My 2025 Apple Report Card
Like I said the other day, writing is cathartic.
Earlier this week, Jason Snell published the annual Apple Report Card at Six Colors. I’ve been privileged to be asked to participate for the last several years, with 2025 being no different. As you’d presume, my primary focus in completing the survey—which, incidentally, I did prior to my seismic life change earlier this month—is accessibility.
“It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple. The whole idea here is to get a broad sense of sentiment—the ‘vibe in the room’—regarding the past year. (And by looking at previous survey results, we can even see how that sentiment has drifted over the course of an entire decade.),” Snell wrote on Monday. “This is the eleventh year that I’ve presented this survey to my hand-selected group. They were prompted with 14 different Apple-related subjects, and asked to rate them on a scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best) and optionally provide text commentary per category.”
Snell also posted all 32,000 words worth of the panelists’ verbatim responses.
You can see my commentary in the verbatim story, but I’m sharing them here as well.
iPhone (My score: 5)
“Perfection is seemingly unattainable, but I feel as though the iPhone line is most proximal. I chose an iPhone Air as my new phone for its thinness and lightness, and despite some lingering feelings of missing another camera lens or two, I have no complaints whatsoever.”
iPad (My score: 4)
“I have a dichotomous relationship with the iPad. On one hand, I applaud Apple for finally making iPadOS more “Mac-like” with the new-is-old windowing paradigm and everything else. From a disability standpoint, there’s a cogent argument for a 13“ iPad and iPadOS 26 being a more accessible ‘laptop replacement’ for a certain class of people with disabilities. In my case, though, as much as I appreciate my 13” M4 iPad Pro, my gut keeps saying I’ve left the iPadOS-for-productivity train forever. Give me an OLED iPad mini and I’ll be ecstatic.”
Wearables (My score: 4)
“I love my Apple Watch and AirPods. They do what I want them to do, reliably and with aplomb. I discovered in the past year that I gravitate towards the AirPods 4 with ANC than my ‘old’ AirPods Pro 2. I find the fit and audio fidelity of the AirPods 4 to be just as good, and I get wireless charging and a smaller case to boot. As to Vision Pro, my usage ebbed and flowed in 2025. I continue to enjoy it and admire its capabilities, but the app story remains the biggest pain point as players like Netflix, YouTube TV, Channels (for OTA TV via HDHomeRun) remain absent from visionOS and thus limits the Vision Pro’s appeal as a more accessible entertainment vehicle.”
Home (My score: 3)
“I’m completing my part of the survey while listening to music on my OG HomePod, which still works perfectly. I use it every day in my office for podcasts and music. The HomePod minis strewn about the house are great for timers and controlling lamps. I’m not really longing for more from them, however old they may be. HomeKit makes my house more accessible, with my only want being the mythical smart display that’s purported to come.”
Apple TV (My score: 2)
“I’m always say, with some jest, the Apple TV 4K is laughably over-engineered for its primary purpose: streaming video. I appreciate the horsepower for its performance, but the box’s problem isn’t hardware (twinsies, iPad!)—tvOS could be so much more robust than a static grid of icons. I keep waiting, with unbated breath, the platform will receive its iOS 7-like glow-up. Amazon and Google have implemented good ideas Apple should steal for itself.”
Services (My score: 2)
“iCloud, Apple TV, Apple Pay, and Apple Music all work great for me. Apple TV’s new intro logo is delightful. I love it so much that I’ll occasionally rewind a show just to see it again.”
Hardware Reliability (My score: 5)
“Put it this way: I just decommissioned my 7-year-old Retina 4K iMac because I wanted to go Apple silicon on macOS full-time and Tahoe isn’t supported. But the hardware—especially the panel—remains exquisite for its age. I expect my new Pro Display XDR to age just as well, if not even better. The thing is built almost like a literal tank.”
Software Quality (My score: 4)
“Apple’s platforms and apps have always been perfectly fine for me. I know there was a lot of consternation for Liquid Glass, but I like it and haven’t encountered any egregious usability problems. I think the fact Apple added some customization options for appearance was tacit recognition the Liquid Glass demoed at WWDC went too far in places, so the options are a sign of correction. From an accessibility point of view, Apple’s stated goal of Liquid Glass bringing ‘coherence’ and ‘consistency’ to its panoply of platforms is a worthy, righteous goal. The community has, and does, bemoan certain elements of the design—but just because Apple failed in certain respects doesn’t mean the overarching idea is bad.”
World Impact (My score: 4)
“As a lifelong disabled person who copes with multiple conditions, I will stump up and down for Apple’s staunch commitment to serving my community vis-a-vis accessibility. The company isn’t perfect here either, but it makes the most effort of anyone in the industry to make people like me feel seen and valued. That isn’t trivial, and it’s something Apple shoulder be lauded more far more often. The iPadOS power users would do well to remember the pointer feature has origins in the AssistiveTouch suite. Apple has innovated to empower people, then went on to take those ideas and build on them for the mainstream.”
