The iPhone, the MacBook, and Apple as a whole are moving on from Steve Jobs
The iPhone, the iPad, the MacBook, all once proudly shown off by Steve Jobs, now adopt design changes he would have never approved of. Apple, the company that Steve Jobs co-founded has moved on from Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs had some strong beliefs about the iPhone, the MacBook, and the design philosophy that Apple followed as a whole. He is still remembered as the best thing that ever happened to the company by many long-time Apple fans.
However, Apple is now moving on from Steve Jobs’ legacy. It’s moving on from Steve Jobs’ beliefs and his approach to design. One by one, Apple is adopting philosophies that, were Jobs still with us today, probably wouldn’t ever even make it past the drawing board.
Touchscreen MacBook
Didn't think I'd live to see a touchscreen MacBook. | Image by Apple
Apple just announced its newest MacBooks and, for the first time ever, it’s offering its laptops with touchscreens. Steve Jobs was very opposed to touchscreens on laptops. Jobs once said that touchscreen laptops made for a good demo but they were impractical for daily use.
He also had other things to say about laptops with touch-enabled displays. For example, Jobs said that user tests indicated that touchscreen laptops just don’t work.
We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work.
Steve Jobs, October 2010
According to Jobs, the tech behind touchscreen laptops was interesting but it made for a very bad user experience. Namely, fatigue was quick to set in if you kept your arm extended to keep interacting with such a laptop.
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It gives a great demo, but after a short period of time you start to fatigue, and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work. It’s ergonomically terrible.
Steve Jobs, October 2010
But perhaps most importantly of all, in my opinion at least, Steve Jobs actually touched (pun intended) on why touchscreen laptops don’t work. His findings are something I agree with as well, as I’ve never gotten the appeal of such laptops either.
Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. [...]Touch surfaces want to be horizontal.
Steve Jobs, October 2010
What’s funny is that, even after Steve Jobs had passed, other Apple executives critiqued touchscreen laptops as well.
You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but you know, those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.
Tim Cook, April 2012
Perhaps Cook wanted to follow in Jobs footsteps as the new CEO of Apple back then. Clearly his dislike for touchscreen laptops did not remain as we can see now.
Lifting your arm to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do.
Craig Federighi, June 2018
Stylus for the iPhone Duo
The iPhone Duo supports the Apple Pencil. | Image by PhoneArena
Samsung famously had stylus support for its foldables up until recently and we all wondered whether the iPhone Duo would incorporate something similar. It did. The iPhone Duo supports the Apple Pencil.
Who wants a stylus? You have to get 'em, put 'em away, you lose 'em. Yuck! Nobody wants a stylus!
Steve Jobs, January 2007
Jobs never wanted a stylus for the iPhone. As such, Apple resisted it for a long time after his passing as well. But the company is past that now with its first foldable iPhone and I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple Pencil support makes its way to other iPhone models too.
The iPad, meanwhile, left Jobs beliefs about stylus pens for tablets behind a long time ago.
It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it.
Steve Jobs, April 2010
Would Steve Jobs have approved of a foldable iPhone?
I don't feel like Jobs would have approved of either the iPhone Duo or the iPhone 18 Pro Max. | Image by PhoneArena
Aside from the rushed state that the iPhone Duo was released in, I wonder if this is another product that Jobs would have strongly disagreed with when it comes to its design and its use cases.
Steve Jobs famously said that big phones were a terrible idea that would never catch on. Well, he was wrong about that, and Apple quickly pivoted into making larger phones after his passing.
You can’t get your hand around it. No one’s going to buy that.
Steve Jobs, July 2010
Jobs also believed that a seven-inch smartphone would be dead on arrival. So…let’s talk about the iPhone Duo.
The Duo, when unfolded, is 7.6 inches across. When folded, it fails to follow Apple’s early iPhone design philosophy of being able to comfortably use a device with just one hand as some users have trouble doing that with the Duo.
Then there’s another aspect where Jobs might have disliked the iPhone Duo as well. Though he positioned the iPhone as a collection of different devices in one, Steve Jobs also wanted Apple’s products to perform their designated functions and perform them well.
Would Jobs have approved of the iPhone Duo? Not quite a normal phone with the wider — and uncomfortable for some — external display and not quite an iPad with the shorter internal display. He might have balked at just the display crease running through the center. I can almost imagine him insulting it and calling it an eyesore.
I'm almost scared to imagine what he would say about the user experience on the iPhone Duo when it comes to apps. | Image by PhoneArena
Jobs might have really disapproved of the iPhone Duo, calling it a clunky and heavy mess that doesn’t do one thing properly and tries to be a jack-of-all-trades. But, the thing is, Jobs is not here anymore.
Apple clung onto some of Steve Jobs beliefs for a very long time. However, they have been discarded over the years one by one.
The iPhone, the iPad, the MacBook, all once proudly shown off by Steve Jobs, now adopt design changes he would have never approved of. Apple, the company that Steve Jobs co-founded has moved on from Steve Jobs.
Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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