The stylish struggle of Apple designs

A few weeks ago, Apple surprised by renewing its entire range of computers something that does not happen as frequently as with their cell phones, which must be renewed every year, even if it is to launch minimal changes.

The company focused on three products: he iMac , a renewed Mac-Mini and of course the Macbook all renewed with their new range of M4 processors with the support of Artificial intelligence and in the case of the Mac Mini, even with a renewed design which makes it one of the most accessible products in the entire family of Apple .

But they say the devil is in the details and much of the conversation about these devices, particularly on social media and especially among those who usually question Apple products, focuses on two “design errors” that the company allegedly made with its products mistakes that may seem simple but that you would think that a company as concerned about its products as Apple would not make.

The first concerns an accessory, the Magic mouse which was renewed on this occasion to change its charging port to USB-C, as the company has been doing for a few years after replacing the Lightning port. The Magic Mouse, since its launch, had a particularity in its design: Its charging port is on the bottom of the mouse, making it impossible to use and charge at the same time .

Many thought that Apple would fix this strange bug by migrating to the new port, but no, The new mouse has its port in exactly the same place as usual .

And the other protagonist of these superficial criticisms was he Mac-Mini Apple’s mini-computer, which the company has reduced in size to just 20 square centimeters, but to achieve this I had to place the on/off button again at the bottom and not at the back as is usual .

This type of comment on details is not new, since Apple is well known for being a company that controls its experience very well, even if that means often makes decisions that the majority do not understand . For example, the iPad It took 14 years to get its calculator app, which debuted this year. Or the same use of proprietary ports like Lightning, which only had to change because the European Union asked for it.

But it is important to know how to differentiate when the company makes real errors and when in reality they are only perceived as errors by the users, but not by the company, and therefore, it is very likely that they will continue to ‘exist in time.

If we talk about business mistakes, two very clear examples come to mind. The first occurred in 2010, when the iPhone4 the first changed its design to one with flatter edges which brought an unexpected consequence: The phone antenna can be blocked simply by placing your palm sideways that is, simply holding it would cause the signal to be lost.

The company initially pointed out that users took it badly, but ultimately had to create a $175 million program in which a plastic frame for the phone was given to the owners of the phone free of charge and thus avoid the problem. Of course, the company later released other colorful frames that it charged for, and there’s a reason Apple never loses.

Another case was the one with the famous butterfly keyboard a keyboard design the company launched in 2015 for its laptops and keyboards, which allowed for much thinner systems by reducing the system the keys use to operate.

Although in theory the butterfly keyboard system was more efficient than traditional systems used in laptops, in practice and already deployed in the real world, The problem with the butterfly keyboard is that it relied on a gap in the middle that filled with dust and dirt. something very common especially when it comes to transported equipment. What ended up happening was that butterfly keyboards started having typing errors , sometimes the keys didn’t respond and other times they repeated and people got angry.

Apple tried to keep these keyboards as much as possible because they effectively made their devices thinner, but after several attempts to improve the design and having to offer a free repair program, they finally settled on a new keyboard in November 2019 and the Keyboard failure was recognized by actions.

Between the mistakes and the designs are the innovations that didn’t work or those that were transformed into something else. The notch For example, the famous joke that iPhone From the iPhone The same thing happened when They stopped including the charger to save the planet . But this notch was ultimately pushed aside by the rest of the industry and also by Apple, which made it the most popular »dynamic island » which debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro.

He Touch bar The MacBook Pro also suffered a similar fate and the computers that still have it already seem to be part of a collection, because the idea also didn’t work very well in practice, so was removed .

But when there are bugs that Apple doesn’t consider bugs, there’s not much hope of them changing. The Magic Mouse, for example, while a very questionable design decision, has some very interesting explanations. The first is obvious: in a company where aesthetics are important, launch a mouse with a fully glass surface which seems to come from the future and is clearly recognizable to anyone who sees it, Impossible to get dirty with a port sticking out on the side .

But there is also something to take into account: the Magic Mouse was the company’s first wireless mouse, so its beauty lies precisely in the fact that it seems without any cables when in use. Installing a charger like the rest of wireless mice, which often allow you to use the device as a traditional mouse simply by connecting the cable, would effectively prevent it from being wireless, so Apple would have done this to ensure that it is always visible as what it is, a “magic” mouse. Only then can I explain why, even though they could have made the change with a forced redesign, they kept it the same as always.

And about the Mac Mini power button which is also located under the computer, the company responded that They had to move it due to space issues. as it is a much smaller device but has kept its ports intact. It was therefore necessary to sacrifice what was statistically least used: the power button . Indeed, quite often the computer simply goes into sleep mode instead of shutting down completely and requiring it to weigh around 700 grams, so lifting it won’t really be a problem.

The conspiracy theory says that Apple intentionally leaves these bugs unimportant but the truth is that in reality, when we are faced with a company that prioritizes aesthetics at such a high level, this kind of thing usually happens and the answer, rather than negligence, is simple: It’s Apple that is Apple .