Ken Segall, who had a lot to do with Apple marketing in the past, wrote a semi-critical piece about Apple losing touch with simplicity. Reading the article, the title, “How Apple Lost Its Way”, feels a little overblown. I think Ken makes some good points.

However, these days Apple is frequently subject to two conflicting criticisms:

1. The products and services are too complicated. They’ve lost touch with the old days where there were just a few Macs for sale and software was easier to use.

2. Apple isn’t moving fast enough to keep up with modern demands multiple devices (like iPhones of various screen sizes) and complex software that can fully take advantage of cloud services and other modern developments.

Apple can’t have both. Nor can it wind back the clock to a time where software wasn’t so complex and connected. While I certainly hope they’ll keep that legacy of simplicity where they can, I think they need to keep pressing forward toward that second goal, even if at a cost to the first. iOS, for instance, is infinitely more useful to me today than it was just a few years ago because of the addition of complexity.