Apple’s Switch To FineWoven Material Is A Disaster
The new iPhones hit the streets last Friday. But what people are talking about are the FineWoven cases that hit the streets at the same time. FineWoven was Apple’s attempt to dump leather for environmental reasons. But I am wondering if they’re rethinking that as early reviews of the FineWoven cases show that nobody likes them. Let me illustrate this. The Verge said this:
Folks, what you’ve heard so far is true. Apple’s new FineWoven iPhone cases and accessories are bad. Like, really bad. I’ve been puzzling over them for the past week, looking at them from different angles. Picking them up, setting them down, petting them. Seven days later, I still can’t make sense of them and have no other choice but to say it out loud: FineWoven is very bad.
We hoped with the introduction of Apple’s FineWoven, we’d see a new premium alternative that would be even more durable while looking and feeling just as nice. We didn’t get it.
What we got was a cheap plastic case with an ultra-thin layer of the Apple-custom FineWoven material — which isn’t great — on the back to try to elevate it.
It’s hard to picture this case in a suitable state after six months of use. Maybe we’ll be surprised, but given what we’re seeing so far, we doubt it.
That’s not good. And this picture from Parker Ortolani seems to back up AppleInsider’s thoughts:
Not good. And it shows that Apple has made a huge swing and a miss here. If Apple was going to replace leather with something else, it needed to be demonstrably the same quality or better quality than leather. The early reviews indicate that it isn’t even close to being the same or better than leather. It’s in fact worse. And what makes things worse, they’re priced the same as the now discontinued leather case from Apple.
Talk about a slap in the face.
Apple’s attempt to take the moral high ground by saying that leather is bad and it has the answer to that problem has failed miserably because FineWoven is not the answer to that problem. Apple really needs to kill FineWoven as it is a dumpster fire that has opened up accessory sales to companies like Nomad or Mujjo who still sell leather cases. Which is an unforced error on their part. That is on top of the fact that this is also a PR disaster. Now it is possible that Apple may decide to have a “courage” moment and try to ride this out. But I honestly think that this would be a mistake. Apple needs to cut its losses and move on. And the sooner the better.
This entry was posted on September 26, 2023 at 10:29 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Apple’s Switch To FineWoven Material Is A Disaster
The new iPhones hit the streets last Friday. But what people are talking about are the FineWoven cases that hit the streets at the same time. FineWoven was Apple’s attempt to dump leather for environmental reasons. But I am wondering if they’re rethinking that as early reviews of the FineWoven cases show that nobody likes them. Let me illustrate this. The Verge said this:
Folks, what you’ve heard so far is true. Apple’s new FineWoven iPhone cases and accessories are bad. Like, really bad. I’ve been puzzling over them for the past week, looking at them from different angles. Picking them up, setting them down, petting them. Seven days later, I still can’t make sense of them and have no other choice but to say it out loud: FineWoven is very bad.
AppleInsider said this:
We hoped with the introduction of Apple’s FineWoven, we’d see a new premium alternative that would be even more durable while looking and feeling just as nice. We didn’t get it.
What we got was a cheap plastic case with an ultra-thin layer of the Apple-custom FineWoven material — which isn’t great — on the back to try to elevate it.
It’s hard to picture this case in a suitable state after six months of use. Maybe we’ll be surprised, but given what we’re seeing so far, we doubt it.
That’s not good. And this picture from Parker Ortolani seems to back up AppleInsider’s thoughts:
Not good. And it shows that Apple has made a huge swing and a miss here. If Apple was going to replace leather with something else, it needed to be demonstrably the same quality or better quality than leather. The early reviews indicate that it isn’t even close to being the same or better than leather. It’s in fact worse. And what makes things worse, they’re priced the same as the now discontinued leather case from Apple.
Talk about a slap in the face.
Apple’s attempt to take the moral high ground by saying that leather is bad and it has the answer to that problem has failed miserably because FineWoven is not the answer to that problem. Apple really needs to kill FineWoven as it is a dumpster fire that has opened up accessory sales to companies like Nomad or Mujjo who still sell leather cases. Which is an unforced error on their part. That is on top of the fact that this is also a PR disaster. Now it is possible that Apple may decide to have a “courage” moment and try to ride this out. But I honestly think that this would be a mistake. Apple needs to cut its losses and move on. And the sooner the better.
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This entry was posted on September 26, 2023 at 10:29 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.