Apple has done a lot in 2022, but when it comes to rounding out the ledger for what still seems to be a year of recovery for humanity, it’s hard to find anything that made as much of an impact as Apple Silicon.
Apple’s own chip program currently powers 99% of the company’s desktops, laptops, tablets and iPhones, so it has a huge impact on everything Apple does. The full-stack control Apple enjoys across its entire product line, from silicon to components, builds, software, interfaces, and services, is now unparalleled.
Not only did Apple achieve its migration goals. largely Everything this year relies on Apple silicon, which means the company continues to make unparalleled leaps in mobile performance.
“Yes, Apple Silicon is a big story and will continue to be a big story. [conductor] Competitors are struggling to reach the same power/battery improvements that Apple achieved with its M1 and M2 chips, leaving them at least a year behind,” said Creative Strategies, a longtime Apple analyst. chairman Tim Bajarin said in an email.
Unlike Intel, which announces a chip and waits months for partners to deliver systems built around it, Apple has developed a 5-nanometer process, 20 billion transistors, 10-core GPU M2, It came with the new MacBook Air with the new Apple Silicon. .
At the same time, Apple was able to unveil its next-generation all-software platform that will run on new desktops and laptops (macOS Ventura), as well as future iPads (iPadOS 16) and iPhones (iOS 16).
The mobile cadence of this software, and three months later, the hardware that supports it, is predictable and efficient.
The Apple Silicon talk sparked quite a bit of excitement, but the rest of 2022 for Apple has been more mixed. Admittedly, Apple’s mixed bag is the year of the show more than anyone else.
The new M2 MacBook Air is perhaps the perfect example of a product that has ripped Apple fans in half. The redesigned chassis ditched the iconic design in favor of ultraportables that could be mistaken for someone else’s hardware. Pulled towards a certain curved aluminum chassis design, Apple had to go a different route.
Apple’s iPhone 14 wasn’t the flash redesign some were hoping for, but I think it didn’t get enough credit for Dynamic Island (available only on the iPhone 14 Pro model). An emergency SOS by satellite across the line is also worth celebrating.
Sadly, Apple may have miscalculated again with the new iPhone size variations. People seem to be just as excited about the iPhone 14 Plus as they are about the iPhone 13 mini.
The big story, from an iPhone perspective, at least for me, was iOS 16 and updates to focus, notifications, messaging, email, and lock screen. Apple’s decision to tweak core features like the ability to edit messages after they’re sent shouldn’t be overlooked. Raise your hand if you’re already using this feature.
Apple took a similarly cautious approach with the Apple Watch 8, a clever and superior smartwatch that overshadows the more powerful and rugged Apple Watch Ultra. It’s too early to say, but surveillance must be too much for most people.
In many ways, 2022 felt like a middle ground for Apple. Look at the Apple iPad line. The 12.9 iPad Pro with the massively powerful M2 doesn’t do much in terms of design, but it pushes tablet power into new, uncharted territory.
Then there is the iPad 10.9. It moves the flagship tablet into a new design space, but with an aging (but still decent) CPU and the latest generation Apple Pencil.
I’m also surprised Apple didn’t do it in 2022. This cursed project doesn’t look any closer to reality than it did five years ago. That won’t stop anyone from writing about it, but mark my words: By the end of 2023, we won’t know much more about this iCar than we do now.
When we talked about “peak performance” in the spring, many of us, myself included, thought Apple was making fun of AR glasses. I was wrong. As with so many new category innovations these days, Apple is having a sweet time. Not everyone was fooled.
“I never thought we would see AR glasses in 2022, and I don’t know if we will see them in 2023. Talking to the supply chain, we are talking about the optics, the Bluetooth radio, and the rugged design. There are still real challenges for the demands and needs of their customers,” Bajarin wrote to me.
Which brings me to some of Apple’s biggest challenges in 2022. Tim Cook mentions supply chain issues more than once a year, especially how they affect iPhone availability. Not too bad, but things could get a little worse in the spring due to some of the new Covid shutdowns in China.
Bajarin agreed that the supply chain will be one of Apple’s biggest challenges in 2022.
“That Zero Covid Policy [China’s] XI President was a disaster for them and others. It will take at least two more quarters to get better,” Bachrin wrote.
As the year drew to a close, Apple faced some real challenges to its underlying App Store principles. The European Union almost forced Apple to accept third-party stores on its devices. The EU may also be accelerating Apple’s existing plans to move iPhones to USB-C. It’s not a big deal, but I don’t find Apple and CEO Tim Cook to be intrusive.
And recently there was a bit of a back-and-forth with Elon Musk on Twitter.
Twitter has long been one of the most popular apps on the App Store, but Musk’s brand management was a disaster. He aspires to generate real income and profits through subscriptions. Especially for those tied to the embattled new Twitter Blue Verification program.
Naturally, Musk would have to keep all that money and not pay Apple 30% of the in-app purchases. Musk, of course, accepted his complaints about the charges and what he sees as Apple’s App Store exclusivity being published on his Twitter. He even threatened to make his own phone.
Eventually, Cook and Musk met privately to break things down. But that skirmish was visible to us. Bajarin said no big deal.
“The Twitter-Musk feud was more embarrassing than causing real problems for Apple,” he wrote.
2022 has been a really good year for Apple, even if Apple’s excellent servicing program has recorded an unexpected drop in sales this year. Its growing market share is poised to deliver an even more exciting array of iPhones next year, and 2023 will surprise us again with new Apple silicon (Hello, M3).
