Maybe it’s just me, but the Apple news/developer community seems to have settled into its own particular, cozy brand of misery as of late. And sure, 2020 is off to a bit of a slow, dismal start––it appears the world is going up in flames, both literally and figuratively, and the Apple rumor mill, which once brought us a bit of cheer throughout the winter doldrums, is now greeted with a general sense of weariness and indifference.

The 10th anniversary of the iPad’s unveiling really cracked open a can of worms. From John Gruber’s pointed criticism of the current iPad multitasking situation (which I agree with) and Ben Thompson’s The Tragic iPad to the more general Six Colors 2019 report card, the disappointment in the air is thick. I think it was Marco Arment who said, on a recent episode of ATP, something along the lines of “the technical foundation at Apple is rotting.” Nobody wants a rotten Apple.

And yet, here we are. Oh how I wish I could have been an Apple fan in its glory days. And how awesome would it have been to be a developer during the App Store gold rush? Alas, I’ll never know. I’m stuck with today’s Apple, a vast and unwieldy mega corporation that has all but lost sight of what made it great. What happened? How did we get here? I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say it probably boils down to hubris. Most things do. I have always felt that greatness necessitates humility. Confidence and humility are not mutually exclusive and both great design and great execution require both.

Anyway, I’ve digressed. All of this is really just to say that I’m feeling pretty bummed about all the pessimism in my favorite community. I’m not saying any of it is unjustified—just that I’m bummed. And what can we do? File radars? Write blog posts? Complain on Twitter? Yes, and these things we will continue to do, shouting passionately into the void.

I like to imagine that indie developers have an opportunity to show people what Apple used to be. That it’s up to us now to think different. To work within and around all of our crappy constraints and ludicrous App Store rejections to share something beautiful and cheerful and functional with the world. That even if Apple fails to stay true, we can somehow carry on its mission…

Well…okay. Maybe not that dramatic.

At least they fixed the damn keyboards.

~Fin~