Overall interest in Apple products and the technology industry at large have been on a downturn for years. While there is no obvious short-term impact, big tech has already begun shifting away some of its financial power and focus away from hardware and onto greener pastures.
According to Google's own data, searches for technology companies like Apple and others have been on an overall downward trajectory since 2016. Although that doesn't prove anything on its own, it and other data points suggest an overall decline in interest in the technology sphere from the populace as a whole.
It isn't possible to point at one specific reason behind the general downturn. Of course, if you take a look at the state of the world between 2016 and 2022, it's easy to see why there might be a declining interest in technology, generally.
onto greener pastures.
According to Google's own data, searches for technology companies like Apple and others have been on an overall downward trajectory since 2016. Although that doesn't prove anything on its own, it and other data points suggest an overall decline in interest in the technology sphere from the populace as a whole.
It isn't possible to point at one specific reason behind the general downturn. Of course, if you take a look at the state of the world between 2016 and 2022, it's easy to see why there might be a declining interest in technology, generally.
External factors
The general search downturn for consumer product companies like Apple and Google has been on the decline since 2016. It doesn't take a good memory to realize what else happened that year.
A lot has happened in the last four years, both in the U.S. and across the globe. Even people who aren't plugged into the daily news cycle probably had more of their bandwidth taken up by controversies and catastrophes than normal.
Between political scandals, European ground wars, and global pandemics, there's no doubt that we are living in interesting times. When you only have so much time in a day to "doom scroll" and Google obscure political processes, you have less time to devote to searching for the latest trend in technology.
It doesn't take a psychologist to realize that many people are likely burned out. We only have so much brainpower to devote to ideas and concepts on a daily basis. Since the 2016 election and the global pandemic, many people's reserves of caring about less significant thoughts are likely expended.
More than that, the devolution of political discourse has almost undoubtedly bled into other areas. You're much more likely to Google something — and possibly provide a hot take — when it's bad or controversial than when it's working just fine.
Take a lot at the times when technology dominated the news cycle since 2016. In almost every case, it was because of a controversial feature or a whistleblower report. Apple's CSAM detection system gained much more ground in the popular press than its Self Service Repair program, which represented a significant reversal in policy.
That brings us to another important fact to keep in mind. Technology has been working "just fine" for the vast majority of the populace for years.
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