I read a Cult of Mac story this week about Apple’s Mac division being de-emphasized, and supporting evidence was provided based upon the seeming drop in front office attentiveness to the iMac, MacBook, and MacPro areas — stretched releases of new material, no attention from the front office, departure of key personnel, etc. The article also mentioned the combination of the software and IOS divisions and the resource diversion to the IOS side of things. Understandably, IOS is the cash cow for Apple.

I’m also well aware (from the repeated cursing from the other room every time my husband attempts to use his Windows 10 laptop for the most basic functions) the Microsoft is still producing dreck, so Apple’s computer competition is not strong. I was personally underwhelmed by everything I saw released by Apple this year on both the IOS and the desktop/laptop sides. When you lead with emoticons as your key feature, I am not impressed, people. I realize they are huge in the 12-29 market. I sometimes like emoticons, but I’m not motivated by them when choosing an operating system. Leave that to the Android crowd.

I pretty much had to update to IOS 10. I held off as long as possible to update my husband’s iPhone 5. I thought he was going to update to an SE, but he seems to be in no hurry, and at the price of the device, I’m not going to push him. He uses his phone for a phone and takes a few reminder notes on it once in awhile. He has no interest in TouchID, a better camera, or a faster processor. He, like many people, would prefer a Nokia candy bar phone of days of old, but they don’t make them anymore. So he has an iPhone5.  I have an iPhone 6+, and, frankly, I’m very happy with it, too. I’m even happy now that Verizon isn’t robbing me of $30 a month just to have it. I think I paid for the phone twice — once when I bought it from Apple and again with their “access” fees during the first two years of ownership. Those dropped off the bill this month, and man, oh man, is that nice.

I have not installed the new MacOS, and I hope to avoid this iteration. I only hope they produce something worth installing in the next iteration. Emoticons and taking away the estimated battery time remaining indicator? Really, Apple? Why do I care about your OS? Give me a reason, please. I want to like your products. I want to be thrilled by them. Mostly, I want them to work. You know. Just work. And, for the most part, they do, and I love them for it. But this direction you seem to be taking? I’m not impressed.

More importantly, I’m not hearing anyone else who’s impressed either. I love that I can do nearly everything that needs to be done from my phone. I went to Wisconsin for a week and used my phone exclusively all week even though I had my laptop and my iPad with me. The phone was always connected, and easy to use for what I needed. That does not mean I want my desktop or my laptop to work like my phone. If anything, I want my phone to work like my desktop and my laptop. Please note this distinction. The “big” stuff is important. When I’m home, I do use my phone and my iPad quite a bit, but the bulk of my work and leisure computer use is on the iMac — the big Retina screen iMac, and I want it to be the most powerful capable machine I have. I don’t care if can do emoticons or not.

Maybe emoticons were not the big thing in either IOS or MacOS, but that was the message I got when I watched your keynotes. If that wasn’t the message you were sending, please work on that, because you failed this year.

Oh. I almost forgot. Shortly after reading that Cult of Mac story, I read another one where Apple was maintaining their Mac division was too relevant. Okay, Apple. Prove it!