MATT BOLTON...
Recently, I attended a launch event for Microsoft’s newest
range of hardware – its laptops, hybrid tablets, new headphones
and more. The company held a panel discussion with some of
its lead hardware engineers, including Panos Panay, Chief
Product Officer. In some ways, it was just a more intimate
keynote (though, mercifully, shorter and more engaging) to
highlight what’s cool about the products. But we also got to ask
specific questions about the hardware, and there was a moment
where Panay gave a great answer that made me flash back to
earlier Apple, and when Steve Jobs used to answer questions
at the end of Macworld keynotes. It made me realise something
that’s been missing from recent Apple explanations of its more
controversial design decisions: conviction.
Someone asked Panay why Microsoft persisted with
including the Surface Connect custom port on its computers,
which is a magnetic connector only really used for power or
to connect to Microsoft multi-port
docks. He said “Because customers
tell us they love Surface Connect”- which made the audience laugh a
little. It was a very Apple-like sort
of non-answer.
But then Panay continued. He
said that obviously people don’t
actually say they love Surface
Connect specifically. “They say they love how it charges,” he
explains. They make an emotional connection with the
satisfying magnetic snap. “Emotions matter. When we’re
making a new product, we’re always
looking for that emotional moment.”
In a slightly more pragmatic sense,
business customers say they love it too - because they can buy multi-port
docks that will definitely work with
every Surface, no problems, through
this one consistent port. If you’ve ever
tried to use a cheap USB-C hub with a
corporate Mac or PC, you might have
experienced that this can be only
slightly more predictable than autumn
weather in the UK.
The thing is, this answer started in
a place that reminds me so much of
how Apple sometimes addresses this
kind of thing. When Apple removed
APPLE CORE Opinion
The Mac Pro introduction was a good example
of Apple explaining itself well – it introduced
features, and told us why people wanted them.
Microsoft also made a point of talking about how nice the
1.3mm travel on its keyboards is, but we’ll skip over that.18 | MACFORMAT | DECEMBER 2019 macformat.com @macformat
ABOUT MATT BOLTON
Matt is the editor of Future’s flagship
technology magazine T3 and has been
charting changes at Apple since his
student days. He’s sceptical of tech
industry hyperbole, but still gets warm
and fuzzy on hearing “one more thing”.Explanations
of controversial
design decisions
need conviction
WANTS TO BELIEVE APPLE MORE
WHEN IT SAYS PEOPLE LOVE ITS
DESIGN DECISIONS, BUT HE NEEDS
TO SEE THE RECEIPTS
the 3.5mm jack from the iPhone, but kept it in
the MacBook Pro, Phil Schiller explained,
“many users have set-ups with studio
monitors, amps and other pro audio gear that
do not have wireless solutions and need the
3.5mm jack.” A good, and fair, explanation.
But then Apple dropped this jack from the
iPad Pro, a machine designed to serve these
exact same pros, and we don’t get a thoughtful
equivalent explanation like Panay’s.
When Panay said people love Microsoft’s
weird port choice, I believed him. When you
hear the same from Apple, I see a floating
Wikipedia [citation needed] warning. I’m
sure Apple makes its decisions for good, user-
focused reasons that it could explain clearly
like that, but I think it needs to start telling
us what those are.