Apple: Still Relevant?

The other day I shared a post to my facebook, which featured a link to a forbes.com article called "Best Laptops 2018: Pixelbook Vs. MacBook Pro 13 Vs. HP Spectre 13 Vs. Dell XPS 13 (Review)" and one line of hyperbole from me:

"tl;dr Google's Pixelbook is awesome, Mac's are garbage".

As you can imagine, this sparked a heated, two-day conversation about the Microsoft Surface Pro.

Wait what?

Yeah, don't ask. I don't know either.

Random Surface Pro tangent aside, the conversation also got me thinking about Apple Inc and it's recent innovations - or lack thereof.

I should preface this by at least attempting to convince you that the purpose of this post is not to Apple-bash. While I will have very few positive things to say about Apple in this post, I'd like to think my claims and assertions are based on objective reason, and not fanboism.

One of the guys involved in this heated discussion, who was actually trying to stay somewhat on topic, told me that Apple was very innovative, and asked me "what has Google ever invented that wasn't a derivative of something else".

It was an odd question, since I hadn't made any claims about Google's track record of inventing things, but it got me thinking, "What the heck has APPLE invented that wasn't just a derivative of something else?".

I posed this question, and unsurprisingly, did not receive an answer.

So I decided to do a bit of "journalism" and look at what Apple has been innovating these last few years, and compare it to what other companies have been doing, just for fun.

Let's take a look at Apples 2017 WWDC event where they announce what they're working on and what fun new products we can expect from them.

They announced the typical things, new version of iOS, updated iPad Pro, MackBook Pro and MacBook, iMac, iMac Pro, Apple Watch etc etc.

The two things that were "new" were High Sierra, which is apparently "new technologies" that enhance the performance of your Mac, and Home Pod, Apples "me too!" version of Amazon's Echo and Google's Google Home.

Nothing really innovative there. The Home Pod, utilizes Apples voice activated "smart" assistant Siri, and unsurprisingly costs over twice as much as a Google Home or Amazon Echo. The reviews are...unkind. So not only is it not innovative, being the third device of it's kind to hit the market, it's also not even good. Google was second to market with their Google Home, but at least it's good.

And High Sierra...? Booooring. "...new core technologies that improve the most important functions of your Mac". So you...made improvements to your OS. Neat. You're definitely the first company to ever do that.

OK well you can't be innovative EVERY year right? Maybe it was just a bad year. Let's take a look at 2016.

Let's see...new iOS, macOS Sierra, the predecessor to High Sierra, Apple Watch, Apple TV does 4K now, that's neat. Some app for teaching kids how to code, that's cool I guess.

OK surely they innovated something in 2015.

New OSX, new iOS, Siri gets more useful, Apple Pay comes to the UK, Apple Maps sucks a little bit less, changes to the news app, Apple watch stuff. Oh! Apple Music! That's new!

In a surprising move, Apple not only created a music streaming app to compete with Google Music, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime Music, SoundCloud, Slacker, Deezer, iHeartRadio etc etc, but they made it available on all devices.

(Well, maybe not all devices)

Sadly, it appears as if iTunes is required to use Apple Music. Despite the fact that Google Music, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, etc etc all work quite well in the browser.

Apple Music is neat, but much like the Home Pod, it's not new, and it's not better. It's just a "me too" product. Not only is it not innovative, it seems to be taking a step backwards, requiring iTunes to even work.

I could keep going, but I think you get the picture. I don't know if Apple's recent lack of innovation has anything to do with the untimely death of Steve Jobs, or not, but one thing's pretty clear at this point; Apple has lost it's mojo. They're not making particularly bad products (although many have expressed their dissatisfaction with Apple's laptop lineup recently), but they're just not doing anything great. It's this writer's humble opinion that Apple hasn't innovated anything since the iPod, which I must admit totally blew my mind. For years, my 20GB non color iPod was my most prized possession.

Every year is the same, slightly updated version of previously existing products. Apple's steadily making their laptops a little thinner, a little lighter, and a little shinier.

Meanwhile Microsoft somehow turned the Surface Pro line from a garbage tablet with the most garbage touch pad/keyboard ever conceived by man into a really nice 2 in 1 device that's a joy to use; Google provided Peurto Rico with internet service via freaking weather balloons after their hurricane; Amazon is working on delivering your packages via drones; Elon Musk is boring (see what I did there?).

Even Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Isaacson has gone on record as saying Apple is no longer the most innovative company.

So what happened? Was Steve Jobs to Apple what Michael Jordan was to the Chicago Bulls? Are they nothing without him? Is this all just karma after Steve Jobs said Apple would never make a 7" tablet and they had barely finished putting him in the ground before they were announcing a 7" tablet? Are they just being lazy and riding their own coat tails for awhile?

I don't have an answer. If I had to guess I would say it's probably leadership. Tim Cook just doesn't have what Steve Jobs had. Tim Cook knows he can still bring in bajillions of dollars every year and all he has to do is keep selling the same stuff with slightly better specs each year. Steve Jobs was clearly much more invested in the company, emotionally, not just financially.

It's no surprise to me that the company which just about disappeared in his absence once, has failed to do anything new or exciting now that he's gone forever. Luckily for them, Steve built the company so well that it's probably never going to see the same problems they saw the first time he left. At least not for several years anyway.

Maybe they're working on something YUUUUGE right now and it's taking all of their time and resources and it's all they can even do to give us a refresh of their current line of products each year. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

References:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2018/01/28/best-laptop-2018-pixelbook-vs-macbook-pro-13-vs-hp-spectre-13-vs-dell-xps-13-review/#425f7a3859d4

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/09/aspens-walter-isaacson-apple-no-longer-most-innovative-of-companies.html

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2017/

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2016/

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/2015-june-event/

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/alexa-vs-siri-vs-google,review-4772.html