I had fun final week digging by means of OS adoption knowledge and recreating my glory days as a high-school mathematician. However the numbers are decidedly much less enjoyable for Tim Prepare dinner. In accordance with analysis by StatCounter, iOS 26’s adoption fee is lower than 1 / 4 of iOS 18’s on the identical time in its launch cycle, and that’s dangerous information for the iPhone.
Why aren’t individuals putting in iOS 26? The quick reply is “Liquid Glass,” because the new design language has been so broadly vilified that Apple was pressured into an uncharacteristic backtrack to let individuals flip off a few of its transparency results. However should you’ll indulge me, there’s an extended reply that I’d wish to discover a little bit.
Greater than every other tech firm, Apple’s success is constructed on loyalty. Its merchandise are usually dearer, spec for spec, than these made by rivals, however clients purchase them anyway as a result of they belief the expertise will probably be higher and so they need the corporate to prosper. Loyal Apple customers view a walled-garden product ecosystem as a plus, not a minus, as a result of they don’t need to depart. Even the Apple Retailer, which turned up anachronistically at first of the century as different companies had been offloading their brick-and-mortar obligations, makes excellent sense once you perceive that its function is to not promote models, however to evangelize the Apple way of life. It’s a loyalty manufacturing facility.
However a loyalty-based enterprise mannequin cuts each methods. As we see so typically in on-line discourse, a strongly loyal consumer base will stand by its favored firm, even speeding to its protection when issues go fallacious. Proper up till they don’t.
Supplied the missteps are remoted, you have to be okay. Apple Maps, for example, was an embarrassing fumble when it launched in 2012, however on the time it felt like a uncommon mistake quite than a symptom of one thing bigger. Lately, against this, Apple’s software program failures have develop into the rule, not the exception.
A few of these have been a failure of high quality management: a willingness to announce, and even launch, software program that isn’t match for function. Lots of the software program options badged as Apple Intelligence match on this class, as does Siri 1.0, whose efficiency appears unbelievably to be getting worse. Others symbolize the other downside: the lack to get a wanted product on the market, exemplified by Siri 2.0. As my colleague Jason Snell argues, 2025 could come to be remembered for what Apple didn’t ship. Actual artists ship.
However there’s a 3rd class, which doesn’t symbolize errors in any respect. These are the cases of deliberate enshittification: moments of greed, conceitedness, and the idea that buyer loyalty insulates the corporate from penalties. Such because the App Retailer turning into riddled with adverts a couple of years again, a transfer which was so unpopular that Apple determined to do the identical factor with Apple Information, Shares, and (as of subsequent yr) Maps. It’s even been caught pushing adverts in iMovie. Why? As a result of the corporate thinks it can.
It’s debatable whether or not the egregious design of final yr’s OS updates falls underneath the class of conceitedness or incompetence; maybe it’s each. However the takeaway for Apple ought to be that buyer loyalty is finite, and there are penalties once you constantly decrease your quality-control requirements. When your whole enterprise is constructed on individuals liking you, it’s finest to not take them without any consideration.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which incorporates all of the Apple information you missed final week in a useful bite-sized roundup. We name it Apple Breakfast as a result of we predict it goes nice with a Monday morning cup of espresso or tea, nevertheless it’s cool if you wish to give it a learn throughout lunch or dinner hours too.
Trending: Prime tales
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Simon Jary was at CES 2026 final week. Listed here are the new Mac and iPhone equipment he thinks Apple followers have to see.
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Podcast of the week
2026 might be some of the memorable years in Apple’s historical past. Within the newest episode of the Macworld podcast, we reveal what you may count on from Apple within the first half of the yr.
You’ll be able to catch each episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our personal web site.
Critiques nook
The rumor mill
This iPhone leak could also be pretend nevertheless it hides some very actual truths.
We’d have simply acquired our first sighting of the iPhone Fold display screen.
The iPhone 17e might arrive inside weeks and not using a notch.
Apple teases ‘one thing large’ coming to your gadgets in early 2026.
Video of the week
Jason Cross reckons now is an efficient time to disclose every thing Apple will launch in 2026. You’ll be able to get pleasure from all our short-form video on TikTok or Instagram.
Software program updates, bugs, and issues
It’s not you–a Logitech blunder borked your Mac mouse, however there’s a repair.
This Google Chrome function is why Roman Loyola is rarely going again to Safari.
Apple secretly boosted Wi-Fi speeds in your Mac and iPad–right here’s how you can get it.
iOS 26.3 beta will get a brand new background safety replace check.
And with that, we’re executed for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you happen to’d wish to get common roundups, join our newsletters, together with our new electronic mail from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous tackle the newest information and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. It’s also possible to observe us on Fb, Threads, Bluesky, or X for dialogue of breaking Apple information tales. See you subsequent Monday, and keep Appley.
