Really great overview of Apple’s organizational structure from Ben Thompson at Stratechery covering how Apple has managed to become one of the largest companies in the world and uniquely maintain its functional organizational structure. More importantly, however, is that if Apple plans to take its services business seriously and use services as a way to generate significant revenue from existing customers; they will almost certainly have to make changes to the organization and stop tying to run services in the same way they manage hardware and software products.

Apple will not fix the services it already has, or deliver on the promise of the services its hardware might yet enable, unless a new kind of organization is built around these services that has a fundamentally different structure, different incentives, and different rhythms from Apple’s device teams. You don’t make great products because you want to make great products; you make great products by creating the conditions where great products can be produced.

Ben Thompson has the best overview I’ve read from both perspective about whats going on with Apple’s resistance over unlocking an iPhone for the FBI.

The dispute between Apple and the FBI is a much closer question than it is being framed as in most of the tech press. In large part this is because the dispute itself is being serially mischaracterized by both Apple supporters and detractors.

Apple also posted a FAQ page that outlines what exactly has been asked of them from their point of view.

I’m actually fairly surprised with the number of places accepting ApplePay in Dallas and I do find myself purposely shopping at places that accept it like Whole Food and Walgreens. But I agree that I’m looking forward to the day where I can use ApplePay without having to think about it every time I checkout.

I’m also looking forward to more apps and online services. accepting ApplePay. Only updating your credit card number in one place for online purchases when your bank sends you (another) new card sure is nice.

Nevertheless, there are very few locations where I can use Apple Pay to buy stuff. This is probably more an indictment of alternative payment methods in general in America then Apple Pay itself but, nevertheless, it’s disappointing that this technology is now several years old and the only places I routinely shop that accept Apple Pay are a hipster super-market and the Apple Store.

Nice post from Walt Mossberg about some of Apple’s apps that have been around a while that could use a little love. I haven’t had many problems with the new Photos app, but I definitely dread opening iTunes on my MacBook.

None of these things is insurmountable. And perhaps Apple is right that bugs do get quashed and that some of what I’m observing is due to my own setup. But I’m convinced there’s something broader going on here. Lots of small software disappointments and aggravations, adding up gradually over time, are putting the sterling experience of using Apple hardware at risk.