In 2024, Apple’s hits were misses and its misses were hits

Where I grew up, you’d often hear the phrase, “Don’t get your hopes up!” Not in any kind of discouraging, Dickensian sense, I hasten to add. Merely a friendly warning that high expectations often lead to disappointment. We’re a cynical bunch in the British midlands.

But Apple’s upper management come from more sunnily optimistic parts of the world. The company started 2024 with sky-high expectations, anticipating the imminent launch of two vitally important, long-gestated projects: Vision Pro, and Apple Intelligence. This would be the year when all the sacrifices were shown to be worth it.

Perhaps inevitably, however, the big build-up was followed by the big let-down. Vision Pro went on sale in February, and the critical response was strong; but sales could never live up to those lofty expectations. Tim Cook himself admitted that it’s simply not a mass-market product. “Right now,” he told the WSJ, “it’s an early-adopter product.”

The problem isn’t with the product, which has lots of potential, although the price and weight do both need to come down. The problem is with society, which isn’t yet ready to transition from the smartphone to whatever comes next. Apple needs to be ready for the next phase of consumer technology, hence the importance of the Vision Pro project. But it can’t force customers to move on before they’re ready.

Speaking of unready, Apple Intelligence was another of 2024’s damp squibs, partly because so many of its features weren’t available as part of the initial rollout. iOS 18.0, disappointingly, contained no Apple Intelligence features at all, so we had to wait until 18.1 in late October. (That, you’ll note, is long after the launch of the iPhone 16, which was sold as being made for Apple Intelligence.) Many of the most interesting elements–Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, Genmoji, ChatGPT–didn’t arrive until iOS 18.2 this month. And if you live in the European Union, or speak any language other than English, you don’t get to join in until 2025.

Of course, building an AI platform from scratch takes time, and Apple is to be commended for releasing features when they’re finished rather than foisting unreliable software on its users. But the thing with having the world’s greatest marketing machine is that people tend to get their hopes up. Fans were led to believe that Apple Intelligence would transform their lives, and were understandably miffed when it turned out to be underwhelming and incomplete.

It’s fortunate, then, that Apple’s marketing machine doesn’t apply its hype to every product equally. Two of the company’s big successes of 2024 were (comparatively speaking; this is Apple we’re talking about) sleeper hits. Launches that caught us at least somewhat unaware, emerging from the shadows of costlier and more celebrated siblings to scoop up positive reviews and strong consumer interest alike.

The 4th-gen AirPods, which were announced in September, did exactly what was asked of them. They looked and sounded great, and adopted key features from the Pro models without increasing the price. We think they’re fantastic.

The new Mac mini, too, delivered that blend of quality and value that customers love and Apple finds so tedious. It got a petite design and delivers superb performance at a manageable price. The only problem is the way it makes the Mac Studio look, well, gratuitously expensive.

We know that Apple doesn’t like to release appealing cheap products, because it would much prefer for us to buy the expensive ones instead. But we’re reaching a stage in the consumer tech industry where cheap products really are good enough for 99% of users 99% of the time, and Apple needs to learn how to thrive in that world. Vision Pro is a very nice, ludicrously expensive device that doesn’t really do anything necessary. The way to impress today’s consumers is to find a way to meet their needs at an affordable price. It’s all a question of knowing how to make a well-judged compromise.

But ultimately, the main lesson is that you’re far more likely to have a good time if you remember not to get your hopes up.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

Trending: Top stories

The Macalope has picked his worst takes of 2024

Got a new iPhone over the holidays? Do these things first

How about a new Mac? This is where to start

The Apple Watch needs a fresh start

Apple’s 2025 will be anything but boring

Podcast of the week

The Macworld Podcast took the week off for the holidays.

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

Reviews corner

ZimaCube Pro: Versatile and speedy NAS monster

Mophie Powerstation Mini 5K Gold: A smart and stylish power bank

Harber London Leather MacBook Sleeve: Sophisticated travel

The rumor mill

Apple’s quest to build a smart home platform might include a Face ID video doorbell.

iOS 19 is expected to support iPhones going back to the XR.

Software updates, bugs, and problems

How do I find Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2?

And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, or Twitter for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.