> whoever was in charge of those decisions seems to have lost decision-making power
I guess we're both speculating here, but even if the same people were in charge, I think they breathed a sigh of relief when they realized that the personal computing segment had spiced up again. From about 2014 to 2019, Mac revenue basically plateaued in line with the entire laptop market. People were crazy about phones but laptops had hit a wall.
When you have to sell laptops to people whose yesteryear laptops do everything they need, you start adding random bullshit to the product because you have to capture the market's attention somehow. I think this is how we ended up with the touch bar. It's a step backward, but it's flashy and made the product look fresh(er) despite the form factor being identical to what they were selling in 2013.
I guess we're both speculating here, but even if the same people were in charge, I think they breathed a sigh of relief when they realized that the personal computing segment had spiced up again. From about 2014 to 2019, Mac revenue basically plateaued in line with the entire laptop market. People were crazy about phones but laptops had hit a wall.
When you have to sell laptops to people whose yesteryear laptops do everything they need, you start adding random bullshit to the product because you have to capture the market's attention somehow. I think this is how we ended up with the touch bar. It's a step backward, but it's flashy and made the product look fresh(er) despite the form factor being identical to what they were selling in 2013.