Apple fell short of expectations in 2022 but still managed to surprise us

Sometimes it’s easy to think that Apple is above everything. The company is so big, so loved and so successful that it certainly can’t be touched, the momentum can’t be slowed down. But that is of course not true. Apple is of the world, not above it, and if the company warns us all that it cannot predict the future in the age of COVID, we should really take its word for it.

Last year, when I predicted what 2022 would look like for the Mac, I clearly didn’t foresee how the company’s ability to build Macs would be sidelined by a spring pandemic. As a result, my predictions for the early transition from the Mac to Apple silicon were completely wrong, but to be fair, Apple was also surprised.

I expected Apple to ship an iMac Pro, a Mac Pro, and a souped-up Mac mini, officially closing the door to the Intel era of Macs. But in the intervening two years since Apple announced a two-year transition to Apple silicon, enough has gone wrong in the global supply chain and in Apple’s own factories that the company is clearly behind where it expected to be.

No, Apple doesn’t pre-announce products – and if a product was never announced, can it really be considered “delayed”? Apple’s statement that it would complete the transition to its own processors was about the closest we’ve come to setting a timeline for future products. And look what happened! They missed the target. See if Apple ever predicts something ever again.

However, if you’ve paid attention to analyst and press releases, it certainly looks like Apple is six to nine months behind where it expected. It was originally rumored that the M2 MacBook Air, which was announced in June and shipped in July (and which I predicted for the record!), would ship last fall. Whether or not Apple intended to sell it this early, it seems the company didn’t expect to have to wait until the summer to get it out the door.

I’m saving my predictions for a column later this month, but I think it might be safe to expect that 2023 will finally be the year Apple kicks out Intel. You know Apple doesn’t like Intel Macs on its web pages any more than the rest of us. It will get rid of them as soon as possible.

Speaking of delayed products, I must admit I drank the Flavor Aid when it came to Apple’s VR headset product. 2022 will surely be the year, I thought last December, as I imagined a full 12 months where Apple could finally unveil its highly rumored device. It was another whiff as the product remains the subject of intense speculation, but no real details.

Now that I’ve eaten on ashes long enough, please allow me to at least pat you on the back a little. This year, we’ve fulfilled several of my predictions: The new iPhone SE exists (although I imagined Apple dropping the Home button, which it didn’t). The iPhone 14 was just as small an update (but for the camera upgrades) as it seemed, leaving the iPhone 15’s stunning new design for – you guessed it – 2023!

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

I also correctly predicted the arrival of the M2 iPad Pros, but missed Apple’s failure to upgrade the smaller model’s screen. In retrospect, the new iPad Pros feel like transitional products, another iteration of an outdated design meant to wait a few more years before the new design can be ready.

However, I’m sorry to inform you that Apple’s exciting new strategy of smart-home products is still nowhere to be seen. Perhaps this is just part of the larger fact that many of Apple’s 2022 plans were postponed or postponed due to the COVID hangover. The Matter spec only became official last month, and perhaps that’s a sign that any new smart-home product is waiting for things to settle down next year. Still, I’m disappointed we didn’t get the fancy new HomePod with the camera and screen I’d hoped for.

I saved the best for last. Seriously for years year–I’ve been trying to establish a new standalone Apple display, and what’s more, imagine Apple updating the iPad to support external displays. Instead of being crushed by Apple’s steadfast refusal to give me what I wanted, I persevered. And in 2022, I was rewarded with the new Studio Display and the introduction of external display support in iPadOS 16.2 (which is technically still in beta, but should be finalized by the end of the year, so I’m counting it)!

Yes, there is a monkey foot aspect to the whole thing. Stage Manager has a lot of issues – and that support for external displays was supposed to arrive this fall, but had to be pushed to a later version. And the Studio Display was criticized for Apple’s insistence on using an ultra-wide camera and Center Stage instead of a higher-quality webcam. But as someone who bought a Studio Display with my own money, I honestly don’t mind.

This brings me to the biggest thing I do not predict in 2022: the Mac Studio! Who would have thought that Apple would introduce an entirely new Mac model, one that resembles a mega Mac mini or a miniature Mac Pro? Yes, there were some reports that Apple was considering such a move, but they seemed bizarre.

And yet, as I write to you here in December 2022, I’ve traded in my trusty iMac Pro for a Mac Studio connected to an Apple Studio Display. What a combination: a long-dreamed-of product coupled with something that I never expected would even exist for a moment. Sure, the big story of 2022 is that many of Apple’s big Mac plans were pushed back to 2023, but what worked out this year was pretty good.