duying niche product.
My counterpoint is the simple fact that we're even discussing this. Apple products used to "just work," and now they're a mess.
I've never considered myself a diehard Apple fan, but over the years I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on Apple products. From a 1 Gb iPad shuffle all the way up to a Retina MBP, and quite a few things in between. I don't need to argue if Apple is going down hill because I'm seeing it first hand while using their products, or, more often lately, choosing not to use their products.
>My counterpoint is the simple fact that we're even discussing this. Apple products used to "just work," and now they're a mess.
My counterpoint is that I've been following Apple news ever since I was enthused with the idea of a NeXT-based OS X back in 2001, and know that "the simple fact that we're even discussing this" doesn't mean much.
People, pundits, media have "discussing" that Apple "lost the plot", "is doomed", "can't compete anymore", etc. all the time, from the introduction to the iPod until now.
Maybe this time it really is. But NOT because people are discussing this, because "people discussing this" has been a constant, not a differentiating factor for these times.
The point is that Apple's been dropping the ball a lot lately. Lattner leaving is either another example of that (why didn't they make him a better offer to keep him?) or a consequence of it (what smart person wants to work for a company that's constantly screwing up?).