Apple Fans and Haters: Not everything is Tim Cook's fault!

I frequently criticize Apple with "this would never have happened under Steve Jobs" type rhetoric. And, I even recently defended people doing this. I have to apologize now, after reading this. It seems some people are willing to blame anything on this. Even things that are right up there with mistakes made during the "Jobs Era".

People like to think of Jobs as some omniscient innovator who could do no wrong. The truth is much less glorious. Apple made MANY mistakes with Jobs at the helm. But still being on an upwards trajectory resulted in people ignoring, forgiving or forgetting these things. I, personally, never saw Jobs (or at the very least Apple under his leadership) as anything but predictable.

Remember the Apple Maps debut? Antenna-gate? Come on people! Under Jobs, Apple was very focused on a few things. Modern design, aesthetic beauty, battery life and screen resolution. Software quality, hardware practicality, services and many other things fell by the wayside. Regularly.

So, let's visit these 7 issues which supposedly highlight the lack of Jobs' presence at Apple:

1. iPhone6/6s Battery Bump: OK, fair, Jobs probably wouldn't have allowed this. I'm sure he would have seen it as a step back. It makes the camera and the phone seem like disparate pieces. It is also both a design and aesthetics issue. Probably the #1 hallmark of Jobs era Apple.
2. Bendgate: This is right up there with Antenna Gate. There is no reason in the world to believe that Jobs would have had anything against the design which permitted this. It was, after all, the result of switching to a newer "sexier" material. The iPhones do look pretty darn nice. In fact, for the exact reasons why Jobs may not have permitted #1, he would very likely have shipped a product like this.
3. Apple Battery Pack: Sadly, the last of the 7 points I agree with. Not only is it hideous. It practically screams "our battery life sucks, so buy this".
4. Apple TV (4th Gen): Jobs was there for the original friggin' device. What the actual fuck do you think would have changed if Jobs were still there? They talk about negotiating contracts with content providers... I assume alluding to how Apple was able to strike favorable deals with the publishing and music industries in the past. But, if Jobs were able to crack this nut, it would have happened with the 1st gen device. The hardware improvements since the 1st gen are actually some of the most Apple-esque I've seen in a while. This may be one of the few products made better by post-Jobs Apple.
5. iTunes: The article jumps all over the complexity of iTunes referring back to its original release. They seem to ignore all of the releases in between which Jobs was around for. It hasn't only JUST become a slow, bloated piece of crap. It has just continued the trend set during the Jobs era.
6. Apple Maps: Wait? Do you people even know what you're talking about any more? Sure, this was *released* in 2012, after he left, but it was unveiled at their developer conference in June 2011 and Jobs didn't resign as CEO until August of that year. Get your facts together! Jobs had a clear role to play here. And since it was unveiled while he was still CEO, the launch date had probably already been set in stone as well.
7. Apple Music: When has Apple ever delivered a quality service? When has Apple ever delivered quality software (OSs aside)? Even the App Store, a decent revenue generator for Apple, crashed frequently on me when I owned an iOS device.

Look, if you're going to invoke Steve Jobs to blame Apple for a decision, at least back it up with something anecdotal. Simply saying that something failed, or is wrong, or you don't like it doesn't mean it wouldn't have been something Steve Jobs would have done.

Even when I make similar statements, I don't know for sure. We can't. Obviously. But, I can look to past trends and decisions and the focus of the company and draw some sorts of ideas to at least back my conclusions up.

Truth is, even the points I think I can validate I can't be sure of. Jobs was, after all, notorious for changing his mind.

What irks me though is that none of the points above had any defense as to why this might not have happened if Jobs were still in control. 5 out of the 7 have no basis in Apple or Jobs historical actions. In fact, 2 of them Jobs actually contributed directly to and another one is related to a product he originally helped unveil.