Shahid Kamal Ahmad wrote: “The first Apple Silicon Macs were such a profound leap forward in power and battery life that it’s hard to see how Apple could have done much better with the M2 and then the M3. The differences have been minor, and as usual, they’ve not been completely transparent about the purported benefits of the upgraded chips. That said, there’s still nothing close to any Mac with Apple Silicon and they’ve preserved their lead over the competition.”

John Gruber wrote: “By the end of the year, every single Mac in the lineup, save one, is arguably in the best shape that model has ever been.

“The 24-inch iMac skipped the M2 generation but got an update to the M3, along with Apple making it as clear as possible that they have no plans to make a 27-inch iMac with Apple silicon. I’m OK with that — I think a Studio Display with a Mac Mini is better solution. And those who miss the iMac Pro of the Intel era are better off with a Studio Display and Mac Studio.

“The Mac Pro is the only sour note in the lineup. It finally came to Apple silicon (hooray), but spec-wise it’s pretty much a Mac Studio with advanced I/O options (boo). If your work requires high-end I/O, that’s great. But if not, it’s hard to see anything the Mac Pro offers that the Mac Studio doesn’t, other than a higher price and consuming a lot more space on or under your desk. Even if this first Apple silicon Mac Pro is a disappointment though, I say it’s great news overall, because it’s a sign that Apple still wants the Mac Pro in its lineup. At some point in the next year or two, I expect Apple to unveil a Mac Pro with specs that race ahead of the Mac Studio. It’s just obviously the case that Apple silicon isn’t there yet.”

Rob Griffiths wrote: “Apple Silicon continues to impress, and Apple seems to be making models people want… except, where is the 27-inch iMac? I don’t want to go down in screen real estate.”

Adam Engst wrote: “Although there is always room for quibbles, such as with the loss of the 27-inch iMac and the awkwardness of releasing the M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pros just nine months before the M3 Pro/Max models, Apple is hitting the Mac out of Apple Park. If anything, Apple’s next task is going to be to figure out what new general capabilities (perhaps AI-driven?) the Mac can be given that would give most people reason to look beyond the low-end chips. That said, the Studio Display remains a disappointment, particularly with respect to the camera, which was supposed to set a new standard rather than still paling in comparison to an iPhone in Continuity Camera mode.”

Christina Warren wrote: “What a year for the Mac! I had to look back at the excellent MacTracker to remind myself of all the new Macs we got in 2023. Not only did we get updates for every Mac across the lineup (with the exception of the 13” MacBook Air), the Apple silicon transition is now officially ‘complete.’ I do feel a little bad for anyone who dropped $4500 on an M2 Max MacBook Pro, only to see the M3 Max 10 months later. The quality of the Apple silicon chips are getting seriously refined and very good.

“I upgraded to a 14-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro this year (from a 14-inch M1 Max model) and if I’m honest, it was an upgrade I absolutely didn’t need to make. The performance gains over two years are real, but Apple knocked it out of the park so much, so early, that most people can buy a machine for years and literally not think about it. That’s definitely the biggest change from the late-stage Intel era. The 15-inch MacBook Air is probably the best laptop for most regular users, and I’m glad it exists. For the first time in years, most of the Mac lineup is finally cohesive and reasonably differentiated.

“I do, however, have complaints. First, shipping any laptop (or desktop for that matter), with 8GB of RAM today is criminal. It’s even worse when said 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro costs $1600. That’s unacceptable. The fact that Apple hasn’t changed the base RAM in a MacBook Pro since mid-2012 is out of step with reality, and as good as the Apple silicon chips are, I worry about encouraging even regular users to buy laptops with antiquated amounts of memory when the starting prices are so high.

“The Mac Pro, in my opinion, is the only clear miss in the lineup right now. It does not need to exist. It is a completely unnecessary product that will appeal to exactly seven people (all of whom probably work at Apple) and if Apple can’t do better, it should just retire the Mac Pro moniker once and for all. At least the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra exists. The iMac still exists, I guess, but Apple has clearly fallen out of love with my very favorite computer. Such is life. All in all, a great year for the Mac.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “Very solid continuation of the Mac lineup. Good hardware revisions and additions – putting the focus in the products that matter most to the lineup, clearing some things up and better positioning themselves for the future of Apple Silicon.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “Apple Silicon continues to lead the pack and Apple’s forethought on building in ML co-processing into ALL its devices puts them way ahead in the race for on-device AI. Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Intel are just now getting to the starting line. Abandoning the Touch Bar and Butterfly keyboard, and adding ports to the MacBook Pros, shows they’re finally listening to their users instead of arrogantly plowing ahead with poor designs.”

David Sparks wrote: “With Apple Silicon, Apple has brought powerful, power-efficient computing to everyone. You can do almost anything now with a MacBook Air. It’s amazing. Then there is the Mac Pro. The Apple Silicon transition was like an Olympic gymnast doing a perfect vault… and then stumbling on the landing. I expect that things didn’t go as Apple planned for the Mac Pro last year, and those things happen. Since they are still making one, they probably have a plan to sort it out. I just wish they’d share a little bit of it.”

Stephen Hackett wrote: “2023 marked the end of the transition to Apple silicon. It may have taken longer than Apple anticipated, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Macs are running faster, cooler and longer than they ever could with Intel inside. All it cost was the Mac Pro’s dignity, which it just regained in 2019. The last Intel model was everything a Mac Pro should be—expandable, upgradeable and more powerful than anything else in the line. The new one is a Mac Studio with slots and optional wheels. That’s disappointing for users who were hoping to throw more GPU power at their problems.

“On the software front, Sonoma is proving to be a stable release, which is nice after a few years of bumpy builds. It’s hallmark feature is probably the addition Desktop Widgets. They aren’t for me though; call me when Dashboard is brought back to life. However, problems remain. Just try to walk someone though making a change in System Settings over a FaceTime call and you’ll want to hurl your iPhone into the nearest body of water. And look no farther than this blog post by Jason to relive the horror of setting up a new Mac. Apple has a lot of work to do in these areas, and I’m hopeful progress is being made on them for macOS 15 this year.”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “It’s difficult to ding Apple’s Mac performance. With Apple Silicon leading the way, the Mac hardware seems to be hitting all the sweet spots, and even the iMac finally got an M3 upgrade after 2 1/2 years. But they might as well have named the Mac Pro the ‘Mac Elite,’ priced way out of range for most professionals in most jobs. macOS security features that were individually good ideas have become a tangle of dozens of dialog boxes that simultaneously demand immediate attention and won’t respond because other dialogs are popping up.

“Apple pours its Mac resources into technologies we now know are critical to Apple Vision (VRKit, ARKit, Metal). Meanwhile, critical systems like Mail lose old plug-in functionality in favor of extensions that lack key features (and don’t implement their documented features thanks to bugs that go unfixed for years). Even using newer replacements for older kernel extensions (like Rogue Amoeba) still requires kernel access, a security setting that requires two reboots and disables Apple Pay. It’d be nice if 2024 Macs weren’t missing productivity features from 2008 Macs.”

John Siracusa wrote: “The new Mac Pro ended the Apple Silicon transition this year, not with a bang but a whimper. The promise of owning and controlling this particular ‘primary technology’ is that it allows Apple to make exactly the processors it needs for its specific products. The downside is that Apple now has to make the processors for all its products, including the exotic, high-end ones that sell in very low volumes. When it came time to open its wallet and pay for the monster SoC that the Mac Pro deserves—and that only the Mac Pro will ever use—Apple decided it could not stomach the ROI. So we got a Mac Pro with the same SoC as the tiny Mac Studio, and no support for discrete GPUs. Pretty much every other Mac continues to be amazing these days, so the Mac Pro didn’t drag the year down too much. And, hey, at least it still exists, leaving the door open for an Apology Mac Pro™ some time in the future.

“Apple’s pricing for Mac storage and RAM upgrades has been absurd for decades, but the lack of most other forms of configurability in recent years has really highlighted this problem. Apple seems to be carrying all of its (considerable) Mac profit margins on the backs of these two options, leading to upgrade prices that are often four times higher than market prices for the same amounts of storage and memory. This seems unsustainable to me, but maybe Apple’s sales figures tell it otherwise. Either way, it doesn’t feel great.”

Brett Terpstra wrote: “The Mac Studio is the greatest Mac I’ve ever owned. Up until this point the M1 Air had my heart, but this thing is a powerhouse and it’s only getting better. Someday we’ll see the kind of modular capabilities of the Mac Pro in a more affordable model, but for now, one of these things maxed out is an amazing computing platform.”

Gabe Weatherhead wrote: “There has never been a better Mac than almost any Mac you can get now. Their lineup is solid and makes sense. They’ve done a good job differentiating the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines for portables and the Mac mini versus the Mac studio for desktops. Apple silicon is a beast. I think the biggest risk Apple has is that you just don’t really need to upgrade these machines very often.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “I think both the 15-inch MacBook Air and the base M3 MacBook Pro are very significant steps forward for the Mac. Their introductions meant that Apple finally divorced itself from pairing display specs with the processors those laptops run on. It was a great improvement for the lineup. The Mac Pro was a disappointment, although it doesn’t matter so much because the machine was of niche appeal anyway. But I hope that Apple can one day flex with a true trophy top-of-the-line Apple Silicon Mac.”

James Thomson wrote: “Apple Silicon continued to outpace everything else on the market – the M3 Max MBPs are significantly faster than even my M1 Ultra Mac Studio. The Mac Pro finally appeared, with more of an apologetic shrug for being late than any real fanfare. Sonoma seemed to deliver the relative lack of new features of a Snow Leopard style release, without the focus on stability and bug fixes. It feels almost as if everybody was working away on some other new product. Generally, the Mac trundled solidly along to its 40th birthday.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “I think that we’ve entered a new era for the Mac, with the M-series processors. I’m still rocking my M1 iMac, which I have sworn to keep for five years, along with an M2 MacBook Air, which may be my favorite Mac ever. With the speed and battery life of these new Macs, and the sustained though incremental improvements of the chips, Apple is on a roll.”

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “The Mac has become the focus of every PC OEM, while historically ignored or seen as just an annoyance (beyond the education segment). It’s clear that it now represents a threat especially in the higher segment of the market.”

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “This year seemed like a building year on the Mac platform instead of a revolution. The success of Apple silicon is such that even releasing new generations of chips that, with each one, are the most powerful in their class ever, just seems expected. Nevertheless, Apple built on strengths, rolled out a series of updates—particularly welcome with the iMac, which was overdue for a chip bump—and kept entry-level prices feeling quite reasonable. I felt there was a sense of stagnation on the Mac side in how these models were received, though—this might stem from the fact that people bought so many M-series Macs during the pandemic, particularly when the tech sector was flush with cash and hiring like mad, that seeing a modest performance update may feel blah. The Mac hardware grid seems pretty well populated, and I wonder if Apple will ever find a way to break out of the expectations they set. The iMac could surely use more variations, but is there room in a packed line-up?

“Sonoma is probably one of my favorite macOS updates in years. While System Settings is still awkward, the continued alignment of iOS/iPadOS and macOS makes working between platforms easier. I am not sure there is a marquee feature improvement—Apple’s Sonoma website promotes Screen Savers at the top of the list of what’s new! But I think the host of improvements make macOS more pleasant to use than Ventura. The improvements for video and videoconferencing are quite stunning, particularly when you factor in full Continuity Camera for iPhone integration. The video menu now centralizes a lot of scattered features and it takes some getting used to. But I feel like Apple finally got its feet under itself for centering video controls.”

Chance Miller wrote: “The Mac continues to move forward at an impressive rate, even three years into the Apple Silicon era. The 15-inch MacBook Air is an excellent addition to the lineup that I think more people are buying than some of us think. The Mac Pro sits in an awkward spot, but at least it has Apple Silicon inside now. I’m still hoping that Apple can make that long-rumored ‘Extreme’ Apple Silicon chip at some point. Right now, it’s pretty hard to justify choosing a Mac Pro over a Mac Studio. At long last, 2023 was also the year the Touch Bar died. The new entry-level MacBook Pro is a far more compelling machine than its predecessor, even if it is a bit more expensive. That gorgeous ProMotion display is more than enough to justify the price increase in my book.”

Nick Heer wrote: “Apple started the year with MacBook Pro updates and, somehow, ended the year with more MacBook Pro updates. macOS is increasingly showing the strain of looking and feeling more like iOS while retaining the things which make it a Mac.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “Apple’s Mac lineup is solid, if only a tad boring. Apple Silicon Macs are great and I love my M2 MacBook Air (arguably, the best laptop Apple’s ever made), but now that we’ve had M-series Macs for over three years, the novelty of Apple Silicon has somewhat worn off. While in Windows land companies are making OLED laptops, laptops with touch, laptops with two screens, and other weird and fun things, Apple’s still making basic, regular laptops without touch input. I understand Apple not wanting to go full-weird like ASUS or Lenovo often do, but making a computer without touch input in 2023 feels… just wrong to me at this point.

“At the same time, I found Apple’s newfound commitment to gaming on the Mac fascinating and an area worth keeping an eye on in the future. Are a handful of AAA games coming to the Mac a sign of much bigger ambitions? Can Apple’s work on GPUs compete in the long term with Nvidia and AMD? Is there a future in which Apple may bring back eGPU support for Macs, perhaps thanks to the higher bandwidth afforded by Thunderbolt 5? I hope to get answers to some of these questions in 2024.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “While the narrative this year has focused on the M3 Pro and its ‘lack’ of performance upgrades, the base M3 and M3 Max received the biggest leap in performance since the M1. The product mix underwhelmed slightly, but the SoC itself exceeded all expectations.”

John Moltz wrote: “Apple’s MacBook Pro updates have come fairly frequently in recent years but this is the first time it’s worked out so we’ve had two updates in a calendar year. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the M3 MacBook Pros are [looks around then whispers] the fastest MacBooks evaaaah. True story. Also, we finally (FINALLY) got an update to the iMac line, with zippy new M3 processors. Not the best Mac year for sure, but a solid outing.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “I keep seeing fresh ideas in Windows laptops and wish Apple would apply some of that ambition to Macs. But I appreciate that Apple can’t afford to be experimental.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “While I know Apple has its reasons, I still feel that rolling out high-end chips to the lower end models creates confusion at the top. I believe Apple will eventually move to releasing the fastest chips to the performance machines first.”

Devindra Hardawar wrote: “The M3 chips were a nice update, and it’s nice to see the 14-inch Macbook Pro drop in price. I’m also very glad to see the useless 13-inch MacBook Pro die, finally.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “The M3 itself is awesome but many users are still quite happy with their M1, myself included. macOS was kinda ho-hum, but fit the widgets everywhere theme.”

Brent Simmons wrote: “Macs are so good these days! It’s a dream come true.”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “Although I will remain forever annoyed that the new (black! for real this time!) MacBook Pro series was announced literally the day after my new work MBP had shipped, it was nevertheless a very good year for the Mac. The Midnight MacBook Air that I bought for personal use is also a great machine — it was my first Apple Silicon Mac, and the battery life really is as amazing as promised.”

Dan Seifert wrote: “The Mac hasn’t missed since the Apple Silicon transition and 2023 was no different. It had some weirdness — two generations of MacBook Pro models released in the same calendar year can be confusing to consumers, albeit not terrible — but the Mac is still in a better place than it’s been in decades. Although the 15-inch MacBook Air didn’t seem to ignite a fire in consumers, it’s still a great computer that was long overdue in Apple’s lineup and I’m glad the option for those wanting a MacBook with a bigger screen, but not wanting to pay $2500 to get it, is there. Points off for Apple’s continued insistence in starting with a measly 8GB of RAM in its computers and then its absurd pricing for RAM and storage upgrades. It’s beyond time for that to be adjusted to be closer in line with market component rates.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “On the Mac, Apple is chugging along. M2 to M3 transition handled well, Back to (Space) Black for the MacBook Pro, at last the big-screened MacBook Air (not that anyone seems to be buying it). Even a Mac Pro, not that anyone buys them either.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “I wish Apple would release the Mac Studio alongside the Pro/Max chips and simply offer an Ultra option five months later when that chip is available. There’s not enough time between Mac Studio availability and the next Mac Studio-relevant M-series chip being released. I do not want to buy a Mac Studio with M3 Max when 3 months later the M4 Max will be a thing.”

Peter Cohen wrote: “Much has been made about Apple’s push for gaming legitimacy with the M3-based Macs. To be frank, it’s hard to be optimistic about their efforts – there are so many factors that keep the Mac marginalized as a game platform which Apple has no control over, like the dominance of Windows APIs and programming knowledge with game developers, Nvidia’s GPUs, and a general gaming malaise from Mac users. Regardless, the Mac’s Apple Silicon transition is paying huge dividends we didn’t see during the Intel Mac era.”

Dan Moren wrote: “The Mac continues to absolutely kill it. M2 Pro/Max and the M3 generation in a single year? My only concern is whether Apple can continue to sustain this pace of development.”

Shelly Brisbin wrote: “It was great to see the M3 chips make their debut in MacBook Pros, but I would like to have seen them spread to more of the product line as well. The move to Sonoma seemed to go smoothly, and a few new features on the software side, like enhanced screen sharing and Safari profiles actually make my life better.”

Ben Long wrote: “I was at the Apple Store on Union Square earlier this year and was shocked at how much it feels like walking into a T-mobile store. The store is geared sop heavily toward phones and iPads – the Macs were on a single table. For an aging computer nerd, it’s hard not to feel blah about the state of personal computing because the PC is no longer the foundation of personal computing. I can’t blame Apple for following where the market goes, and I think they’re doing a fine job of servicing what the desktop computer market is right now, but for me the exciting computer stuff is not happening at Apple. They are an appliance store.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “Mac hardware is in a great place except for the lack of options for displays larger than the iMac. SSD pricing is looking even more unreasonable. It’s a shame that the Magic peripherals still use Lightning. The software side is still a mess, both in terms of reliability and design. I like Safari profiles.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “The new 15″ size for the MacBook Air is a great option for non-power users, but it’s a shame it arrived so long after its smaller sibling that it gave significant pause about whether to wait for the next generation. Can’t complain about two MacBook Pro updates in the same year including the simultaneous debuts of M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. The iMac update was underwhelming considering how old the M1 model was, and it didn’t bring a highly desired larger model.”

Casey Liss wrote: “The Mac continues to fire on all cylinders. I almost complained about Apple not updating the Mac mini… but sure enough, it was updated last January. So many Macs shipped in 2023 that last January seems far, far away. What a lovely change of pace. Even the Mac Pro got refreshed, finally entering the Apple Silicon era. Granted, the purpose of the Mac Pro is questionable at best, but still, it got attention. Apple Silicon continues to be a revelation. It is not all things to all people, but damned if it isn’t close. Incredible performance, incredible battery life, little heat. With Intel, you could choose one, or maybe two, of those pillars. With Apple Silicon, all three are available. After years of being ignored, it just feels so damn good to matter again.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “It’s hard to say much bad about the Mac right now. If someone walks into an Apple Store today, they’re going to walk out with a very good computer no matter what they get, and something that is miles better than the Intel Mac they’re probably upgrading from. The Mac Pro is the only model that gets a real raised eyebrow from me, as it seems to have less of a reason to exist now (especially at its price point) than it ever has before. I also can’t help but wonder what the next step for the Mac is. Apple has basically perfected the current designs, but what’s the next exciting hardware and interaction innovation on the Mac? iPads and Macs have basically the same internal guts these days, and I can’t help but think about what a portable Mac running on iPad-like hardware could look like one day.”

Marco Arment wrote: “The Mac continues to be in an amazing place thanks to Apple silicon. The 15-inch Air rounded out the consumer line this year, and the M3 updates further propelled the MacBook Pro forward as the best all-around computer in the world for nearly anything.”

iPhone

Grade: A- (average score: 4.1, median score 4, last year: 3.9)

Shelly Brisbin wrote: “Two important accessibility features debuted this year: Assistive Access and Speech Access. Assistive Access provides a simplified iOS interface for folks with cognitive disabilities, or whose capacity may have been diminished by age. Android has offered this for years, and it’s great to see Apple making a first stab at it. Speech Access leverages machine learning in an incredibly useful and very Apple way. Apple may not openly call Personal Voice an AI feature, but it is, and it’s legitimately a good thing, and a technologically interesting thing for Apple to do.”

Christina Warren wrote: “At a certain point, you get tired of writing ‘Apple’s best phones ever,’ and the returns on the phones are definitely diminishing, year over year. Still, the iPhone 15 lineup is great, even if the only real new feature we got was USB-C. I love the 15 Pro Max and its 5× zoom, but I love not having to carry an extra Lightning cable even more. Great phones. I do wish we’d get fun colors on the Pro models again.”

Rob Griffiths wrote: “Honestly, I find phones incredibly boring now. No more real innovation, just evolution.”

Josh Centers wrote: “USB-C is great, but this has the worst battery life of any new iPhone I’ve ever owned, dating back to the iPhone 4.”

Devindra Hardawar wrote: “The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the first genuinely great big phone from Apple. It’s well balanced, and the titanium frame makes it feel noticeably lighter than previous models.”

John Gruber wrote: “The new iPhone 15 lineup is great, especially the 15 Pro models. The weight reduction is dramatic, and the titanium feels so much nicer in hand. iOS 17 feels like what it is: a stable, mature operating system. Apple has gone through two major transitions with iOS: the ground-up UI redesign with iOS 7 (can you believe that was 10 years ago?) and the all-screen, no-more-home-button system redesign with the iPhone X. Nothing major has changed since, and nothing seems to need to.”

Stephen Hackett wrote: “As a long-time member of the Big iPhone Club, I couldn’t be happier with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The Titanium rails and aluminum frame make it noticeably lighter and the USB-C port makes it much easier to live with. The 5× optical zoom changes the types of photos and videos the iPhone is capable of creating, and it’s been a lot of fun using it at sporting events and school plays. The camera is the mainstream feature of the iPhone. I’m not sure the Action Button is, but I love that Apple gave us the ability to hook it up to Shortcuts. I’m using it to send ideas to my task manager and it’s great.

“On the software front, I’ve been encouraged over the last several years over Apple’s emphasis on its first-party productivity apps like Notes, Reminders and Mail. Apple continues to push them forward while keeping in mind that they are apps made for the masses.”

Shahid Kamal Ahmad wrote: “They’ve reached peak iPhone and I’m fine with that. It remains the most important and relevant computing device on the planet.”

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “While from a technology perspective there might be little difference between android flagships and iPhone, the overall user experience coupled with the app ecosystem remains superior. This year in particular I want to call out Apple’s focus on accessibility.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “The new action button and titanium seem small but have an outsized impact when you hold and use the Pro models. The pancake camera may be limited to the Pro Max for now, but heralds a really practical optics improvement that will likely trickle down to the ‘smaller’ sibling. And I, for one, am a huge fan of the USB-C port.”

Nick Heer wrote: “The iPhone 15 lineup is, on the surface, even more of a modest update than usual, but it seems to be in service of approaching some kind of idealized smartphone. Think about how much cooler iPhone models could look if they were made in color, though.”

Dan Seifert wrote: “Of Apple’s entire product line, the one that gets me the least excited these days is the iPhone. It’s so massive and important to Apple’s business, yet has felt so stagnant for so many years. This year I upgraded my 13 Pro to a 15 Pro, largely lured in by the hopes of a lighter phone, but after five months, I’m struggling to feel like it was worth it. The improvements that Apple has been focusing on in camera and raw chip performance do not make a significant difference to me, and I think we’re long overdue for Apple to take some risks and actually push the industry forward with the iPhone. Otherwise, the iPhone will continue its trajectory toward appliance status.”

Marco Arment wrote: “The iPhone 15 Pro was an excellent refresh to an already-great line. The iPhone continues to be the most important and most frequently used computer in most of its customers’ lives, and it’s easy to take for granted just how well and reliably it works.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “The camera, combined with USB-C, ACES and additional ProRes support really pushed the iPhone to a new level.”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “iPhone lineup seems to have something for everyone right now (unless you want an itty bitty phone). From the iPhone SE to iPhone 15 Pro with the 3× optical zoom, what’s not to like?”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “I’ve wanted a dedicated camera button for a very long time (and submitted feedback to Apple about it years ago) so I’m very happy about it. Also impressive is the performance bump and running two recent Resident Evil games on my phone, though I still think of this sort of thing as a temporarily available tech demo as these sorts of iOS games tend to stop working within a year or two, from past experience.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “Love the titanium design, the weight reduction, and big fan of USB C and the 5× telephoto. A very solid refresh overall, nothing earth-shattering, but as much as I could want from a design revision year.”

Lex Friedman wrote: “There are fewer surprises with the iPhone every year. The camera will be better, the phone will be faster… But no surprise isn’t a bad thing. The new iPhones are great. I love my iPhone.”

Dan Moren wrote: “A fine year of updates to the iPhone, but no real standout features. The titanium exterior of the Pro is welcome; it’s made me go caseless for the first time.”

James Thomson wrote: “Unsurprisingly, these are still the best iPhones ever made. iOS got more updates than I was expecting, given the focus on visionOS. Just don’t give two thumbs up during your therapy.”

Ben Long wrote: “I don’t like large phones and Apple’s mostly into large phones. I get that I’m in the minority but, again, it makes it hard for me to get excited about what they’re doing.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “USB-C, a lighter titanium construction, improved battery, and one of the best camera additions the iPhone has seen in years… What more could you ask for?”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “As someone who doesn’t do a lot of photography and remains extremely skeptical of gaming on iOS, I downgraded my iPhone 14 Pro to an iPhone 15 this year. It came in pink, and I certainly never felt like my 14 pro was underpowered. I still miss the iPhone Mini form-factor, though! I sort of wish I had kept my iPhone 13 mini, and just held onto it until it was actually unusable in some way.”

Casey Liss wrote: “I love my iPhone 15 Pro Max — my first large phone. It still feels bigger than I’d prefer, a few months later. I still love the 5× tetraprism lens. The battery life only feels marginally better than my 14 Pro. On the plus side, this phone is strikingly light. I’m all-in on titanium on the Pro phones. Plus, the Natural finish looks so good. That said, Color Czar, more fun colors on the pro phones, please! The iPhones 15 got the Dynamic Island, which I still really like. It’s not the sort of thing that has dramatically changed my relationship with my iPhone, but I find the Dynamic Island very useful. Having the Island in more places will lead to broader adoption, which is better for all of us with Islands on our phones.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “The iPhone 15 Pro is great, though I’m not totally happy with the camera processing and depth of field. The iPhone 15 is way too slippery. I still wish for a smaller phone. iOS 17 is fine, though not very exciting.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “The industrial design of the iPhone 15 series is up there with some of the best of the iPhone. The matte glass treatment for iPhone 15 and the titanium casing for the Pro models will make this a memorable generation for years to come.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “It’s honestly just another premium smartphone right now: a ‘wow’ for style, a shrug for features and functions. Samsung’s and Google’s cameras have mostly surpassed Apple’s. And the Pixel’s AI features are the kind of useful ‘Why doesn’t MY phone do that?’ magic that used to be associated with the iPhone.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “Points for finally moving to USB-C and the iPhone is still best in class. Nevertheless, it’s hard to get excited about a product that doesn’t change much year after year. Buggy iOS software still plagues the platform. And it seems pretty clear to me that Apple backdoored its own devices for someone, probably the NSA. Did they have a choice? Probably not, but it undermines the security and privacy story they want to tell.”

John Moltz wrote: “The new phones are nice phones. They should come in better colors. And smaller sizes. That is all I have to say on the matter.”

Rosemary Orchard wrote: “The action button, and titanium frame on the pro line is really great.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “Annual updates remain pretty iterative, and we could really use a significant change to freshen things up. The Action button offers some nice customizability options, but it seems like many people (including me) aren’t finding a good reason to use it.The regular models got Dynamic Island, but after a year of it being available on the Pro models it still feels underutilized.”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “The iPhone’s biggest problem is expectations: new hardware doesn’t make the same leaps each year that were possible when the category was new. I hate the ‘but what have you done for me lately’ mentality, but it’s the question Apple must answer to drive upgrade sales.”

Adam Engst wrote: “The iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t improve on the iPhone 14 Pro in any significant way. The Action button is a nice idea, but proves difficult to build into muscle memory. While the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s tetraprism camera is impressive, it’s annoying that getting it requires being forced to use an insanely large phone. Where’s the iPhone 15 Pro Mini?”

Chance Miller wrote: “The new 5× camera has been a home run for me. I’ve already found myself looking back at pictures and videos from it far more fondly than I ever have pictures and videos from the 3× telephoto camera on previous iPhones. The ability to record spatial video for Vision Pro is also a nice bonus, even if you do have to make some compromises in video quality. The new FineWoven iPhone cases are pretty awful. I hope Apple has already gone back to the drawing board and has something better planned for the iPhone 16 launch. iOS 17 was a solid upgrade, headlined by things like Live Voicemail and Stand By for me. Interactive widgets are useful, but not as useful as I had expected them to be.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “The iPhone 15 Pro line, and specifically the iPhone 15 Pro Max, is a slam dunk update. The improved optical zoom at 5× is something I use every day to take funny pictures of my dogs, usually when they’re running at the park. The weight reduction of the iPhone 15 Pro Max was nice, but the real stars of the show for me were the addition of USB-C in lieu of Lightning and the Action button. The latter has allowed me to take my usage of Shortcuts to the next level by having a system-wide activation method that no longer requires me to run shortcuts from widgets or the share sheet. When I want to quickly create a new task or frame some of my screenshots now, I just have to long-press a button. I even created a system to assign more than one shortcut to the Action button, and I’m working on ways to turn the Action button into a “contextual” physical shortcut that changes its behavior depending on the app that I’m using. Guess what? Buttons are great.

“The adoption of USB-C is just icing on the cake for these new iPhones. Regardless of whether or not Apple was going to switch to USB-C anyway without the EU forcing their hand, the net benefit for me has been the fact that the iPhone is now part of my existing ecosystem of USB-C accessories that all use the same connector. From battery packs to USB-C glasses and other peripherals, USB-C has meant greater flexibility in terms of what I can connect to my iPhone on a daily basis, and I couldn’t be happier with Apple’s ‘decision.'”

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “I think iOS has gone through a sort of transformation conceptually. Building on what it has been, Apple has increasingly thought about personal safety beyond data security. Check In promises to be the single biggest improvement in traveling safely once people understand how to use it best; it’s not the easiest feature to understand at first glance and you need a “safety buddy.” Communication Safety expanding to cover more communication types and formats helps people defeat harassment and unwanted images and video. Also Stolen Device Protection, Safety Check, and (improved in iOS 17/iPadOS 17 and Sonoma) Lockdown Mode. And don’t forget the mid-stream addition of full iCloud data protection in early 2023.”

iPad

Grade: D (average score: 2.4, median score 2, last year: 3.0)

Matt Deatherage wrote: “I use my iPad Pro all the time, everywhere, for everything. Apple’s keyboard folio is a failure for me, though, as the keys just stop working after about a year.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “Updates were missing here. I think the current offerings are good. The real challenge is developing workflows that create a need to really upgrade. Most software uses very little of the Pro capacity.”

Josh Centers wrote: “Apple still isn’t doing much with the iPad. The new base model is entirely too expensive for its place in the market.”

Michael E. Cohen wrote: “The hardware is good, but Apple is having trouble figuring out what the hardware is for, resulting in a weird blend of the traditional iPad single-tasking and multitasking, resulting in a confusing user experience.”

Dan Seifert wrote: “This is the weirdest year for the iPad, simply because Apple didn’t release any new iPad models for the first time since the iPad debuted in 2010. I think that’s less of a problem than it looks like from the outside, because the iPad line is already sprawling and somewhat confusing, and the majority of the models in it don’t feel too out of date. On the positive side, iPadOS 17 doesn’t feel much different than 16, but Apple did address a lot of the problems that Stage Manager had at launch. It’s still not as flexible or easy to use as I’d like, but I can use it way more effectively now when I have to. I think we’d all like Apple to really give the aging iPad Pro a proper redesign, which by all accounts is likely coming this year. And then Apple needs to simplify the lineup: cut the price of the 10th Gen model below $400, jettison the 9th Gen, and put some distance between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro, which are far too similar for most people.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “No new hardware in 2023 was a drag. But Apple keeps finding ways to make the iPad more valuable.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “I don’t fault the company for not releasing new iPads this year, and I don’t think we need annual upgrades to iPads. But I think the iPad has plateaued, and we’re unlikely to see many changes going forward. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve found that I’ve been using my iPad mini 6 much more than my 11″ iPad Pro in recent times, and I hope Apple will continue upgrading the mini, and perhaps increasing the screen size a bit, through reduced bezels.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “What is there even to say about the iPad in 2023? With the exception of a couple changes to iPadOS, there was nothing to talk about. Apple did manage to sneak in a couple of updates to Stage Manager that make the feature tolerable – and actually pretty good – to use compared to iPadOS 16’s disaster. Apple needs to get serious about the iPad again in 2024 with both hardware and software, and I hope they will deliver on this front.”

Nick Heer wrote: “It was a rough year for the iPad, but you have to give Apple credit for meaningful Stage Manager changes, and finally bringing Final Cut and Logic to the platform.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “Addressed some of the critical Stage Manager problems just one year after the feature was first introduced with iPadOS 16.”

John Siracusa wrote: “A year without new iPads is not a good year for the iPad. As we exited 2022, the iPad line was confusing and messy. It remained so for all of 2023.”

Marco Arment wrote: “The iPad continues to serve many casual fans well, but disappoint many pros. The hardware lineup is a confusing, outdated mess, which will hopefully be resolved in 2024.”

John Gruber wrote: “That there was no new iPad hardware this year makes it hard to give it a high grade. Worse, the existing lineup is rather confusing. iPadOS remains fine, but to me still seems like the no-man’s land platform: nowhere near as capable productivity-wise as a Mac; nowhere near as portable as an iPhone. Next year better bring clarity some “wow” to the iPad lineup.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “If you had told me in 2018—when the iPad was being marketed as a seeming Mac replacement—that the eventual release of “pro apps for iPad” would be reduced to a press release in a year without a single hardware update, I’d have thought (a) you were insane, (b) Apple was doomed.”

David Sparks wrote: “The iPad, to me, remains a disappointment not because of what it is but because of what it could be. I use mine often, but also often set it down because the next thing I need to do is too difficult (or impossible) on iPad. When the iPad launched (in 2010), I expected it would be much more than it is now in 2024. It may be unfair to judge a product against expectations, yet I feel, at this point, it is justified.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “I love the iPad. I often use my M1 iPad Pro as a laptop replacement, but the product line still feels disjointed and iPadOS still isn’t nailing it. As an aside this is the year I got my pilot’s license and learned how iPads are absolutely indispensable in the cockpit. It’s incredible how they’ve changed aviation.”

Christina Warren wrote: “Apple finally figured out the Mac lineup; I hope they can do the same for the iPad lineup this year.”

James Thomson wrote: “The difficult middle child, the iPad sits sulking in the corner as everybody coos over the new arrival of the Vision Pro, while the older iPhone actually pays all the bills.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “iPads are landscape-first devices for many, yet only one iPad in the lineup has the camera in a place that makes you look good in landscape. Oh, and there are 3 products named Apple Pencil and Apple has 2 elaborate spreadsheets on their marketing page to help you know which model to buy. On the plus side, Stage Manager is notably better than it was last year, and Final Cut Pro & Logic Pro coming to the iPad after years of hopes and dreams were big wins for the platform.”

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “I start to fear that the growth of the Mac, especially in enterprise, will limit the attention given to the iPad until we see a foldable—yes, I am still convinced we will see a foldable iPad before we see a foldable iPhone.”

Chance Miller wrote: “There was no new iPad hardware in 2023, and that’s not a bad thing. I see nothing wrong with Apple taking its time to release meaningful iPad hardware updates. I certainly don’t think the world needed another update to the iPad Pro where the only change was a new processor inside. iPadOS 17 made some very nice improvements to Stage Manager. I was happy to see Apple make these changes just one year after the feature first launched. We don’t always see Apple make those year-over-year improvements. For me, these Stage Manager upgrades mean I can actually use it without totally losing my mind.”

Casey Liss wrote: “The iPad remains a device in Apple’s lineup. I replaced my 2018 iPad Pro in late 2022, getting myself a M2 iPad Pro then. I love that device, despite the fact that iPadOS actively prevents me from getting many things done, and the hardware is mostly unchanged from back in 2018. Oh, and you need a flow chart to figure out what Apple Pencil to buy these days.”

Stephen Hackett wrote: “I recently had a family member ask me what iPad they should buy, because after they visited Apple’s website, they were confused. I told them that was perfectly reasonable, as the iPad lineup is a mess of different features and specs. The same could be said for iPadOS, with its multi-tier approach to multitasking. I would love to know how many iPad owners uses their devices in the classic one-app-at-a-time mode vs. using Split Screen and Slide Over vs. Stage Manager. I know each of these modes have their fans, but I still think a lot of iPadOS needs a rethink. Personally, I have basically given up on using an iPad for much more than social media, reading and video watching. With Apple silicon, Mac notebooks are just a much better tool for what I need to do each day.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “I am looking forward to some iPad lineup cleanup in 2024. It’s a confusing mix of Apple Pencil compatibility, camera locations, and functionality.”

Gabe Weatherhead wrote: “The iPad feels stuck. For the first time since they released the iPad, I no longer really use one. The Mac is more satisfying when I’m sitting on the couch or at my desk and the iPhone is good enough the rest of the time.”

Ben Long wrote: “I honestly couldn’t tell you if Apple released a new iPad this year. I get very confused by their nomenclature – I always have to look up the difference between a regular iPad and Airy iPad. But I think one reason I can’t tell you if they released anything new is that the product is so solid that I just don’t need to keep track and if they’re not making radical advancements I don’t really care because what I’ve got now works so well for what I want.”

Jeff Carlson wrote: “Does Apple remember it has an iPad line? On one hand, given how the iPad hardware has outpaced software for years, I can almost understand not putting out new hardware just for new hardware’s sake. But that seems very un-Apple-like.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “No upgrades for a whole year? But you can’t really blame them for not improving an underperforming platform. I wonder if their heart is really in it.”

Wearables and Apple Watch

Grade: B- (average score: 3.5, median score 4, last year: 4.4)

Apple Watch specifically: Grade: B- (average score: 3.4, median score 3, last year: 4.2)

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “watchOS 10 felt like a step backwards. I didn’t like the reorganization of basic controls—I find myself constantly fumbling, four months into using, for basic navigation. My much-used Timer app was ridiculously badly revised. The only bright spot was the Snoopy watch face.”

Christina Warren wrote: “AirPods continue to be the best new product Apple has introduced since the iPad — possibly since the iPhone — and I gladly upgraded from the Lightning AirPod Pro 2s to the USB-C ones and have zero regrets. I’m still using AirPods Max in 2023/2024, even though they are objectively overpriced for what they are. The worst part is, even though a rumor or a refresh is imminent, if they died tomorrow, I’d almost certainly buy new ones, even though they are by every measure, not well-designed or a reasonable value. And that basically says it all. Apple is so good at wireless audio for people in their ecosystem that the device-switching feature is just too good to pass up. The Apple Watch update this year felt mid, but I’m not mad at it. I’m happy with my Series 8. And Apple Watch remains the best-in-class smartwatch on the planet.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “Very underwhelming year for Apple Watch. Series 9 and Ultra 2 offer little beyond their predecessors, with even the significant jump in chip generations not doing much for the user experience. Double Tap was one of the key features, didn’t arrive until a few weeks after the hardware launched, and I haven’t used it a single time outside of testing it out. watchOS 10 brought a much-needed overhaul, but not everyone loved all of the changes. AirPods Pro were the only ones to get an update in 2023, and that was only a shift to USB-C and a couple of other very minor tweaks.”

Peter Cohen wrote: “This was an iterative, unexceptional year for the Apple Watch, punctuated by a big wet raspberry from Masimo at the end of it, which is continuing to drag Apple down in the new year. The mishegas around the O₂ sensor doesn’t take away from Apple’s utter dominance in the smartwatch market, but it does seem to be a glaring tactical misstep from a company that usually knows better.”

James Thomson wrote: “One last hurrah before the biggest wearable in Apple history. The AirPods Pro 2 (and 2.5) still seem to be products from several years into the future. The Apple Watches were deemed so good they had to stop selling them.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “The Watch and Ultra have now reached the stage where they’re just ticking over (ha). The blood oxygen sensor row was interesting as part of Apple’s wider problems, but nobody actually needs a blood oxygen sensor unless they’re seriously ill. AirPods are quietly (sorry) getting better and better – the mid-year Pro revision is a big improvement.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “The tiny changes to the Apple Watch don’t even merit annual upgrades any more. I think Apple could upgrade the regular Apple Watch and the Ultra in alternate years and make each upgrade look more substantial. I would like to see a smaller Ultra; there are lots of women, and men with small wrists, who would like to wear that model.”

Dave Hamilton wrote: “The Apple Watch Ultra2 is (lawsuits excepted), truly what an Apple Watch was meant to be. If I’m going to have a computer on my wrist, it might as well have a large, flat, bright screen with a battery that can last 2 days and go everywhere with me. I have smallish wrists, and the Ultra2 surprisingly fits me just fine.”

Dr. Drang wrote: “Apart from the AirPods Max, Apple’s wearables are pretty much unbeatable. I see Apple Watches and non Max AirPods everywhere on every type of person.”

Casey Liss wrote: “The Apple Watch got a new SoC… finally. But otherwise, there wasn’t much here in 2023. But some innovation here would be nice. watchOS 10 has been hit-or-miss. A lot of changes seemed to be made for change’s sake, which is frustrating. But ultimately Apple seemed to land in the right spot with most of this year’s updates, including the return of swipe-to-change-faces. There’s no indication that the legal dispute with Masimo is going to be resolved anytime soon. That… does not bode well. AirPods Pro MkII are incredible. I did not believe the hype from those who upgraded over the OG AirPods Pro. I was wrong. They really are phenomenal. Plus, they quickly got bumped to get a USB-C charging case, which is excellent.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “Apple’s $549 AirPods Max have fewer features than the majority of the Beats lineup. If that’s not neglect, I don’t know what is.”

John Gruber wrote: “The Series 9 models don’t look any different from Series 8, and the Ultra 2 doesn’t look any different from the Ultra 1, but inside, the new S9 SiP chip provides noticeably better battery life — which at this point is really one of the platform’s only weaknesses. WatchOS 10 is the biggest re-think of the software platform ever. Far more colorful, a bit more ‘computer on your wrist,’ and I think widgets are generally more useful on Apple Watch than apps are. AirPods Pro 3 are just terrific, and the new Adaptive noise control mode is amazing for my day-to-day usage.”

David Sparks wrote: “I like the risks they took with watchOS this year. Overall, the Apple Watch is better because of it. Also, I’m on year two of my Apple Watch Ultra and it still makes me smile when I look at it.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “Why can’t on-device Siri do more?”

Ben Long wrote: “A re-vamp of the basic Apple Watch seems due. Not because there’s anything wrong with the old watch, but because I’m curious to see what that might be like. As for wearables, Apple’s disposable approach to wearability really turns my stomach. I try to use my AirPods as little as possible (opting for corded when I’m at home and saving the AirPods for outdoor use) because I feel like I need to make them last as long as I can before consigning their little toxic selves to the landfill. And the Watch isn’t much better – $80 and a week without a watch to get a new battery?? I’ve got a watch that’s 40 years old that I can take down the street and get the battery replaced for 15 bucks…”

Shelly Brisbin wrote: “Here’s the thing. All of Apple’s watches are really good. For MANY users, even an SE is a terrific choice. That’s worth a lot in the marketplace.”

Dan Moren wrote: “AirPods Pro continue to be the best headphones I’ve ever owned. I used to have like three pairs of headphones for different tasks, now with the exception of my wired monitors for podcasting, the AirPods Pro is used for everything else. Outstanding. The addition of Adaptive mode and Conversation Awareness have only made a great product better, and I’m glad that USB-C is now an option. The Apple Watch had kind of a nothing year, with the exception of the whole patent fight at the 11th hour. Kind of feels like it’s in a holding pattern until next year.”

Adam Engst wrote: “As with other updates, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 are better than their predecessors, but not in any way that would encourage an upgrade. The double-tap gesture sounded good, but like the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro, fails the muscle memory test. It’s just never useful since you have to raise your wrist and look at the watch to invoke it. The second-generation AirPods Pro are pretty good, but not life-changing.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “The Ultra 2 didn’t have many improvements, but it’s clear there’s no competition for the best-in-class Apple Watch line. They’re more durable than the Pixel Watch, are more customizable than Samsung’s due to the standardized bands, and darn it, I won’t leave home without mine. The AirPods Pro are overpriced and their sound is underwhelming but they win the field due to their tight integration with the ecosystem. And the new Adaptive Audio features are pretty impressive. On the plus side, no one complains about the white boogers hanging from your ears any more.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “Apple Watch’s iPhone requirement continues to rankle. It poisons Apple’s solemn (and frequent) mantra that “improving health will be Apple’s greatest contribution to humanity.” Requiring a user of the world’s most popular mobile OS to switch to an iPhone — even if they already own an iPad or a Mac, either of which appears technically capable of setting up and syncing an Apple Watch — feels petty and corporate.”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “While Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are nice upgrades, they didn’t break much new ground this year. I’ve become disenchanted with the AirPod lineup over the years, but if you let me count Beats for the Beats Fit Pro I’m still a fan.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “This was one of the best quality of life updates to WatchOS since it came out. The updates to AirPods, especially the Pro, feel like the product has finally matured. The new audio modes, improved device switching, and FindMy improvements all packed a big punch.”

John Moltz wrote: “Apple needs to get its house in order on the Watch 9. Customers shouldn’t have to deal with patent confusion and they also shouldn’t be charged the same amount now for a Watch 9 without blood oxygen sensing as they were three months ago with blood oxygen sensing. The improvements the AirPods are solid.”

Dan Seifert wrote: “As much as I like a lot of the design flourishes in WatchOS 10, many of the changes feel like a step backward. I don’t think it’s any easier to access the control center by hitting the side button than it was to swipe up from the bottom, and I rarely find myself using the new widgets that are there. Switching between multiple watch faces was made much more annoying until Apple added a toggle to revert it back to the old method in a later update. The software updates for the AirPods Pro added some really nice features that improved their performance and user experience. I do wish Apple would do something with the over three year old AirPods Max, though—they are long overdue for a rethink.”

Devindra Hardawar wrote: “The Vision Pro isn’t a fully realized product yet, but it’s certainly the most exciting device to come from Apple in the past decade.”

Chance Miller wrote: “Does Apple really need to release a new Apple Watch every year? I don’t think so, and this year’s Apple Watch refresh was proof. I’m still a very happy first-generation Apple Watch Ultra user, and nothing about the second-generation even remotely tempted me to upgrade. I’m sure Double Tap is useful, but I truly don’t think it needed to be tied to new Apple Watch hardware. The most impressive feature of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Series 9 is on-device Siri. It makes Siri noticeably faster, and allows you to ask Siri about your health data for the first time. But at the end of the day, it’s still Siri. AirPods Max came out three years ago, and it’s embarrassing that Apple still sells them for $549. Don’t get me wrong, I own AirPods Max and I use them every day. I just wish Apple would pay them just a little bit of attention.”

Nick Heer wrote: “AirPods updates were basically only in software, and the changes to Automatic Switching have been more of a nuisance for me. Apple did introduce the Vision Pro, its first computer you can wear on your face if you live in the United States. Alas, it was not a 2023 product.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “I’m perfectly content with my first-generation Apple Watch Ultra, so I didn’t feel compelled to upgrade to a new Apple Watch in 2023. Embracing widgets and rethinking watchOS’ structure and app UIs was the right call, but I still feel like Apple is missing a big opportunity by not allowing users to design their own custom watch faces that go beyond the limitations of the system’s built-in ones. We saw a minor update to AirPods Pro with USB-C and low-latency audio for Vision Pro in 2023, but another year went by without an update to my favorite over-ear wireless headphones, the AirPods Max. Those have felt like a forgotten product for quite some time now; I hope 2024 will bring a revitalization of that lineup, alongside redesigned regular AirPods.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “This is the second year in a row where the year-over-year upgrades are so minute that even as a nerd who obsesses over the little things, I can’t think of much to latch onto here that’s new. The new SoC might pay dividends down the road, but today the new models run watchOS just as well as the last 2 models in my side-by-side testing. Meanwhile, the double tap gesture which is the headline feature feels like a dud, as I find myself still using my nose to tap what I want in instances where I don’t have a free hand. And then there’s watchOS 10, which made some good improvements to app design, but then changes like how you bring up Control Center are still confusing me months later.”

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “Apple Watch remains the leader in the category. Ultra has broadened its share in the market, appealing to fitness enthusiast and lifestyle consumers.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “There’s no need for upgrading from a prior watch for double tap. Users were better off finding last year’s model at a sharp discount. What could Apple have been working on in the wearables space that left the rest of the product line stuck in last year?”

Stephen Hackett wrote: “I really like watchOS 10’s new, full-color designs Apple and third-party developers are shipping. This work makes the Watch feel more whimsical and fun. Sadly, the update also brought a shuffling of the core OS, with the side button being remapped to Control Center instead of the Dock, a change that I still think was the wrong move. I would love a setting to change this back, like the one Apple recently added to return the ability to swipe between watch faces without needing to press first.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “I got an Apple Watch Ultra this year and I really love it. The battery life totally changes my relationship with the product. It took me some time, but I have really come to appreciate Conversation Mode and Adaptive Audio on AirPods Pro.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “Double Tap is useful, sometimes. watchOS 10 took some big swings, and somewhat succeeded. AirPods Pro keep getting better thanks to new software features. But AirPods Max languishes, and even the base model AirPods don’t have a USB-C case option.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “Apple Watch Series 9 finally gets a new chip… not that I can tell. The new finger tap gesture is more useful than expected, but I’m not sure it’s really enough for an annual product. Rumors of watch band incompatibility in the next year or two will backfire, and I hope they turn out to be false. I’m also a bit annoyed over the AirPods Pro 2 – they should have initially released with USB-C, and this half-step of a new version of AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C and some enhancements for Vision Pro feels very messy.”

Apple TV

Grade: C (average score: 3.0, median score 3, last year: 3.6)

Stephen Hackett wrote: “The Apple TV hardware has been so overpriced and overpowered for so long, it feels like I’m wasting everyone’s time by mentioning it again. (Also again: Apple, please add Find My support for the Apple TV remote—my kids are always losing that thing.) tvOS continues to feel like it’s trapped between Apple’s vision for the platform and what it can work out with streaming giants like Netflix. Until recently, even Apple’s own strategy was unclear in places, but the recent retirement of Apple’s legacy media apps have helped clear that up.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “Apple TV is just…a thing that exists. To be fair, a streaming box is mostly judged by how little you notice it (both as a physical object near the TV, and as the thing that connects you to Netflix). But at these prices, AI upscaling or the ability to stream content from the device directly would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Dan Moren wrote: “tvOS desperately needs a makeover. The future of TV ain’t apps anymore, and a giant grid of icons as the home screen is a waste. Apple’s TV+ app needs fewer ads and more customization for the user, but that’s the eternal push/pull of selling a product and a service that are so tied together.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “Nothing very much happened with Apple TV hardware, and tvOS sometimes feels like the unloved stepchild even while the content on TV+ gets huge amounts poured in. The TV app is remarkably frustrating.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “I hate the silver controller and greatly dislike the evolution of the Apple TV interface. It really seems like Apple has given up the simplicity that made the Apple TV great and are slowly falling back to what everyone else does. As someone that has bought every Apple TV since v1 and uses it as my sole entertainment device, it find these developments frustrating.”

John Gruber wrote: “The big change in tvOS is moving the iTunes Movie and TV stores into the TV app. Overall that’s a wash for me, but it’s slightly irritating insofar as I really only ever buy or rent movies nowadays — my TV-show-watching goes through streaming apps. But the “Store” tab in the TV app gives prominent placement on the main screen to a row full of popular TV shows. All I want to see are movies. The best change in tvOS this year, though, is that the circular up/down/left/right wheel on the remote now works like it should have all along: you can run your finger around it in circles to scroll and scrub, just like using the scroll wheel on an iPod of yore. No idea why it didn’t work like this all along, but I’m sure glad it does now.”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “The Apple TV app has gone all in on the philosophy Steve Jobs always rejected: instead of putting your content front and center, it shunts you to the side to make you wade through what Apple wants you to see. Preview the next episodes in your Up Next list? Nope, that space belongs to Apple TV+ programs now, and you can’t reclaim it even if you subscribe. Below my “Up Next” queue are SIX rows of, essentially, ads for content Apple wants me to watch or buy. Only at the bottom of the third screen do I get the “For You” feed, with more ad rows interspersed from there to the end.

“A new season of a show I watch started two weeks ago, and it didn’t show up in the TV app for ten days, despite the apps with the actual show being updated on premiere night. At odd times the TV app still refuses to open Paramount+ shows in the app because I don’t subscribe to the Paramount+ Apple TV channel. I do subscribe to the BritBox Apple TV channel, which often “forgets” to add new shows for weeks or months after they’re available in the BritBox app. The whole thing acts like the only purpose of the app is driving Apple TV+ and subscription revenue, like it couldn’t care less about what I actually want to watch. I use it much less these days.”

Christina Warren wrote: “No new hardware and a buggy software update that made some very bad changes, especially for people who have large collections of content purchased through Apple. I could rant about this here, but maybe I should submit this as an op-ed for Six Colors instead. (Editor: Yes please, Christina!)”

Steven Aquino wrote: “I’m still waiting for tvOS to have an ‘iOS 7 moment’ where it’s completely rethought. I’d like the TV app to become part of the main interface a la Google TV. I think a grid of icons on such a giant screen is wasted potential in many ways, although I appreciate the family resemblance. In the meantime, it was nice to see tvOS get Control Center and FaceTime, however imperfect for a first pass.”

Chance Miller wrote: “tvOS 17 made a surprising number of improvements to the Apple TV, including VPN support and FaceTime support. It also adds an extra column of app icons, so you can see six icons in a row instead of five. That sounds like a small change, but being able to put six icons in the top row of apps is very useful. I still think the Apple TV is the best streaming box money can buy, even though it didn’t get any changes in 2023. It does everything I want it to do, and it does almost all of it perfectly. I just wish it was a little bit cheaper.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “Some of the advancements for tvOS were great (like FaceTime continuity camera), but the hardware still feels uninspiring.”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “It’s nice, but it’s kind of boring now, isn’t it?”

Leo Laporte wrote: “Match a lack of hardware updates with a regressive tvOS 17.2 update and you have a platform that’s been sadly abused by Apple. And it’s STILL the best streamer out there. But it could be so much better.”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “I would only recommend an Apple TV to the most privacy-obsessed individual. I don’t really like the UI, and the Roku is so much cheaper for a device that is, for most people, equally or more useful.

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “I am not really sure what else Apple can do in this segment that is hardware, and I feel as Vision Pro grows that is where the TV play will go.”

Casey Liss wrote: “I know I’m one of the few, but I freaking love my Apple TV. It’s the only thing we use to watch anything on our television — the only other thing hooked up to it is our Nintendo Switch. Even our cable TV is consumed through the Apple TV thanks to the wonderful Channels app. Not a lot happened in Apple TV land in 2023, but this is a space where I don’t feel like I need a ton of innovation. tvOS mostly stays out of my way, but also had some neat innovations this year. Control Center got better; FaceTime on Apple TV is actually quite nice. Being able to locate my TV remote via the Remote app is also excellent.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “There is no other product out there where I can watch TV without being tracked. The UX is pretty solid, the overall quality is excellent, and the only issues are those streamers that don’t want to play nice with Apple. (Get over it, Netflix.) I’ve tried other streaming devices and nothing comes close, especially as competitors keep adding more ads.”

Brett Terpstra wrote: “Nothing really new or exciting here. It continues to be my Smart TV platform of choice, but nothing really interesting to me in the software development of the platform. I can’t remember the last time I downloaded a new app for it…”

John Moltz wrote: “Apple shipped no new TV hardware and removed several legacy software features. Do you want people to buy the Apple TV or not?”

Adam Engst wrote: “Yawn. The only thing that’s at all interesting is the addition of Continuity Camera to the Apple TV for FaceTime and Zoom—it got me to upgrade my fourth-generation Apple TV to a current Apple TV 4K, which was completely unnecessary otherwise.”

Jeff Carlson wrote: “After years of people (commenters, pundits, et. al) asking for something new from the Apple TV, we got… a few interface refreshments that are more confusing? Apple needs to stop trying to be clever and make it more clear how to access controls instead of relying on gestures to reveal invisible items. And why is it when I want to turn on or off subtitles, each time is a game of “which playback interface will I get this time?”

Josh Centers wrote: “The Apple TV is in the best place it’s ever been. We’re seeing regular hardware updates, the price point is justifiable, and tvOS is darn solid.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “tvOS 17 brought more features to the television than nearly any other annual update; it’s a shame that only Myke Hurley cares.”

Marco Arment wrote: “The Apple TV continues to be fine.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “OMG TV OS is a nightmare. How did this get past QA and management? I wish I could downgrade. UI is totally messed up. Old things don’t work and there are so many bugs it needs insecticide. It almost as if the entire OS team was preoccupied with something and this was turned over to summer interns.”

Peter Cohen wrote: “On one hand, Apple’s done an excellent job getting Apple TV software onto, well, everything—it’s built into our smart TV and even in our cable set top box. On the other hand, the Apple TV hardware itself isn’t worth bothering with, at least until Apple gives it a big refresh and adds a lot of new capability. Also, I think Apple TV hardware as a target is dragging down the viability of Apple Arcade offerings. Apple should have a box that – while not competing toe-to-toe with Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo – provides a superlative home gaming experience using the significant ecosystem Apple already developed. Right now it’s just a miserable, second-rate experience.”

Gabe Weatherhead wrote: “I appreciate Apple’s effort to streamline tvOS but I feel like putting everything in the AppleTV app is a mistake. The Home Screen is slimmed down a bit but the AppleTV app is messy and confusing.”

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “I upgraded to a 3rd gen Apple TV 4K this year just to take advantage of FaceTime for tvOS. It’s a selling point for an Apple TV by itself. The theme of awkwardness continues for me, as Apple needs to provide more controls for video positioning. However, I’m generally a big fan of finally turning a big TV into a big video call device.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “tvOS 17 was a really strong update. You wouldn’t believe how much joy having one extra app icon per row on the home screen can bring. Features like FaceTime via Continuity Camera are begging for (future) dedicated hardware accessories, but being able to use your iPhone in a pinch is nice for now.”

John Siracusa wrote: “I’m part of the generation that thinks video should start playing when I hit the play button. This doesn’t always happen when I’m using streaming apps on Apple TV. I often find apps frozen or unresponsive. Is this Apple’s fault? Maybe not, but it is Apple’s problem—and mine. Also, I still think the Apple TV remote could use some further improvements.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “The hardware and remote haven’t improved. The software is poorly designed and increasingly unreliable.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “I’m a fan of the updates in tvOS 17, and I love my Apple TV because, at the end of the day, it’s the streaming box with the best UI compared to other devices I tested last year. My only criticism is that it’s too expensive compared to the competition; I’d like to see Apple diversify this lineup with more affordable entry options for people who just want to have a nice, reliable streaming box hooked up to their TVs.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “Apple gets points for still having what I think is the best smart TV interface out there, but I also feel like every update to tvOS is making the experience slightly worse. The TV app used to be a place that felt customized for me with my watch queue front and center, but now if feels like a place for Apple to advertise movies on their store, Apple TV+ shows they really want me to care about, and oh yeah, did you know that Messi joined Miami?! My watch queue is still there, but more and more it feels like opening Netflix; my queue is there, but most of the screen is taken up by what they want me to care about over what I actually care about.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “No hardware update for Apple TV in 2023, but that seems to be fine unless you’re waiting for a radical change to design and/or functionality like some sort of combined Apple TV and HomePod device. tvOS got a nice refresh to clean things up and improve functionality.”

Services

Grade: C+ (average score: 3.3, median score 3, last year: 3.8)

Casey Liss wrote: “Apple services in 2023 were a bit of a dichotomy. On the one side, Apple TV+ seems to be firing on all cylinders. It’s quickly becoming the place for good TV; the way HBO used to be. Fitness+ is great, and though they’re innovating slower than I’d like, new features like Stacks and Plans are welcome. Apple Music the service is still pretty great, even if the client apps are so/so. News+ is… fine… but I do like the daily crosswords. So far so good.

“Things fall down for me in a couple of places: value-for-money, and stability. In the value-for-money department, Apple One used to be $30/month. This was expensive, but felt like the value was good but not great. It is now nearly $40/month, and it’s unclear what those price hikes have bought us. We certainly aren’t getting any more iCloud storage, which is still criminally low. Regarding stability, iCloud is still pretty good, but not quite rock-solid. That remains frustrating, both as a user and a developer. Additionally, both as a vendor and as a customer, I’ve seen Apple Pay — which used to be darn near flawless — have a lot of authorization issues late in the year. This is incredibly frustrating.”

Chance Miller wrote: “Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple TV+ all got more expensive in 2023, as did the corresponding Apple One bundles. This was the first year I’ve actually questioned my Apple One Premier subscription, which now costs $37.95 per month! The math still seems to work out in favor of Apple One Premier for me, but the buffer is a lot closer than before. For instance, Apple TV+ is pretty hard to recommend at $9.99 per month. If it wasn’t included in my Apple One bundle, I don’t think I’d be a year-round subscriber. Apple News+ now includes The Athletic, which more than offsets the price increase for me. I’ve been a paying subscriber to The Athletic for years, so this is a big win in my book. Also, bonus points for Apple News+ adding crossword puzzles. I love crossword puzzles, and Apple’s are very good.”

Christina Warren wrote: “I’m not super happy with the price increases, if I’m honest. Inflation as a reason is BS when these services are almost pure profit. If you’re going to raise my rates 15% for Apple One Premier, at least give me some extra iCloud storage or remove the 100,000 song limit on Apple Music. The quality of the services is fine. I still won’t use iCloud as a default file storage service for serious work, but it mostly works these days. Aside from the song limit BS, Apple Music is very serviceable and has good audio quality. (Spotify is better for sharing with friends, for recommendations, and on the Mac. Apple Music remains unusable on the Mac.) Apple TV+ is not HBO, but it has quietly made a name for itself for high quality programming. The notable thing to me, is that individually, not a single Apple service (except maybe AppleCare) is best-in-class. However, the sum of all the parts and the integration with the devices and OSes makes them work.”

John Gruber wrote: “Lots of great shows and movies on TV+. Slow Horses, Silo, Hijack, For All Mankind, and Flowers of the Killer Moon were all standouts. iCloud remains secure, fast, and reliable. So much seamless continuity (including via Continuity-branded features) across devices. But I’ll repeat this gripe from previous years: it’s miserly that Apple is still offering only a mere 5 GB of storage at the free tier, and have left the paid-tier storage allotments unchanged since like forever. I wonder how many zillions of iPhone users out there don’t have device backups because they only have a free iCloud account with 5 GB? The Apple One bundle is a good deal, but the free iCloud tier should be genuinely useful for backing up a modern iPhone.”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “High marks for everything but AppleCare. Avenues to get high-level support on tough issues have been closed off and we’re at the mercy of the wizard behind the door in Engineering. My crankiness is the result of a now nine-month case open with Apple for a $5000 MacBook Pro that they acknowledge has something wrong with it.”

Steven Hackett wrote: “Apple’s services offerings feel like they’ve been in stasis for a while. A lot of them are good, some are okay, and the ad-infested Apple News+ continues to be bafflingly bad. What is less baffling is Apple’s upselling of these services. I understand this is a growth area for the company, but it’s hard not to think that iOS feels like a yard sale sometimes, with red badges and full-screen interstitials tied to services junking up the place.”

Brett Terpstra wrote: “I’ve really enjoyed Apple TV+ this year. Great stuff.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “I rely heavily on Apple services in my life, from file storage to photo sync to music streaming. Meanwhile Apple TV+ seems to have really hit its stride with consistently releasing good shows and Apple Pay continues to be an essential tool for merchants and customers alike. Outside of the iCloud.com web app, I think Apple’s services are basically all things I can easily recommend.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “TV+ is a great product, and Fitness+ is underrated. The rest is taken for granted; like so much of Apple, it’s just stuff that we expect to work reliably in the background, like the rotation of the Earth, even though it’s far more complex (duh) than that.”

Brent Simmons wrote: “Dealing with Apple advertising in the OS is getting really annoying.”

Ben Long wrote: “I don’t use a lot of Apple services, just ApplePay, Apple Card and iCloud. They’re all fine and do what I expect, but I get VERY tired of Apple pushing all the other services at me through every corner of my various devices. It feels very Microsoft.”

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “I use a lot of Apple services, but nothing particularly bugged me up or down. This year I went through a 5-month iCloud syncing problem for gigabytes of data that resolved after hours of calls to Apple with no explanation. That bothered me, but it’s peculiar to me, for sure. It’s also still incredible that the starting free tier for iCloud is 5 GB. As I have written in previous years, Apple should give some percentage of any Apple mobile device you purchase as free storage. They should probably simply make the 50 GB iCloud free to anyone who buys any Apple mobile device ever, drop the 50 GB and 200 GB iCloud+ tiers, and move to 500 GB, 2 TB, 6 GB, and 12 TB as the only paid tiers.”

Dan Moren wrote: “Apple TV+ has some of the best programming around: Silo, Foundation, For All Mankind, Lessons in Chemistry, Slow Horses, Shrinking… and those are just from this year! I’m enjoying feeling like the company is into the prestige sci-fi TV business. That said, the rate hikes have put a ding in the value proposition for me, and I still don’t feel like Apple News+ or Apple Arcade offers me anything—I just get them because it’s cheaper with the bundle than if I don’t. Apple Card and Apple Pay are still standouts, though I worry about the former’s long term prospects for survival.”

Josh Centers wrote: “They jacked up prices without adding much new, so I don’t have much good to say here.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “Price increases across several of the services were unsurprisingly not well-received. Apple TV+ continues to offer a solid selection of content but with a limited library that makes it tough to compete with the streaming heavyweights. But with everybody raising prices, Apple still remains one of the cheaper options.”

John Moltz wrote: “Prices went up in the same year we had an actors and writers strike, pushing out timelines for shows. That’s a bad look. Viewers shouldn’t be the ones paying for your tough guy tactics with unions.”

Dr. Drang wrote: “Apple Music can’t do things I want and insists on doing things I don’t want. A sorry descendant of iTunes.”

Michael E. Cohen wrote: “I use a lot of these services: I pay for Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud; I regularly use Apple Card, and Apple Pay regularly; I use Apple News without the plus. I feel I get good value from those services for which I pay. I find Apple News most disappointing, but that is as much caused by bad writing by the content providers as it is the service itself.”

Nick Heer wrote: “A classical-specific experience for Apple Music has been a long time coming, but the result feels half-baked. The rest of Apple’s services feel fine; not great, but fine. Points for a rapid rollout of Advanced Data Protection worldwide.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “Apple services, for me, is a mixed bag. Fitness, Apple Pay, and Apple Care continue to perform well. Music has great features but often quirky workflows. Apple News+ is, in my opinion, not user-centric. Not being able to truly block sources from the interface is a good example. You know there are business reasons for this… and that user satisfaction is not one of them.”

David Sparks wrote: “I continue to enjoy Apple TV+ content more than I expected to. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but find much of Apple’s content compelling. Overall, Apple has done a good job of providing compelling services and I’m okay with what I’m paying for them. At the low end, however, Apple should, at this point, be able to give folks more than 5GB of free data. It’s baffling.”

Lex Friedman wrote: “Increase iCloud’s base storage sizes, you cowards.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “They’re overpriced but Apple wins again due to their robust ecosystem (and lock-in). It’s such a mixed bag. News+ is useless. Apple Pay is a star. iCloud is just annoying. Yet I continue to buy them all. Strategically, Apple One is a winner, even if individual services are sometimes lacking.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “The TV+ content slate continues to be top-tier. Slow Horses and For All Mankind were among my top shows of the year again. Shrinking was a real gem, and I cannot wait for more from that show. Outside of that I am finding it harder and harder to judge the quality of Apple’s services. Maybe it’s a good thing if I do not have too much bad to point to, but I am continually wary of how much they want me to pay them on a monthly basis.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “Apple rocks services. Sure the technorati call it a Walled Garden, but mainstream users love it. They want it to just work and it does with great content. But what’s up with iCloud and 5gb free? Don’t nickel and dime users.”

Jeff Carlson wrote: “Things still nag: Apple News insisting on showing a placeholder for channels I’ve set to ignore, telling me it’s been ignored; the mess that is the Music app on macOS.”

Marco Arment wrote: “Apple TV+ is really growing nicely. Show quality continues to be high, and even after its first price increase, it feels very worthwhile.”

Steven Aquino wrote: “A realization I had recently is Apple TV+ is by far my favorite streaming service. The quantity to quality ratio is exceptionally high, in my opinion.”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “Apple has put out great content for Apple TV+, but honestly not that much of it. Music is fine, and Classical Music is nice for enthusiasts, of which I am not one. News+ is really nice when I remember to look at it, which is almost never (i.e., basically only when I want to read something from WSJ and I remember that I can do that in News+). I doubt I’d recommend the highest level Apple One subscription to a normal person. The Apple Card is very cool, and the savings account feature is neat.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “It’s hard to view price increases across the board without any improvements to the services themselves as a positive.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “Top ratings for Apple TV+. Under the hood, all my services in Apple One have worked nearly flawlessly. Apple finally added more storage options to iCloud which is critical for those of us hitting multi-terrabyte photo libraries.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “I continue to have reliability problems with iMessage, and this year it lost several months of conversations. There was also a widespread bug where editing related names in Contacts would delete them from all devices. Siri is still slow and unreliable. The services apps are just not good.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “Still only 5 GB base storage for iCloud. This should be an international scandal. The EU should mandate that cloud storage be increased for devices.”

Peter Cohen wrote: “The rising price of Apple services hasn’t translated into a lot more use for my family. Instead, we just seem to be treading water and paying more for what we’re already using. As a kaiju fan I’m very, very fond of ‘Monarch’ and hope they continue to do more.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “On the one hand, Apple’s services have worked reliably for me last year: Apple Music continues to lead in terms of design and lyrics, and has improved its recommendation features with a new personalized discovery station; Apple Originals were some of my most watched shows in 2023. On the other hand…nothing much has changed in 2023? I still would like to see more features to make iCloud Drive a viable alternative to Dropbox, an iCloud-based version of Time Machine for all Apple devices, and a higher tier of Apple Arcade to give me access to AAA games that Apple seems so interested in bringing to their platforms lately. If Apple wants me to give them money every month, they should try new things more often.”

Adam Engst wrote: “The significant price increases this year don’t feel like they were accompanied by any changes that make me want to pay more. Instead, they’re driving me to drop Apple One Premier (by eliminating Apple TV+, which doesn’t have enough decent shows to bother paying for regularly).”

John Siracusa wrote: “Prices have increased and service quality has not. Maybe it’s just inflation, but I think we should at least get improved client apps to go along with our price hikes. Instead, many of the Apple’s service apps are degrading. Is anyone actually happy with the Music app on macOS, or the News+ reading experience on any platform?”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “As with Apple TV, Apple News+ acts a lot like it doesn’t care much what you do once you’ve subscribed. It constantly tells me there are ‘New Stories’ at the top when there are not. I can’t even reverse-pinch to zoom while reading on an iPad, and that makes no sense. iCloud seems more reliable while Messages seems less so, refusing to send more than ever. I don’t need Siri to become ChatGPT, but if I ask for a song in my library by both artist and album name, it would be nice if it stopped playing songs that matched neither.”

Gabe Weatherhead wrote: “I use many of the Apple services on a daily basis and they are dependable like never before.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “Apple Arcade continues to disappoint, and while I’m glad they added more iCloud storage options, they are too expensive.”

HomeKit/Home automation

Grade: C- (average score: 2.8, median score 3, last year: 2.7)

Josh Centers wrote: “Apple Home is a hot mess, largely thanks to tacked on Matter support that has introduced chaos into what was once a tight ecosystem. I have no idea what devices will work and which won’t. I’ve lost confidence in the platform.”

Jeff Carlson wrote: “Is it the year of Thread? Year of Matter? Will this stuff ever be as reliable as it should?”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “It’s become ever so much easier to find devices that work with HomeKit (or at least can be mashed in using Homebridge). HomeKit Secure video allows me to trust cameras more than I was able to before. I still find the mix between Scenes and Automations highly confusing but if I document everything I can sometimes recreate my successes.”

Christina Warren wrote: “All of this continues to be a mess and bad.”

Steven Aquino wrote: “As an Apple user, I love using HomeKit for continuity and the like, but there are way too many ‘No Response’ messages for accessories—without much, if any, respite.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “HomeKit is largely in limbo due to the extremely slow (and lazy) Matter rollout. That’s not Apple’s fault. No, Apple’s fault is much greater: letting last year’s putrid Home app redesign go another year without any quality of life improvements or bug fixes.”

James Thomson wrote: “HomeKit remained pretty much unchanged from 2022. Maybe it’s all quiet because something big is in the pipeline, but I think I have made that exact same prediction before more than once. Matter didn’t materialise. Siri is stagnant. Perhaps it is just the comparison to the far more articulate (and frequently inaccurate) LLM products, but Siri no longer feels fit for purpose.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “I got my first HomePod. The hardware is good, but I was shocked that there’s a bug where it can’t actually see many of the albums I’ve purchased from the iTunes Store. The automation features are more clunky and limited than I expected given how long the’ve been around.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “I noticed some minor improvements to Homekit – I integrate with Ikea smart lights and a Hive sensor, and it has been quicker to respond since the big OS updates in September.”

Nick Heer wrote: “All I remember is, when I upgraded to the ‘more reliable’ Home architecture, it broke the two minor automations I have for a single smart thermostat.”

Marco Arment wrote: “HomeKit seems no more or less reliable than other smart-home systems. It doesn’t seem like it’s getting much love, but it continues to mostly work.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “Matter, the long-anticipated ‘savior’ of the smart home, came and…very little changed. Adoption among third-party manufacturers has been slow and scattershot and, if anything, I’ve had more headaches upgrading older devices in my home to Matter than I’ve seen practical benefits from this new technology. At the same time, just like with Apple TV, I believe HomeKit provides a superior interface and performance compared to other smart home platforms (I’ve tried them all), so I continue using it happily.”

John Gruber wrote: “I’ll repeat my line from last year: Big picture, this whole thing still feels like it’s always poised to get good ‘next year.’ 2023 wasn’t that year (again).”

Gabe Weatherhead wrote: “I feel like I say the same thing every year but the Home app and HomeKit devices are just very bad and stuck in the past. Nothing about the Home app or HomeKit is exciting. Siri still regularly asks me to authorize a HomeKit request using my iPhone. I can’t think of a more inconvenient way to automate a home.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “HomeKit feels like it hasn’t advanced very much in recent years, and the introduction of Matter seems to have only introduced more areas where things can go wrong. I rely heavily on HomeKit in my home, but I can’t really point to anything about my experience that improved over the course of 2023.”

Brett Terpstra wrote: “I’ve given up on HomeKit, for the most part. I need devices that integrate better into an overall system, and I haven’t fully bought into the HomeKit ecosystem, which leaves me with a few devices I can use in the Home app, and a bunch of devices I can’t. I find Alexa integration a lot more universal and handier. I have high hopes for Matter, though.”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “I haven’t moved much into Thread, but I rely on HomeKit every day The system needs better error propagation and reporting; I’d love to hear Siri tell me ‘Your lights were last accessible at 4:55 PM” rather than “the lamp is not responding.’ I suspect licenses need to be cheaper to drive further adoption, but I also suspect that’s not happening in a services-driven world where customers are viewed, as one former Apple exec notably put it, as ‘people with our money in their pockets.'”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “I love that Apple is making a regular size HomePod again, but it was a bit disappointing they changed almost nothing compared to the original from 2018. But I’m glad it’s back, at all. Not much new to speak of this year for Home overall.”

Steven Hackett wrote: “The big HomePod is back! Matter is here! Neither of these things make much of a difference to my life! However, one day Matter may matter, making it easier to add all sorts of things to HomeKit. And maybe one day the HomePod will grow a screen, which would be an instant-buy for my kitchen. Until those futures arrive, HomeKit continues power all sorts of stuff around my house, quietly and reliably. I rarely think about my smart home setup, and that’s the best praise I could give it.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “Still flaky, though I still use it regularly.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “Apple should own this category, but the home automation space is so fragmented, and the players so unwilling to cooperate that everyone comes a cropper. Especially the poor homeowner that’s trying to get it to work. I guess HomeKit is the best in a very weak field but that’s faint praise. Matter still doesn’t matter.”

Rosemary Orchard wrote: “The new architecture and matter support finally rolled out, and that will result in a better HomeKit experience for everyone long term.”

Shelly Brisbin wrote: “I added a few HomeKit devices this year, and they’re fine. The Home app remains a confusing mess. And Matter hasn’t lived up to its billing as the Holy Grail for ineroperability.”

Adam Engst wrote: “I’m torn here because I really like using all the HomeKit light switches I’ve installed via Siri and automations, so much so that I disliked having to fuss with switches when staying with family over the holidays. But at the same time, Siri doesn’t recognize commands as reliably as it should, and it’s possibly even getting worse. Matter was supposed to be a big deal but has been completely confusing and underwhelming.”

Chance Miller wrote: “The Home app is still a mess, Matter has been a major disappointment, and Siri is still unreliable for even the most basic smart home tasks. To make matters worse, Apple botched the launch of a new architecture for the Home app and HomeKit. This feature launched with iOS 16.2, but was quickly pulled after people said it broke compatibility with a bunch of their accessories. Apple eventually relaunched the new architecture with iOS 16.4, but has anyone actually noticed any material improvements? On the bright side, Apple released a new full-size HomePod in 2023. Siri problems aside, it works great and sounds great. I still hope Apple has more in the works for smart home hardware, though.”

Dan Moren wrote: “Matter has been a flop out of the gate, and Apple’s ‘new home architecture’ hasn’t changed anything for me. Basic features like being able to disable a smart home appliance still aren’t available, and the company has been super quiet on the HomePod front. The whole segment feels stagnant.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “HomeKit, Matter, and the Home App continue to struggle in a fragmented partner program. Nothing “just works” or even works all the time. I think Apple needs to build the core (Thermostat, Camera, Light, Outlet and Lock) and let everyone else exapnd from there.”

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “Another neglected product.”

Dan Seifert wrote: “The Matter smart home platform rollout has been a disaster, and I think most people should still wait before investing in it. But anecdotally, my experience with HomeKit and the Home app improved quite a bit over the course of 2023, to where it is faster, more reliable, and more consistent than it ever was before. A big part of that is down to the devices you plug into it, and I changed every lightbulb in my house to Philips Hue late in the year because the Nanoleaf bulbs were just too unreliable, but the Home app’s automations and dashboard are much more consistent and reliable than ever before. Apple still needs to improve automations though — it’s bonkers that I need to use a third party app to hack multiple conditions into an automation and there still isn’t an optimal way to set up motion-sensor-based lighting automations without resorting to a lot of convoluted workarounds.”

John Siracusa wrote: “Siri continues to be a boat-anchor weighing down the HomePod and other HomeKit accessories.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “This is the first year where it all just worked. I have a very complex home automation setup bridged into Home and Home + Siri have become something I use constantly, and it all works well and consistently.”

Peter Cohen wrote: “Here I thought Matter would be HomeKit’s salvation and it’s turned home automation into an even bigger mess. I hope the industry can work out the issues with Matter in 2024.”

Casey Liss wrote: “Same as it ever was. HomeKit is unreliable, and doesn’t work with enough devices. It pains me that I have to run Homebridge. That’s not necessarily Apple’s fault, but it’s also not not Apple’s fault. Matter seems to be a total nothingburger. Same story: not their fault, but not not their fault. Though I’ve never owned a HomePod, I’ve heard continual grumbling of them failing. No thanks.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “Stability continues to be a bit uneven for me, with HomeKit accessories that once worked for years no longer working through the Home app but continuing to work through their vendor apps. Restrictions on who has to be logged into an Apple TV/HomePod for it to be used as a hub continue to annoy.”

Hardware reliability

Grade: A+ (average score: 4.6, median score 5, last year: 4.5)

John Gruber wrote: “No news is great news in this category.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “The unreliable touch ID sensor on my keyboard, and a weird new bluetooth issue on my M1 Mac Studio give me pause.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “You pay a price for Apple kit, but at least it works reliably and Apple does the best job in the business standing behind their products.”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “Apple’s hardware quality remains very good. Even my 2017 MacBook Pro (the one with The Bad Keyboard) steadfastly refused to break — I upgraded to a 15-inch MacBook Air because the performance was no longer adequate, but the hardware itself was infuriatingly intact. Even the battery wasn’t that bad! iPhones and iPads are also pretty much rock-solid these days.

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “First year I’ve had with 100% no problems across all devices. Most of my family the same. (Late in 2023, my older’s 6-month old MBA required a trackpad replacement, which took THREE TRIPS to the Apple Store—maddening.)”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “Did I mention my 9-month AppleCare case on my MacBook Pro? I know stuff goes wrong and normally a hardware problem doesn’t phase me. It’s when a company doesn’t support the device when it fails that makes a low reliabiltiy score the result.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “Anecdata, of course, but I haven’t had a hardware issue with any Apple products in years.”

Marco Arment wrote: “The core products — iPhones, iPads, Macs, Watches, AirPods — are all remarkably reliable these days. Just don’t expect HomePods to work for very long.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “Great quality never grows old and in the instance of a lemon, swift replacement. AppleCare+ is a good deal for iPhone users where just one slip and drip outweighs the cost. It’s the only device contract I make sure all family members have.”

Chance Miller wrote: “All of my Apple hardware is rock solid, and seems to be getting better almost every year. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is also the most durable iPhone I’ve ever owned, and my first-generation Apple Watch Ultra still looks as good as it did on day one. It’s been a few months since I got my 14-inch MacBook Pro in space black, and it’s cleaner than my midnight MacBook Air ever was.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “I’m struggling to think of any real reliability disaster from 2023. The thermal problems with iPhone 15 at launch do come to mind, but feel like a non-issue these days.”

Brent Simmons wrote: “Hardware’s pretty great!”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “As always, Apple is best in class when it comes to hardware reliability.”

Christina Warren wrote: “I had no service incidents this year that were not my own fault. Everything seems to be firing on all cylinders, hardware wise.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “An overall very strong year in this department.”

Rob Griffiths wrote: “I got a brand new Mac Studio early in the year, and had to take it back because it was generating tons of random visual artifacts on the screen. First Mac I’ve ever had to return.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “My anecdata is that I bought an iPhone 15 Pro, and the USB-C connector didn’t charge reliably, so it had to have the internals replaced. Since then, fine. I haven’t heard any other tales of woe, so assume things are generally going as they should.”

Josh Centers wrote: “Apple devices last for so long that I’m less and less inclined to update regularly. That sort of reliability and longevity is unheard of in tech.”

Eric Slivka wrote: “I get the desire to move away from leather, but Apple’s FineWoven material is simply terrible. I baby my devices, and while my leather iPhone cases would darken around the edges and eventually get a few nicks as I got toward the end of my yearly ownership cycle, the edges of my FineWoven case started peeling off within two months.”

Nick Heer wrote: “My MacBook Pro survived a glass of water all over its keyboard.”

Dan Moren wrote: “I rarely if ever have a problem with an Apple product that can be traced to the hardware.”

Casey Liss wrote: “I’ve had virtually no hardware issues, and can’t think of any ‘gates’ from this year. Apple is killing it in this department.”

John Moltz wrote: “Apple hardware had a tough time of it in the late 2010s and continues to improve in the 2020s.”

Ben Long wrote: “What can I say, the things that work just stay working and the things that are broken (like the flaky USB performance on my Trash Can Mac Pro) stay broken. Can’t complain about any of it. And it’s all still so pretty.”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “In the past six years I’ve needed some iPhone and iPad replacements, but nothing in the past few. The keyboard folio needs better quality.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “All my hardware has been working well this year.”

Dr. Drang wrote: “Everyone in my family has Apple products, and they never fail.”

Software quality

Grade: B (average score: 3.6, median score 4, last year: 3.4)

David Sparks wrote: “macOS, in particular, feels like it is on an upswing. The last few updates have been solid. I also like the way Apple is now able to release so many new features to all platforms at once. It didn’t used to be that way.”

Dr. Drang wrote: “I update my iPhone to the newest iOS release within a day or two of it coming out. I don’t update my Macs for months. I typically don’t see the new features as worth the risk of the bugs and dumbed-down interfaces that seem to accompany every new macOS release. Still angry about what they did to System Settings.”

Marco Arment wrote: “I’m so happy, and relieved, to be at a point where I can honestly say that Apple’s software quality is currently great overall.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “Mostly good. Exceptions are tvOS and iPad multitasking, which seems to be deigned to not not look like ‘classical’ multitasking everyone knows how to use.”

Steven Hackett wrote: “Living in Apple’s ecosystem continues to come with weird bugs. Personally, I’ve seen Messages crashes on my Mac, Fitness competitions fail to update and iOS widgets refuse to update, all in the last 24 hours. None of these are show-stopping issues, but they are annoying. Even more annoying is the lack of tools to troubleshoot these issues. Too often the only answer is to reboot a device to log out of iCloud. The former isn’t a big deal, but the latter is a real pain… especially if you have to use System Settings on the Mac to do so.”

Michael Tsai wrote: “Everything on macOS, and to a lesser extent iOS, still feels buggy: the same old bugs that never get fixed, plus some new ones. Bug reports are ignored. macOS Sonoma replaced Mail plug-ins with Mail extensions, but even after three major releases the API still doesn’t work properly. Sometimes Gatekeeper erroneously reports that apps downloaded from outside the Mac App Store are damaged and refuses to open them, with no way to override this except using Terminal—the worst possible first launch experience. Xcode 15 shipped with known bugs that prevented building apps for older versions of macOS, and it took three months for these to be fixed. It has now been almost ten years since Swift was released, and the compiler is still buggy and slow. SwiftData shipped this year in an immature state.”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “Do MacOS and iOS annoy me sometimes? Yes. Do I ever, even for a moment, consider switching to Windows and/or Android? Absolutely not. My current employer supports Macs in a very half-hearted fashion, but I still have a better experience, overall, than the average Windows user.

Brian Mattucci wrote: “I submitted a lot of software suggestions in 2023, and I think the general theme of most of those is that Apple doesn’t seem to use their own apps. For example, parental controls under Screen Time is missing a lot of obvious features to make it more useful for parents, and there’s also an obvious loophole kids can use to get past downtime limits for a very long time. And that’s when the limits don’t mysteriously disappear due to a bug.

“Or consider how a screen time request for more time appears on Apple Watch, yet the options provided are all non-functional. You can pick something like ‘Approve for 15 minutes’ and it does nothing, you have to take out your phone and do it there. Another example is the Books app overhaul: They made it much worse, and a bug made it so that the books I was reading didn’t show up anywhere in a list. About a week later, the “Continue” list started to appear with the books I had touched since the app update. By then I had made a new collection of books that I was actively reading so I wouldn’t have to depend on Apple to track that for me. Beyond that, the entire ‘Read Now’ tab is almost entirely ads, which mirrors the awful overhaul of the TV app some years back. This is not a good experience. Taking all of my 2023 feedback into account, and seeing how much from prior years remains unfixed, I just don’t think they’re doing a great job.”

Steven Aquino wrote: “I’m running the latest version of macOS Sonoma on my almost 5-year-old iMac. I’ve probably written hundreds of thousands of words on this thing over the years, and the OS has always been rock-solid for me. It’s a badge of honor to get such longevity from a product, and it starts with the software. Apple deserves the utmost credit for supporting an ostensibly outmoded piece of kit so well.”

Brent Simmons wrote: “Many highlights, but so many bugs.”

Nick Heer wrote: “I am not sure what I ought to expect, but it is surely possible to achieve a higher standard than this.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “Like hardware, Apple had a very strong year for software reliability. Everything worked well. Some features missed their original launch dates but still came out before the end of the calendar year, in good form.”

Brett Terpstra wrote: “Sonoma was decent, and it only broke a few things. That’s about the most I can say for it. Not blown away by any new features, and actually annoyed by a few things like the ways Notifications have changed, the new Systems Settings setup, and the #@!$ Video Reactions that started showing up in the middle of remote therapy sessions.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “I think Apple is at the top of the software heap but the attempt to sync all experiences feels like it is slowly losing some of the simplicity that the company was known for.”

John Gruber wrote: “I’ll keep it short: I have concerns and complaints about aspects of the direction Apple’s software design is headed (or in some ways, has been now for years), but their software reliability has been very good for me.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “iOS / iPadOS and macOS Sonoma were both stable upgrades, though there remain plenty of bugs that I’d like to see fixed. Apple could take a year off and work on bug fixing, rather than add new features.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “Apple continues to struggle in both usability and reliability. There are so many examples of poor Apple UI, from the ridiculous System Settings in Sonoma to the eternally confusing Apple Music. At least Apple stays on top of bug fixes and security updates. They do a better job fixing their problems than anyone else in the business. Which ain’t saying much.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “It’s fine. It’s just no longer exceptional.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “A few years ago the general vibe was that Apple’s software quality had fallen off a cliff, and it seems like they’ve recovered from that. Most Apple apps are very solid these days, and while there are some bugs across all platforms, I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

Lex Friedman wrote: “Nothing ever crashes. It’s great.”

Christina Warren wrote: “I appreciate that Apple is trying to slow-roll new features. (Sprints! They are clearly shipping in sprints now rather than all at once.) But as I say every year, I wouldn’t mind another Snow Leopard year. The thing is, I don’t think that new software stuff really sells new products the way Apple thinks it does. The hardware, especially on Mac, has been the story for the last few years, and on iOS, you get a new phone when your old one feels laggy or there is a really good trade-in offer (people up upgrade yearly like me are outliers, as we should be). So why not take a year to really focus on consistency and bug fixing and stability? I think macOS needs this most but I wouldn’t be mad to see this across the line.”

Chance Miller wrote: “The software on all of my devices seems more reliable than ever. Apple is also getting better and better at addressing bugs quickly, especially on the iPhone. They aren’t afraid to release multiple smaller point-updates to fix problems, instead of waiting to bundle everything into one bigger update.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “We are long past the days where my Mac would run for weeks without crashing, but for the most part everything is reliable.”

Casey Liss wrote: “New shiny continues to trump reliability. It’s not awful, but it’s not great. Same as it ever was.”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “While I do manage to run into odd glitches from time to time, I think macOS Sonoma and iOS 17 (and even tvOS) have been the most reliable upgrades in a long time. I also find the enhancements to be plentiful and beneficial.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “Sonoma is Apple’s most stable version of macOS in years—but that’s less praiseworthy than it may seem.”

Ben Long wrote: “Nothing new for 2023 here, just the continuation of a years’-long trend. I think Apple has broken a lot of UI things and needs to fix them and I feel like their software continues to be less reliable than it used to be. In general software QA continues to feel lacking. And don’t get me started on the disaster that is the Music app. Oh what I would give to be able to use iTunes 3! Or SoundJam! All that said, when I look at my non-computer-nerd friends, I see them asking me fewer and fewer questions. Managing an iPhone or iPad seems very bulletproof for the typical user, and I think that’s very impressive.”

James Thomson wrote: “Minus one point for the state of the screensaver framework in Sonoma alone.”

Rob Griffiths wrote: “The number of old, unfixed bugs is staggering, and their lack of attention to UI details in the OS is troubling.”

Dan Moren wrote: “Better than expected, but still needs a lot of work tightening up loose functionality and squashing bugs.”

John Siracusa wrote: “Several performance and correctness regressions in the macOS window manager have compounded the longstanding bugs in basic macOS features. It’s death by a thousand cuts, with an occasional (temporary) severing of an entire limb. iOS and iPadOS are doing better, but they have the same kinds of problems as macOS. My family’s Screen Time information still doesn’t match up across multiple devices. I don’t even bother looking anymore because the numbers never agree. Screen Time is not a new feature, and it still doesn’t quite work.”

Developer relations

Grade: C (average score: 3.0, median score 3, last year: 2.8)

Matt Birchler wrote: “Thanks to things like generative A.I. sucking the oxygen out of the tech space in 2023, it seems like developer relations were a non-story basically all year. I think App Store restrictions are still something that Apple will have to reckon with (and regulators will force the issue if Apple doesn’t change some policies), and I also think that Apple releasing a brand new platform that should have endless possibilities, but will be locked down by Apple’s restrictions, will bring up these conversations again in 2024.”

James Thomson wrote: “WWDC steadily improves, and is becoming more of an actual event again. The developer labs for the Vision Pro were excellent, and it feels like that half of developer relations are firing on all cylinders. But Apple continues to pick fights with the world in the name of extracting maximum revenue from developers, and it seems like all their chickens are going to come home to roost soon.”

Christina Warren wrote: “Apple is committing more code to GitHub, even if they don’t make it obvious, which is awesome. The Mac Game Porting Toolkit was the best surprise from WWDC. The Epic lawsuit might be over but the EU stuff is just getting started, it’ll be interesting to see how side loading will be implemented in Europe.”

Matt Deatherage wrote: “I worry Xcode Cloud is the start of treating developers even more as a revenue source than as ‘the symbiotic partners we need for our products to have any value.'”

John Moltz wrote: “The company has fought tooth and nail against any changes to the App Store rules. This not only hurts developers, it hurts customers as well.”

Brent Simmons wrote: “Apple has made it clear that it thinks little of developers.”

Josh Centers wrote: “What developer haven’t they pissed off? Big developers don’t even want to support VisionOS. Independent Mac developers are worried Apple will demand 27% of sales. Onboarding a user onto a Mac app is a nightmare due to all the security prompts. Apple’s developer relations have never been worse and it would take years to repair the damage, assuming Apple even cares.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “I’m not a developer so I shouldn’t comment, but I still hear howls of pain from App Store devs. Apple must fix their approval process: it’s bizarrely capricious.”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “Developers have been asking for new App Store features for years, but Apple only implements them under the force of a court order. That’s not a good look.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “Apple has really screwed the pooch here. Its increasing desire to cling on to every possible penny from the App Store is making it take incredibly developer-hostile positions. One has to wonder: is Apple concerned that Google will lose its DOJ antitrust case and be banned from paying to be the search default, which will tank Apple’s revenues and profits? Might that be why it’s trying to hold on to every penny? Whichever, it’s now reaping what it sowed: at the time that it wants to launch a new platform (visionOS) it is being thoroughly snubbed by the most important big developers such as Netflix, YouTube and Spotify. This isn’t a good position for Apple. Small developers can’t fill the gap the big ones leave. And they may not want to. Apple needs Susan Prescott (who apparently took over as VP of dev relations some time in 2023) to first persuade the board that it needs to play nice, and then to persuade developers that it will.”

Ben Long wrote: “I get very frustrated with AppStore Connect and some of the other online developer resources. There are a lot of areas that are poorly designed and, overall, those resources are very flaky. A lot of ‘that didn’t work, try again later’ type messages.”

Chance Miller wrote: “WWDC 2023 had a clear focus on getting developers as excited about Vision Pro and visionOS as possible. The developer labs for Vision Pro seem to have been quite popular and useful for those who attended them. Apple never lifted the so-called “pause” on casino and gambling ads in the App Store. I suppose that’s a point in their favor. For the App Store, big changes are coming in 2024 whether Apple likes it or not.”

John Gruber wrote: “Third year in a row with the same comment: Resentment over App Store policies continues to build. Frustrations with the App Store review process seem unimproved. Apple’s goal should be for developer relations to be so good that developers want to create software exclusively for Apple’s platforms. The opposite is happening.”

Federico Viticci wrote: “Based on what I heard from developers over the past few months, Apple really dropped the ball in terms of providing indie app makers with dev units of the Vision Pro. The very people who are going to carry this new platform for the time being given the absence of bigger names were the ones who couldn’t test their apps on actual hardware. That seems wrong and shortsighted.”

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “Developer relations remain positive, especially for indies, but increasingly many bigger companies are getting rubbed up the wrong way by App Store policies. And yet Apple changes almost nothing until a government forces them to.”

John Siracusa wrote: “Apple has launched a major new platform in 2024 with the Vision Pro, and a lot of the developer conversation around it in 2023 was focused on the kinds of apps that won’t be possible due to Apple’s restrictions. Developers now assume the worst when it comes to dealing with Apple, which is dispiriting for everyone involved.”

Marco Arment wrote: “Developer relations are slowly improving. The tools and documentation are noticeably progressing, and drama around App Store rules and greed was fairly low this year.

Michael Tsai wrote: “The same old issues with the App Store, documentation, and communication. Nothing seems to be getting better. Apple does not act as though it really cares about developers or their success, and developers see Apple as more an impediment than a help in building, maintaining, and distributing their products.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “I think Apple does very well for most developers. Large developers want to keep more of the income and small developers want to release products at the last minute. For the 70% in the middle, a methodical process that doesn’t try to push the envelope of acceptability is a very stable environment.”

Casey Liss wrote: “Apple’s hubris serves them well (truly!) in so many areas, but this is not one of them. Apple has released a new platform, their first in a decade, and they can’t help but continue to thumb their noses at developers on the regular. Some of this is on the verge of being rectified by regulation and/or legislation. Apple must see these compulsory changes coming down the pike, and yet here we are.

“Given that we’ve had a fifteen year history of Apple behaving this way, even a small amount of concessions probably won’t change your average developer’s opinion. At this point, the same developers who were deeply enthusiastic to develop for Apple’s platforms are now doing so despite Apple. This hubris can be manifested in small but frustrating ways. When the Vision Pro was launched, only a handful of developers got access to developer kits, and none of them were Indies. Even Indies who are deeply enthusiastic about Apple’s platforms weren’t given a developer kit. Why not? I also remain absolutely appalled by the completely tone-deaf website about how to write better Feedbacks/Radars. Feedback is a black hole in which effort and time goes, never to return.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “WWDC has a great vibe this year and I think Apple did a great job in trying to encourage developers to get excited for visionOS.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “It’s anecdotal but devs I talk to say Apple has been great.”

Carolina Milanesi wrote: “it will be interesting to see the response to Vision Pro this year. I am still disappointed we have not seen more for Mac.”

Environmental, social and societal impact

Grade: B (average score: 3.8, median score 4, last year: 3.4)

Benjamin Mayo wrote: “Shipping a carbon neutral watch is a big deal, even if 20% of that is achieved via purchasing carbon credits.”

Myke Hurley wrote: “I was really impressed by the Carbon Neutral advancements this year, and want to give them top marks for this. But overall I feel like it has become too complicated to be able to judge a company of this size as being a net ‘good’ for the world.”

Rosemary Orchard wrote: “They’re working really hard on being environmentally sustainable, which all large companies should do.”

Quinn Nelson wrote: “Apple 2030 is a noble goal, but I hope Mother Nature doesn’t find out Apple’s stance on right-to-repair.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “With the exception of education. Apple is still pushing iPads that are costly, can’t be shared and need an expensive keyboard to really make them useful.”

Casey Liss wrote: “Apple’s reliance on China continues to trouble me. However, its renewed concentration on doing what’s right for the environment is impressive and worth celebrating. The fact that some Apple Watches are now 100% carbon-neutral — including charging — is astonishing. Also, I liked the Mother Nature skit at WWDC. So phooey on all of you that didn’t.”

James Thomson wrote: “Mother Nature personally gave Apple the all clear, so that has to be worth a point or two.”

Dan Moren wrote: “I’m sure Apple would like us to laud it for its environmental stances, especially its attempts at carbon neutrality, but their achievements have been sullied by criticism of exactly how they’re achieving that carbon neutrality, and they did perhaps too much patting themselves on the back with the Mother Nature sketch. Throw in the company’s ongoing attempts to stymie organized labor at its retail stores, and Apple is starting to feel a bit like the behemoth it is instead of the scrappy upstart it always wants to be perceived as.”

Stephen Hackett wrote: “Apple’s environmental goals are inspiring, and I didn’t even mind that Mother Nature video. Less mining means fewer troubling work environments around the world, which is another big win for humanity. I would like Apple to put more of its weight behind climate change legislation in the US and around the world. On the social front, Apple’s response to unionization efforts in some of its retail locations hasn’t been stellar. That’s something worth keeping an eye on in the future.”

Marco Arment wrote: “Apple’s aggressive environmental efforts are laudable, impressive, and hopefully effective. They remain far too close to and dependent on China.”

Dr. Drang wrote: “Still good on the environment. Still good on inclusion with regard to its customers. Still poor on labor relations.”

Chance Miller wrote: “Apple released its first carbon neutral products, which shouldn’t be overlooked as Apple works toward its goal of becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030. The Home app in iOS 17 also added a new “Grid Forecast” feature that shows you a prediction of when your energy provider will be generating electricity from carbon-neutral sources like solar and wind. Features like Grid Forecast and iOS 16’s Clean Energy Charging are still in their early days, but I think they could go a long way toward educating Apple users about how they can be mindful of their environmental impact. I wish Apple had paused advertising on Twitter sooner than it actually did. I also didn’t appreciate Tim Cook’s lackluster justification for why Apple was still advertising on the platform in the first place.”

Shelly Brisbin wrote: “I appreciate product changes that will get Apple to its stated carbon neutrality goals. Some of Apple’s virtue signaling was a bit ham-handed. I would always prefer that environmental claims could be independently audited, and that a focus on sustainability would also address the issue of how often Apple is expected to ship upgraded products. That’s also a challenge for Apple customers, when they consider how often a new phone, watch or pair of AirPods is needed.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “I would measure Apple’s accessibility programs top notch and the company’s education initiatives near the bottom. Everything else falls in the middle.”

Brent Simmons wrote: “Apple’s commitments to accessibility and privacy remain stellar.”

Jessica Dennis wrote: “As usual, it feels like Apple could be doing more and better. They say not to let perfect be the enemy of good, but since I am not in charge of anything, I feel I can complain with impunity. Is Apple trying harder than many others in the areas of environmentalism, DEI, accessibility, etc.? Probably. Are they doing the most they reasonably could be? I don’t think so.

Steven Aquino wrote: “As someone with a lifelong stutter that makes communication trying, it was heartening to see Apple put so much energy into speech-oriented accessibility features this year. The Personal Voice functionality (and accompanying THE LOST VOICE short film) is a standout.”

John Gruber wrote: “Another repeat comment, but another good year on this front: Climate/carbon is the societal area where a company like Apple can and should make the most difference, and I’m hard-pressed to think how they could be doing more than they are, practically. 2023 saw the launch of several entirely carbon-neutral Apple Watch configurations. We’re living in sensitive times on other social issues, and Apple seems to be managing that very astutely and honestly.”

Kirk McElhearn wrote: “Better than most, though they do their share of greenwashing (such as claiming that some Apple Watch models are carbon neutral). And I should ding another point for that dumb sketch they did in June about the environment.”

John Moltz wrote: “I grade on the capitalism curve. Apple certainly cares from a public perception standpoint — after all, Mother Nature helped introduce the iPhone 15 — but it does do better than probably any of its competitors in trying to be less hurtful to the environment. It still falls down horribly on labor relations, which is inexcusable for the richest company ever.”

Rich Mogull wrote: “I upped my score this year due to Apple’s strong security and privacy updates to iCloud and devices. I can finally lock my iCloud down and encrypt everything. That’s huge.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “The attempt to make the Watch carbon-neutral is laudable, though there are serious doubts about the way it’s achieved: “carbon offsets”, i.e. planting trees somewhere, is a business riddled with scams.”

Leo Laporte wrote: “Apple continues to have an outsized impact on the tech industry. Rightly so. They are careful in what they do, pay attention to their consumers, and make damn good products. Their commitment to diversity and accessibility is clear. Considering they’re in the business of filling landfills they do a decent job of keeping it green and I believe they’re trying to do better. Tim Cook gets credit for balancing social responsibility with padding profits. He’s walking a tightrope and I don’t think there’s a net, even if there is a three trillion dollar pot of gold on the other side.”

Ben Long wrote: “Overall they seem to back up their diversity/human rights work with real action. They’re so-so on their environmental efforts but better than most. But to my eye they are, without a doubt, a monopoly that needs to be broken up. We used to complain about Microsoft selling an OS and a browser? Hell, we used to complain about Apple selling an OS and a word processing and paint program. Now we’re fine with them selling the software, the hardware, and all the media you consume? That’s bad for consumers, creators, artists, and society at large.”

Allison Sheridan wrote: “I’m very pleased with their green initiatives, and while the textile bands didn’t work out to replace leather, at least they tried.”

Matt Birchler wrote: “No matter how many offsets they’re using to achieve their carbon neutral goals, it’s good to see the biggest consumer company in the world bragging about moving the right direction here and it will inspire (pressure?) other companies to do the same.”

Michael E. Cohen wrote: “Speaking as a rather wilted flower child, I see Apple as being more of a force for good than most huge corporations, but hardly perfect. I’m rather alarmed about Apple’s move to close down a San Diego office and move its employees to Texas, given that Texas is a hostile environment for women these days, especially those of child-bearing years.”

Any other comments?

Dan Seifert wrote: “For 2023, the vast majority of Apple’s products felt like they were in a holding pattern, waiting for the next big turn in their development. The tweaks to the iPhone and Apple Watch were overall pretty minor and the iPad just didn’t show up to school. The Mac is perhaps the only one that continued its forward trajectory this year, though 2023 was far from as impactful as prior recent years have been. Obviously 2024 has already brought more excitement with the launch of the Vision Pro, but I’m hoping we see some real movement in Apple’s other product lines too.”

Casey Liss wrote: “Apple definitely had some ups and some downs this year, but I reflect on the year as a whole as a solid year for Apple. The iPhone and Mac are boing doing extremely well. The Apple Watch isn’t exciting, but it’s carrying on. And Apple Vision Pro! A whole new platform! The only place where things took a turn for the worse was iPad. Just about everything else I think was either status quo or an improvement. My overall rating for this year would be a 4, if such a thing existed.”

Alex Lindsay wrote: “Overall, I think Apple head and shoulders above its competition. However, I think the company is on the verge of losing the elegant solution it once commanded. Every update seems to be more complex without always providing the proportionate benefits.”

Michael Gartenberg wrote: “Apple is Apple. No it’s not Apple days of the breathless Steve Jobs keynote. Yes, product launches post-Covid feel like slick two-hour infomercials that would go well on late night cable—but they do bring stability and mean there won’t be unexpected crashes. Tim Cook has shown to be excellent at what he does best: keeping the trains running toward trillion dollar valuations. Jobs wisely didn’t name someone like Ive as a successor. Apple hasn’t had a moonshot in a long time and I wonder if Vision Pro might be pushing the envelope a little too hard. Stilll, people are making predictions too fast. The 128k Macintosh (as they used to be called) was a flop. It took a Scully to make it work with Mac Plus and II. At the end of the day, Apple makes great products with stunning displays that Apple can’t wait to users to get their hands on. And get their hands on them they do.”

Rob Griffiths wrote: “Honestly, I don’t really care about anything Apple does outside the Mac and macOS. I have a phone, iPad and watch, but honestly don’t really care about them at all, other than that they work when I want them to work. I don’t use them for work, and have no need for the latest and greatest of any of them. New iPhones and iPads are always just some iteration of existing hardware with more better faster whatevers, but nothing that excites me. Another slab of generic metal and glass. The Vision Pro might have been exciting, but not at $3500.”

Brian Mattucci wrote: “I think of how far we’ve come from the four quadrant product grid. I realize things aren’t so simple anymore, but they also don’t need to be so messy. The Vision Pro is a nice example – it’s overpriced and few will buy one. Eight years from now, we’ll have six different models at various price points and feature sets. In an ideal world, Apple would care just a bit more about the user experience. I don’t mean just in each product, but also in how they roll them out. When the M4 Max is announced, wouldn’t it be better for customers to be able to buy whichever Mac works best for them with the new chip? Do we need a new M-series chip annually if the product line can’t keep up? Does the Vision Pro need to cost $3500? How much would it cost without the external screen? Are they out of touch? Apple products have always been priced juuuuust on the wrong side of comfortable. Vision Pro is about twice that amount.”

Dan Moren wrote: “Looking forward to the Vision Pro category in next year’s survey.”

Christina Warren wrote: “A very good year for Apple, largely led by Mac hardware. I look forward to seeing some hopefully beefy Mac minis in 2024!”

Andy Ihnatko wrote: “Super-excited about the Vision Pro. It could be Apple’s next iPhone. It could be their next Newton MessagePad.”

John Moltz wrote: “While Apple has made Watches that were ridiculously expensive and now makes the Vision Pro which is quite expensive but probably priced not that unfairly, I am constantly amazed at how it ships a $600 Mac and a $330 iPad, both of which are really solid devices. The company is a bit of an enigma even now.”

Charles Arthur wrote: “Obviously next year there will be a slot for the Vision Pro. There’s a lot of potential in this – personally I think it will settle down as an entertainment product, with spatial video from sports being a potentially huge attractor. But you need the entertainment apps on it… and that’s going to be one of the big challenges for the coming year: not antagonising developers, and perhaps even accepting less money in order to foster better long-term relations.”

Zac Hall wrote: “You ever think about the fact that Tim Cook could be the first Apple CEO to retire?”

Ben Long wrote: “Re-reading this, I realize I sound very negative. But I expect a lot from Apple and do hold them to a particular standard, and when you’re in the lead you should be held to a higher standard. At the end of the day, I never consider switching any of my devices to an Android/Windows alternative because Apple still far exceeds the user experience of those devices. Sometimes I look wistfully at Linux machines, because I’d love to not be tied to a huge corporation, and to have more control over when and how I upgrade, but we live in a world now where your computer life requires an entire ecosystem and, more than any single feature or product, it is the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ quality of the Apple ecosystem that keeps me on-board.”

Glenn Fleishman wrote: “This felt like the year of ‘no fuss.’ Despite my iCloud sync problems, I had to think the least about problems with Apple and felt the best about buying new hardware that I have since 2020?”

Federico Viticci wrote: “As we close the book on 2023 and look forward to 2024, a big question looms over Apple: are they really ‘late’ to AI, or were they waiting to release a more useful application of AI with LLM-powered iOS features that are going to benefit hundreds of millions of people in ways that go beyond texting with a chatbot? I want to believe that Apple’s rumored rethinking of iOS 18 around artificial intelligence will see Shortcuts take a prominent role and allow users to control their devices and apps in ways that aren’t possible today. iOS updates have been pretty iterative and unsurprising for the past few years, and iOS 17 was no exception. That’s not a bad thing (interactive widgets are great!), but I’m ready for something new and different.”

Notes

I didn’t vote in the survey. Thanks to all of those who who participated: Shahid Kamal Ahmad, Steven Aquino , Marco Arment, Charles Arthur, Matt Birchler, Shelly Brisbin, Jeff Carlson, Robert Carter, Josh Centers, Michael E. Cohen, Peter Cohen, Matt Deatherage, Jessica Dennis, Dr. Drang, Adam Engst, Glenn Fleishman, Lex Friedman, Michael Gartenberg, Rob Griffiths, John Gruber, Stephen Hackett, Zac Hall, Dave Hamilton, Devindra Hardawar, Nick Heer, Myke Hurley, Andy Ihnatko, Paul Kafasis, Joe Kissell, Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Casey Liss, Ben Long, Roman Loyola, Brian Mattucci, Benjamin Mayo, Kirk McElhearn, Carolina Milanesi, Chance Miller, Rich Mogull, John Moltz, Dan Moren, Quinn Nelson, Rosemary Orchard, Dan Seifert, Allison Sheridan, Rich Siegel, Brent Simmons, John Siracusa, Eric Slivka, David Smith, David Sparks, Brett Terpstra, James Thomson, Michael Tsai, Federico Viticci, Christina Warren, and Gabe Weatherhead. And thanks to Khoi Vinh for suggesting this concept back in October of 2015.

All our previous surveys are available via our Apple Report Card archive page.