The arguments continue without letup. Apple has lost its ability to innovate. Steve Jobs can never be replaced, and there’s nobody at Apple that can manage the company as well. So the problems are mounting: Apple has slowed the pace of upgrading Macs. iPhone refreshes are modest and not terribly compelling for customers. The iPad? Well, sales have been dropping since 2014, so is the end near?

But facts sometimes get in the way.

So while it’s true Apple is late in upgrading Mac desktops, sales of the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar appear to have fueled a rise in sales during the December 2016 quarter, after a period of flat or somewhat falling revenues. What is forgotten is that PC sales have been declining for several years. Despite all the claims that Microsoft is on to something with its Surface tablets and PCs, the fact is that their sales dropped slightly in the last quarter. Well, revenue dropped; Microsoft doesn’t actually reveal unit sales, but it’s fair to say they are a fraction of Apple’s.

It’s true that Apple is not free of issues in growing sales. They used to dominate the educational market, but more and more school systems have opted for Chromebooks instead of Macs, iPads, and Windows PCs. It’s not that Google’s slim client platform is necessarily better for students. But it’s a whole lot cheaper, and budgets are real tight. This may be one of those areas where good enough beats best when it comes to paying the bills. Apple may have to rethink this market, because it’s hardly likely the situation will change anytime soon, particularly in the U.S.

Now when it comes to the slowdown in Mac updates, it’s also true that Intel has been slower to market with CPU upgrades. If the chips aren’t there, or offer very modest improvements, Apple is constrained. Indeed, the Late 2016 MacBook Pro might have been regarded as a very minor refresh were it not for the revised form factor and the Touch Bar.

When it comes to desktop Macs, some are skeptical. Despite Tim Cook’s assurance about positive things in Apple’s roadmap for desktops, and that they love pros, mere words don’t translate into real products. At least not yet. But a positive statement about Mac professionals can only mean that a Mac Pro refresh is in the offing. Will it consist of minor changes in the internal components, or a different form factor to address the main complaint in the trash can design, that there’s no room to expand the workstation internally.

There is also an “X” factor, the extent to which Apple’s mobile processors will be used to supplement Mac functions. An ARM-based system-on-a-chip is already present to operate the Touch Bar. The rumors suggest Power Nap is next. But that’s well short of a wholesale switch to Apple’s A-series silicon, and there are issues that might make a move from Intel a less-compelling choice.

Another chip possibility is AMD’s Ryzen, which supposedly offers equal or better performance than the high-end Intel Core chips at roughly half the cost. Early benchmarks appear to confirm such benchmarks, except for reports of problems with some games at 1080p resolution. AMD claims the problem will be solved with motherboard patches and efforts to work with game developers to optimize their apps for the new platform.

If Apple went with AMD on an iMac, the graphics issues probably wouldn’t matter, at least for the 27-inch version, since it uses a discrete graphics chip. Imagine offering an iMac with an 8-core processor for several hundred dollars less than current quad-core versions.

Of course, there aren’t any rumors yet about a possible switch to AMD as an alternative to Intel. But few doubt that Apple is already testing different chips and exploring the possibilities. At the very least, the possibility of such a move might force Intel to do some severe discounting.

Now about the iPhone.

After several quarters of falling sales, Apple returned to positive territory in the December quarter, with record sales. While Samsung sells more units, Apple continues to dominate in high-end smartphones. Just as important, a recent report from Strategy Analytics claims that Apple grabbed 79.2% of the profits in 2016. That’s down from over 90% the previous year, but it’s still an amazing number. So it’s reported that the global smartphone industry had operating profits of an estimated $53.7 billion, and Apple’s share was $44.9 billion. Samsung’s operating profits were $8.3 billion.

The iPad?

Well, if all those online and TV ads mean something, Apple is making a renewed effort to boost sales. There are published reports of stock-outs for some iPads, perhaps signifying that new models are in the offing. But rumors of a forthcoming media event to roll out the new lineup have migrated from March to early April.

Will that make a difference in sales of new iPads? What about all those alleged postponed upgrades, from people who have been hanging onto their iPads longer than expected?

And does Apple have some unsuspected new products in the pipeline? Isn’t it about time? But even if it occurred, the skeptics will no doubt find excuses to explain why it’s destined to fail.

Are version numbers for software supposed to be lucky, or just reflections of the number of different releases of a product? When Apple released Mac OS X in 2001 — it later became OS X for no discernible reason — I wondered whether there would ever be a Mac OS XI. Not even close, but to bring OS branding into alignment, last year it was renamed macOS.

Now some think that macOS is taking on just too many aspects of iOS, but that’s not entirely true. It’s more about bringing some apps into alignment, to talk to one another. Thus it makes it easier for Macs and other Apple gear to work together.

Now if they’d only find a way to refresh Macs more often.

In any case, it’s clear that development of Sierra’s successor is underway. Since it’ll debut at the next WWDC, in June, perhaps the feature set is mostly fleshed out by now, along with any interface changes. I say mostly, because things might change between now and the release date.

In any case, the speculation about the possible new features should get underway soon. So someone evidently discovered a link on Apple’s site that mentions a macOS 10.13. Thus begins a new set of rumors that appear to have some basis for them. In other words, this will be the next release, but that was the assumption.

Wonder what the marketing or code name will be.

Now when it comes to simple logic, the successor to 10.12 should be 10.13, but when does version 11 debut? After macOS 10.19? Or will it always have the “X” branding, at least for the next couple of decades?

Or does it even matter?

Now those who are a tad superstitious might feel that anything with a number 13 in it must cause bad luck. Thus Apple might go to 10.14 instead, but buildings do have thirteenth floors. I also wouldn’t subscribe to the possibility that a macOS 10.13 would necessarily be a flawed release. Apple has already done some of those without an unlucky version number.

In the general scheme of things, however, it probably doesn’t matter except for possibly having a humorous aspect. But even as Apple continues the version 10 technology, Microsoft is trying to do the same with Windows 10. Indeed Windows 10 will supposedly stick for a while, as Microsoft issues ongoing updates with obscure versioning. There won’t be a 10.1 or a 10.2. The current release branch is 1607, with the OS build number 14393.693. Oh, it all falls so smoothly from the tongue.

Oh, and as I was writing this column, I got a Windows 10 Insider Preview email from Microsoft listing a handful of new features, most of which I don’t care about.

The real question, however, is what Apple might offer with the presumed 10.13 release. Will it have a handful of goodies derived from iOS? Aside from the possible version number, the speculation is about the name and not much else. So maybe there aren’t enough builds in the wild to get a decent concept of what Apple’s looking for?

I would assume Apple will move the next macOS over to the new Apple File System (APFS) by default. APFS has already been rolled out for those of you who have downloaded the iOS 10.3 betas. By the way, it works just fine, and even boots a lot faster.

Aside from the new file system, at what point does Apple run out of compelling features to offer Mac users before trying to regurgitate stuff from its mobile system? Or maybe Apple could take a long look at what was offered back in the Classic Mac OS days, and see if there’s anything leftover that could be modified and brought over. Strangely enough, some long-time Mac users still lament over such things, but I don’t recall anything of significance anymore. The macOS of 2016 does a whole lot more and it’s a lot more stable.

I remember in the old days how my Mac would crash several times a day, even when it was apparently working properly. I saved documents constantly, but the quits and crashes seemed to almost always happen when a deadline loomed. Suddenly I was forced to restart the Mac, hope no files were hosed, and get back to business.

For a few weeks, I actually set up one of those utilities that allowed you to massively customize the look and function of key Mac OS features. I even got to know a developer or two who created such utilities. Nice people but their apps were almost always broken beyond belief. If I had a certain number of system crashes, the presence of such an add-on would invariably make things a whole lot worse.

I remember when I bought an early Power Macintosh with System 7.5.2, and it was a total nightmare. There was no way to keep it working long enough to prepare a decent-sized document. In those days Apple would not only release a maintenance update, but supplement it with a sub-version, such as a Update 2.0. It got pretty hairy in the days before Steve Jobs came back to Apple.

These days, I cannot recall when an app or the OS crashed on my Mac. I do act dangerously and grab the latest betas from Apple’s site. Sometimes a feature or two is broken, but since I always have a full clone backup in the ready when I run such an update, I can always restore my Mac to its pristine form if the need arises.

So yes, I do live dangerously, but always with a recent backup.

In any case, I am anxious to see what macOS 10.13 — if that’s what it’s going to be — will contain. The official word will come in just three months.

A common myth about the late Steve Jobs was that he came up with pretty much all the bright ideas that Apple implemented after he returned to the company he co-founded in 1997. Whether an all-new product, a feature, or a new service, he just snapped his fingers and it all magically came into existence.

Forgetting for a moment the real creation process at Apple, what happened if a product didn’t succeed? What about all the versions of Apple’s cloud-based service before iCloud arrived? iTools? .Mac? They all went by the wayside after a few years, and don’t get me started about Apple’s failed online service of the 1990s, eWorld. Based on AOL technology, it hung around for two years o rso before being shuttered. Jobs has nothing to do with it, since it debuted in 1994, and folded in 1996. I didn’t even get a chance to write a book about it.

Let’s not forget the infamous Power Macintosh G4 Cube. It appeared to be based on the original NeXTcube concept, and it was also unsuccessful. The Cube was criticized for being underpowered, overpriced, and lacking proper expansion features. Why not just buy a Power Macintosh G4? Well, the Cube looked nicer.

In any case, the Cube stuck me as little more than a pet project from Jobs. Regular readers will recall my recollections about the official MacOS X rollout media event in 2001. During a brief Q&A session, one reporter dared to ask Jobs to comment about rumors that the Cube would soon be discontinued. Jobs heatedly denied it, barking, “you don’t know what you are talking about!”

But the reporter had it right. The Cube was discontinued that summer.

Even when terrific and incredibly successful ideas emerged from Apple, that doesn’t mean Jobs immediately agreed to everything. Sometimes he had to be persuaded.

So there’s a published report about the creation of the Apple Store. This highly successful retail chain was cooked up by Jobs and retail genius Ron Johnson. Well, Johnson, whose tenure at J.C. Penney after leaving Apple failed miserably, claimed that he and Jobs “clicked from Day One,” during an interview with Recode’s Kara Swisher.

In telling the story of how the Apple Stores were developed, Johnson recalled how Jobs at first had his own ideas about one of the most important features of the fledgling chain.

“I remember the day I came in and told Steve about the Genius Bar idea and he says, ‘That’s so idiotic! It’ll never work!'”

Johnson said that Jobs told him, “Ron, you might have the right idea, but here’s the big gap: I’ve never met someone who knows technology who knows how to connect with people. They’re all geeks! You can call it the Geek Bar.”

So Johnson made his case. The very next day, Jobs reportedly contacted Apple’s general counsel to apply for a trademark to the phrase, “Genius Bar.”

An even more telling example is the App Store. When the iPhone was launched in 2007, Jobs vetoed the idea of supporting third-party native apps. Instead, Apple touted so-called web apps that would integrate with the Safari rendering engine. Jobs gave all sorts of reasons, such as the difficulties in policing app developers.

Web apps went nowhere, and Jobs finally caved. By October of 2007, he announced that Apple would release an SDK, software development kit, for native iPhone apps the following year. The App Store debuted in July, 2008. Nearly nine years later, history shows the App Store has been a major job creator and income producer. The latest estimates have it that some 1.4 million jobs were created, with total revenue of $60 billion generated over the past nine years.

Did Jobs even conceive of the ultimate success of the App Store when he finally agreed to give it a go? I recall his modest expectations for the iPhone, when he remarked that he would be happy to see the product garner one percent of the worldwide mobile handset market by the end of 2008.

Do you ever wonder whether the Apple Stores would have succeeded as it did if the Genius Bar was launched as a Geek Bar? Sort of reminds me of the Best Boy’s Greek Squad. I think the Genius Bar actually gave the stores more credibility with the general public.

When it comes to the App Store, Apple’s wasn’t the first. But it was designed in a way to ease the process of choosing and buying apps for the iPhone, and later the iPad. Many apps were free or really cheap, but it’s not that the App Store is necessarily perfect. You can complain that finding apps that aren’t being specially highlighted can be difficult, though Apple continues to attempt to improve the search feature.

The App Store has also served as the prototype for similar software repositories from other companies, particularly Google Play. But not everyone has been successful. The Microsoft Store continues to stay under the radar.

None of this denigrates the contribution Jobs made to Apple, although he had faults aplenty. But he also had an uncanny instinct for success, and he was right far more often than he was wrong. Still, it’s clear that he sometimes had to be persuaded to do the right thing.

I cannot remember where I read my first Apple rumor. Perhaps it was in the late, lamented MacWeek magazine, a trade journal that catered to computing professionals, or at least those who successfully filled out a questionnaire that supposedly listed your business credentials. Well, real or imagined at any rate. Although I kept forgetting just how many employees my alleged corporation was supposed to have, I was never refused a subscription, although it had to be renewed every year.

Well, MacWeek, and it was often referred to as “MacLeak,” had a notable rumor column penned by someone named “Mac the Knife.” It was said to have been written over the years by different writers under that house pen name, and there has been speculation as to whom. A possible descendant is the Macalope, who writes an often humorous column for Macworld that joys in tearing apart fake news about Apple.

I’m not prepared to guess who Mac the Knife really was, though I have known the people who were sometimes identified with the column. Perhaps one of those people later assumed the Macalope moniker, though I have my suspicions.

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