Apple has had a quick and triumphant rise over the past 20 years and most of that is thanks to them being on the forefront of innovation technologies. Apple has been taking risks with every new product they came out and forced the competition to evolve based on what they thought was going to be the future. One of the greatest products to come out of Apple in the past decade is definitely the iPhone. This single product launched Apple into an entirely different rank in the eyes of consumers and competition. Up until this point Apple was still Apple Computers Inc. and only created computers and iPods. This put them into a completely different playing field and they completely threw it for a loop. There had been touch screen "smart" phones before this, but none were done so well and elegantly ever before. From this point on Apple skyrocketed to the highest valued corporation it is today. After the iPhone came the next revolutionizing product, the iPad. Both of these products launched the smartphone and tablet industry and single handedly defined what a real smartphone and tablet was supposed to look and work like. Unfortunately though it seems that the innovation didn't get much farther than that. Apple had realized they struck gold with these two ideas, and seemingly decided to stop innovating and start capitalizing.
Image by www.abmuku.com
The iPhone and iPhone 3G were the beginning of a revolution. After that came the 3Gs - hmm, this seems quite a lot like the iPhone 3G, but that's okay I believe in Apple, the next iPhone will be amazing since they're taking their time with it. Then came the iPhone 4 with a completely different look and OS. This is fantastic, it looks great, but it does kinda seem the same. 16 months later came the iPhone 4s. What took so long? If it was going to take this long then it should've been amazing! I thought Apple was a company that took risks. There are other phones out there that are doing so many other things. Android had taken a large chunk out of Apple at this point with their massive line-up of phones on all carriers and manufactures. The phone's were decent but the software was still lacking. Apple was polished and professional, it was still for the creative and different thinkers where as Android was the IBM of the 90s. Just a few days later an announcement comes out that shakes the tech industry; Steve Jobs has passed away. The stocks plummet and people begin to question wether Apple will be able to keep being the great innovative and forward thinking company it has been over the last 30 years under Steve Jobs. Only time would be able to answer that question. The next year the iPhone 5 comes out with a great new software, iOS 6. It didn't look much different, but the OS was new and exciting. Apple was still professional and did begin to change towards a slightly different direction after Steve Jobs. Around this time was when people started doubting Apple and thought they might be doomed. Android, on the other hand, had started polishing their software as well as having gorgeous devices to go with it. Android had become Apple and Apple had become IBM or Microsoft. People still had hope and thought under the new management of Tim Cook they would be able to evolve with the rest of the industry. Unfortunately with the announcement of iOS 7, almost all hope was lost.
Image by http://businessinsider.com/
The iPhone had completely lost it's professional and sleek look. It was now a phone that appealed to a mass audience and was seen as the greatest common denominator. Something that everybody would buy, but not necessarily something everybody would think as the cutting edge of technology. Shortly thereafter came the iPhone 5s and 5c. By now the iPhone 5s was no surprise, a small speed bump and a silly feature made to seem revolutionary. The iPhone 5c was a kick in the face to all that Apple stood for. It was a plastic, colorful iPhone at the low cost of $99. They had a created a subpar version of the iPhone with a childish OS. At this point there was no turning back, Apple was now in the business of making money, not changing the way we think about how we use devices.
Image by http://money.cnn.com/
In the past year Apple has lost MANY loyal customers, myself included, and Apple doesn't seem to care because every year more and more people buy more and more iPhones. Each year is a record breaking opening sale, and because of that is the reason Apple has ditched the innovation and is now snuggled into it's giant bathtub of money as the piles keep rising. Why change a good thing, right?
Some of the resources I'm going to be using for this article is the multitude of opinion articles as well as Steve Jobs' Biography to show the innovation that once consumed Apple.
Resources:
Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.
Mims, Christoper. "Apple Is No Longer an Innovative Company, Says the Man Who Helped Steve Jobs Design the Mac." Quartz. N.p., 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://qz.com/123388/hartmut-esslinger-says-apple-no-longer-innovative-helped-steve-jobs-design-the-mac/>.
Cohan, Peter. "Apple's Innovation Problem." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/02/22/apples-innovation-problem/>.
F, Alan. "Report: Apple's Board Concerned about Lack of Innovation, Puts Pressure on CEO Cook." Phone Arena. Forbes Magazine, 8 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://www.phonearena.com/news/Report-Apples-board-concerned-about-lack-of-innovation-puts-pressure-on-CEO-Cook_id46220>.
I really like the idea behind your project. I share a similar view having just recently switched from Apple to an Android phone. I certainly agree with the points made here about the direction Apple is headed. One interesting thing to note that I said in class was that Apple, at least on the hardware side, has never really invented anything new. Just something to think about.
ReplyDelete