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Upon Steve Job's return one of the many decisions he did was to axe the Research group within Apple. His explanation was simply: no one does R in the valley any

Upon Steve Job's return one of the many decisions he did was to axe the Research group within Apple. His explanation was simply: no one does R in the valley anymore. The sole survivor of that group was QuickTime while over the years what Apple has always excelled at has been development and an eye for seeing innovation and bring that home. iPod: contracted. iTunes: bought. Most of the pro tools: bought. Computers: integration of OEM parts. Displays: rebadged. And they've been able to gain marketshare like crazy and release products that people lust for. On the consumer front what has Microsoft presented to the world even with their massive research division? Talking Barney dolls? A house full of quirky tech they keep showing off every chance they get? Surface? Zune? Xbox?

sabat 19y ago
"iPod: contracted." The physical manufacturing, yeah, but I'm pretty sure the hardware designers are Apple employees. "iTunes: bought." The basis for it was purchased, yes. It was nothing like it is now. The thing with Apple is that they tend to take germs of ideas and see them through to full realization. Mac OS, you could say, was just a clone of the OS that ran the Xerox Star. But the Star's OS was crude compared to the Mac's (even in the earliest versions).
- alaskamiller 19y ago
  Tony Fadell started out as a contractor here at Apple. He brought him his designs for a media player and a team merged that with the small hard drives that Hitachi was peddling and from there on it grew into the original iPod prototype. Tony is now a VP. iTunes was bought, sure the codebase (rebooted from 4.0 and onward) is different but it was bought in. Just like almost all the pro tools and that has now since been revamped. My point still stands: after Steve Jobs came back what Apple has really done well is taking parts/ideas off the shelves and developing them into wonderful consumer products.
  - sabat 19y ago
    The innovation people are talking about is in taking germs of ideas and making them blossom into full potential -- that includes developing new ideas along the way. Just like Mac OS came from the Star.

sabat 19y ago

"iPod: contracted." The physical manufacturing, yeah, but I'm pretty sure the hardware designers are Apple employees. "iTunes: bought." The basis for it was purchased, yes. It was nothing like it is now. The thing with Apple is that they tend to take germs of ideas and see them through to full realization. Mac OS, you could say, was just a clone of the OS that ran the Xerox Star. But the Star's OS was crude compared to the Mac's (even in the earliest versions).

alaskamiller 19y ago
Tony Fadell started out as a contractor here at Apple. He brought him his designs for a media player and a team merged that with the small hard drives that Hitachi was peddling and from there on it grew into the original iPod prototype. Tony is now a VP. iTunes was bought, sure the codebase (rebooted from 4.0 and onward) is different but it was bought in. Just like almost all the pro tools and that has now since been revamped. My point still stands: after Steve Jobs came back what Apple has really done well is taking parts/ideas off the shelves and developing them into wonderful consumer products.
- sabat 19y ago
  The innovation people are talking about is in taking germs of ideas and making them blossom into full potential -- that includes developing new ideas along the way. Just like Mac OS came from the Star.