Is the Mac having a BMW’s Neue Klasse moment?

In the last couple of months, we have seen plenty of rants, reports, analysis, and other exposés about the state of Apple software, whether it is about their bad icon design, bad icon implementation, neglect, more neglect, and plain worrisome trends. The most damning thing of all? All of these complaints are valid at the same time, and, coming from Mac enthusiasts and connoisseurs, they carry a lot of weight.

This collective reaction is strong because Apple is not a brand usually associated with poor quality, odd design choices, or a lack of attention to detail. It is particularly notable on the Mac, arguably the most prominent Apple software product when it comes to enthusiasm about the brand and what they stand for.

Today, some of the Apple observers and critics are almost in shock of how fast things went bad. There were warning signs before, but the core foundations of what makes the Mac a great computing platform didn’t seem threatened. The problems seemed limited to a few bugs and side apps that were quickly filed under mishaps, and the growing popularity of non-native apps that ignore Mac conventions. Now, even MacOS itself is plagued with symptoms of the “unrefined” disease. Is MacOS becoming another Windows?

A couple of years ago, circa 2021, I was using a Windows computer for work. It was fine. Not great, not bad, it was just OK. Most of the tools I have to use at work live in the browser, and I managed to find peace with the few apps I was using, most of them Electron-based, like Obsidian.

When I eventually got an M1 MacBook Air as a replacement, it was a breath of fresh air. Not because I’m a Mac user since 2006, but because the Mac is not fine or just OK: it’s great. Mac apps, the “real” Mac apps, are indeed very good. They feel part of the system, whereas on Windows it’s hard to distinguish between a web-wrapped app and a native app. They all feel the same.

Ty Bolt said it best writing about Panic’s Nova (emphasis mine):

Nova is one of the best pieces of software I’ve ever used. It’s refined and polished and there’s no equivalent on Linux and Windows. It has its own personality, but also feels like an extension of the operating system. Which is a hallmark of a great Mac app. Folks in the community call them Mac-assed Mac apps. These apps are what make MacOS really great. The best apps I have used are all Mac apps.

For me, this quote is what the Mac is all about. But with all the current issues documented on MacOS Tahoe, it is not as easy to look down on Windows as it once was.

For users like me, who appreciate a certain level of precision and craftsmanship in software and love Apple because of that — especially the Mac — this trend is worrisome. We know that Apple is not going away, but the Apple we love seems distracted. We worry that the Mac won’t ever feel like the Mac we love today again. We worry that our habits, our taste, and our commitments to a platform will become pointless and dépassés. We worry because there is not a proper alternative to the Mac environment.

Users with a different set of tastes, values, and habits, users who may use a Mac for their best-in-class chips, but not for its software, won't understand. Some users who already use and love Linux or Windows (and easily switch between the two), for their set of tastes, values, and habits, won't understand. Users who use a Mac just to live inside a Chrome/Electron landscape of apps won't understand.

This period of neglect may be over soon. It may go on for another few years. It may also be all downhill from here. We just don't know. We have to wait, we have to hope, and we have to continue pointing out what feels off about the platform we love. The most cynical will point to the obvious, saying that Mac enthusiasts are not where the money is these days for Apple. This would explain a lot, and it's very tempting to think that way.

But I thought of something that may sound like wishful thinking: What if Apple is having its own BMW-Neue-Klasse moment?

For BMW, Neue Klasse is the name of their brand reset, their upcoming generation of cars, from the design language to the production platform to the actual vehicle models. It was announced a few years ago, in the midst of the transition to the electric-first era. For BMW, this meant reaffirming the brand, getting back to its roots, and embracing what makes BMW a well-loved and praised car manufacturer.

This kind of transition takes a lot of time, effort, and money. Between the announcement and today, brand enthusiasts and critics have perceived a regression in quality and finish, and have felt that the brand has lost touch with its premium foundations and with what makes them love it in the first place.

Optimists and apologists will explain this by saying that BMW has put all their best talents and resources towards the Neue Klasse. They will tell you that the current line of models and its related perceived-quality issues are temporary while they reallocated some of their best teams, a necessary low to set things anew, with the upcoming generation of vehicles.

As far as I can understand, the reasoning is that BMW knew it had enough brand capital to absorb a few awkward design cycles and perceived drops in interior quality. They surfed on their existing reputation while spending a lot of resources on a platform reset, hoping for a smooth transition. It may hurt them a little, but they considered it a small price to pay to be able to embrace this new era confidently, and regain what was lost.

I want to imagine that the same thing is happening at Apple. What if the last couple of years were a transition for Apple? Unlike BMW, Apple would not share their own Neue Klasse vision: they would just unveil it when it’s ready and keep it a secret until then. Meanwhile, their best engineers, designers, and product people are reassigned and working hard on a new generation of MacOS, something that is a big step forward. Maybe Apple thinks that, for the current lineup, helped by the greatest hardware the Mac ever had, the limited resources and ongoing problems are an acceptable compromise, for now.*1

Mark Gurman would probably have shared the scoop if that were what was really happening, but I’ll keep hoping this “Mac reset” is actually happening and good (and not a failed renaissance). After all, the Neue Klasse era could end up being a disaster, and the worrying signs we’re seeing are actually just the beginning of the end.

For Apple, if we are indeed witnessing the first signs of a company that has lost its touch, if we are already at a point of no return when it comes to MacOS quality, the potential downfall won’t be nearly as consequential as it could be for BMW. Apple could lose money for decades and still be one of the richest companies in the world. Without the Mac (just 6% of revenue), Apple would post similar financial reports for years to come.*2

For the Mac enthusiasts like myself, there are only three upcoming scenarios in my mind right now. One, the Mac we love returns, either in its current form or as a “new class” of Mac (MacOS XX?) and all of this will just be a bad memory. Two, the Mac keeps on getting worse and worse to the point of driving long-time users away, and it ends up getting replaced with yet another version of iOS on MacBooks. Three, all operating systems end up being background tasks in the A.I. era anyway, and Apple knows this and doesn’t bother anymore.