Apple has done a lot in 2022, but as we close the books on what still looks like a year of recovery for humanity, it’s hard to find anything as impactful as Apple Silicon.
Because Apple’s own chip program now underpins 99% of its desktops, laptops, tablets, and iPhones, it has an outsized impact on everything Apple does. The full-stack control that Apple enjoys across its entire product line – from silicon and components to software, interfaces and services – is now unparalleled.
It’s not just that Apple has reached its migration goal almost Everything about Apple’s silicon this year is that the company continues to make unprecedented leaps in mobile performance.
Yes, Apple Silicon was a big story and continues to be. [conductor] competitors are struggling to get the same power/battery improvements that Apple has in the M1 and M2 chips, and are at least a year behind, if not longer,” Tim Bajarin, longtime Apple analyst and president of Creative Strategies, said via email.
Unlike Intel, which unveils chips and then waits a few months for partners to deliver systems built around it, Apple delivered the 5-nanometer, 20 billion transistor, 10 M2 GPU core alongside a new Macbook Air with the new Apple Silicon.
At the same time, Apple was able to unveil the next generation of all software platforms that would run on its new desktop and laptop computers (macOS Ventura) and future iPads (iPadOS 16) and iPhone (iOS16).
This rolling cadence of software and then, three months later, hardware to support it is both predictable and efficient.
While Apple Silicon’s story generated considerable excitement, the rest of Apple’s 2022 was a mixed bag. Admittedly, Apple’s mixed bag is anyone else’s landmark year.
The new MacBook Air M2 is a perfect example of a product that probably splits Apple fans in two. the redesigned chassis ditched an iconic design in favor of an ultra-portable that might be mistaken for someone else’s hardware. To be fair, the industry has turned to Apple’s once-iconic curved aluminum chassis design, so much so that Apple had to go a different route.
Apples iPhone 14 wasn’t the flash redesign some were hoping for, but I still don’t think it got enough credit for it dynamic island (only available on the iPhone 14 Pro models). And Satellite Emergency SOS down the line is also worth celebrating.
Unfortunately, Apple may have miscalculated a new iPhone size variant yet again. People also seem enthusiastic about the iPhone 14 Plus as they did about iPhone 13 minithat is to say not very.
The big story from an iPhone perspective, at least for me, was iOS 16 and the updates to Focus, Notifications, Messaging, Email and Screen lockdown. Apple’s decision to adjust basic functions, such as the ability to edit messages after sending them, should not be overlooked. Raise your hand if you’ve used this feature before.
Apple has taken an equally cautious approach with the AppleWatch8a dexterous and still excellent smartwatch that is overshadowed by the more powerful and beefy Apple Watch Ultra. Is the Ultra a big hit? Too early to tell, but I bet that’s too much to watch for most people.
In many ways, 2022 felt like an in-between year for Apple. Look at the Apple iPad range. The incredibly powerful powered by M2 12.9 iPad Prowhile not doing much on the design side, pushes the power of the tablet into new and unexplored spaces.
Then you have the iPad 10.9which takes the flagship tablet into a new design space, albeit with an aging (though still decent) processor and latest-generation Apple Pencil.
I’m also struck by the things Apple didn’t do in 2022. There was still no word or tease about the Apple Car. This cursed project does not seem closer to reality than five years ago. That won’t stop anyone from writing about it but, mark my words, we won’t know more about this iCar at the end of 2023 than we know now.
Many of us, including me, thought Apple was teasing its AR glasses when it said “Performance overview“in the spring. I was wrong. As with so many new category innovations these days, Apple is taking its time. Not everyone was fooled.
“I wasn’t expecting AR glasses in 2022, and I’m not sure we’ll even see them in 2023. Talking to the supply chain, there are still some real challenges getting the optics up and running. , Bluetooth radios and rugged designs that could pass the demands and needs of their customers,” Bajarin wrote to me.
This brings me to some of Apple’s biggest challenges in 2022. Tim Cook mentioned supply chain issues more than once throughout the year and, in particular, their impact on iPhone availability. It hasn’t been that bad, but with some of the new Covid shutdowns in China, things might get a little worse in the spring.
Bajarin agreed that supply chain is easily one of Apple’s biggest challenges in 2022.
This zero Covid policy [China’s] President XI was disastrous for them and for others. It will take at least two more quarters to get better,” Bajarin wrote.
At the end of the year, Apple faced real challenges to its App Store fundamentals, with the European Union nearly forcing it. accept third-party stores on their devices. The EU could also accelerate Apple’s current plans to move the iPhone to USB-C. It’s not huge, but I don’t imagine Apple and CEO Tim Cook like being pushed around.
And lately there was a little exchange with Elon Musk from Twitter.
Twitter has long been one of the App Store’s most popular apps, but Musk’s brand management was a disaster. It is desperate to generate real revenue and profit from subscriptions, especially those tied to Twitter’s beleaguered new Blue Verification program.
Naturally, Musk has to keep all that money and not pay Apple its 30% cut for in-app purchases. Of course, Musk went public with his complaints about fees and what he sees as Apple’s App Store monopoly on Twitter. He has even threatened to build his own phone.
Eventually, Cook and Musk met privately and chatted. But for however this skirmish concerned us. Bajarin said it was no big deal.
“The Twitter/Musk fight was more of a nuisance than causing real problems for Apple,” he wrote.
Even with Apple’s Stellar Services program taking a surprise drop in revenue this year, 2022 has really been a good year for Apple. Its growing market share is poised to deliver an even more exciting set of iPhones next year and will surely impress us again with the new Apple Silicon (Hello, M3) in 2023.
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