Looking back, 2017 must have been a great year for Apple: ten years of the first iPhone, Apple Watch Series 3, updates for the Mac, new iPads, the Apple TV 4K and two brand new products: HomePod and AirPower. But over time, some of the company’s products did not age well.
Of course, we have to start with AirPower, the wireless (Qi-based) charging path that presumably had to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods at the same time. It took Apple almost two years to cancel the project.
The internal structure of AirPower consists of three layers of coils that do not fit. Apart from the memes, this product may have had a revolution in the way our devices charge wirelessly.
For now, we have MagSafe, which can charge an iPhone 12 quickly (with the right power stone), and the MagSafe Duo, which can charge an iPhone and the Apple Watch at the same time. With MagSafe now available, AirPower is one of the products Apple is trying to forget that was ever announced.
Now, with the iMac Pro and the HomePod, things have gone a little differently. With very specific niches, both products survived until March 2021.
In fact, the iMac Pro had the outdated design of the iMac line, but with a Space Gray finish, which was nice. This product is ultimately a replacement for ‘Pro’ users who are missing a new Mac Pro, and it comes as a result of the infamous Mac Pro trash.
With the very first addition of Intel Xeon processor options in the Mac line, it included up to 18-core upgrade options, 128GB of RAM and 4TB of flash storage. When Apple announced the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR at WWDC19, the iMac Pro was no longer a good choice.
The HomePod, on the other hand, was, according to my colleague Ben Lovejoy, an amazing product, but also the most wrong product from Apple. Read an excerpt from his article:
“There was a big gap between what it really was and what most people thought it was – and Apple’s marketing did not help. Ask most people to tell you what a HomePod is, and they will tell you that it’s Apple’s smart speaker. (…) That would be true if that was what it was. As a smart speaker, HomePod was much more expensive than the competition, and less smart. ”
HomePod is a great speaker with strong bass, good spatial sound and stereo mode and support for Siri. But over the years, it has not aged well.
First, Apple cut $ 50 off the original price (first yellow flag). After that, the company gave a significant discount to employees before the HomePod mini (second yellow flag) was introduced. When the HomePod mini version arrived in 2020, and it was a success in its own way, Apple decided to discontinue the original HomePod.
With HomePod and the iMac Pro now discontinued, what can Apple wait for to say goodbye?
What can Apple strike from 2017?
There are two products that Apple is likely to discontinue, first launched in 2017. The first one is the Apple Watch Series 3. After surviving five years as a flagship product, it can only be replaced later this fall by the Apple Watch SE, which is more powerful and could see a price drop.
With the S3 processor and only 8 GB of storage, many customers complain that they want to download the latest versions of watchOS and that they cannot because they do not have enough storage left. The Series 3 will not be discontinued in disgrace, but I think it’s time for Apple to say goodbye to the product.
Another device that needs to receive a proper update is the Apple TV 4K. If Apple does not introduce a new model sooner, it may be the next to say goodbye to the customers. Here are the following:
- Apple TV 4K is much more expensive than a Chromecast or Fire Stick
- Has not received good updates with tvOS in years
- AirPlay and the TV app are available in many smart TVs from other manufacturers
Since the HomePod has been discontinued, it would come as no surprise if Apple just discontinued the Apple TV 4K. Rumors have been circulating about a new model for years, but we have not seen one yet.
Products worth mentioning
If we look back at 2017, we also have the MacBook Pro with the second generation of the butterfly keyboard. Of course, Apple did not discontinue the MacBook, but in 2019, the company finally went back to the older screen mechanism, cleverly termed as the Magic Keyboard.
Apple introduced three generations of the butterfly keyboard, and at each of them, the company received bad press due to concerns about durability and performance.
The MacBook Air also received a minor update in 2017, but it’s available with the same non-Retina design. Fortunately, Apple has introduced a redesign of the line, making the MacBook Air one of the first Macs with the M1 chip in 2020.
It is also worth mentioning the second generation of the iPad Pro. Although it was a solid product, the Smart Keyboard is still one of the Apple products that give users headaches. At least until mid-2020, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro Smart Keyboard had a memory because the company could not figure out how to resolve the connection between iPad and Smart Keyboard. In my case, I had to go to the Apple Store three times over the years to return my Smart Keyboard and receive a new one.
As we can see, 2017 could have been a great year for Apple, but it looks like the company is trying to forget about it now. If no Apple event is announced yet, does the company do its spring cleaning before users release new products?
What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.
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