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Lack of `innovation' seems accusatory and unfair, however. Apple hardly seems to be resting on their laurels, they simply have delivered a product that satisfie

Lack of `innovation' seems accusatory and unfair, however. Apple hardly seems to be resting on their laurels, they simply have delivered a product that satisfies most consumer needs fully. And now it's at the point of trying to push out new needs. The neural engine on the A12, for instance. Tiny power consumption and massive performance could be a game changer. But it isn't because there is nothing in the user space that needs it, yet. And really Apple's game isn't to usurp last year's phone in some massive way -- it's to compel the year before to upgrade. e.g. an iPhone XR or XS for the iPhone 7 user. Even that is getting tough because the devices were already so good that outside of battery decay many users are 100% pleased. It was an inevitable outcome that the market would mature, and there is very close to nothing that Apple could do but push to additional markets. They foolishly tried to make up the difference through extra premium pricing and that was just folly.

zepto 8y ago
I get that people might hear lack of ‘innovation’ as an accusation, and that’s fair because usually it’s used in a bullshit way. I don’t define innovation as improving things for the sake of it. I think of it as delivering meaningful improvements to the end user. To me, Apple has been the master of this kind of innovation. Your point about the A12 neural engine proves what I’m saying. I’m not saying Apple is resting on it’s laurels - that’s something of a straw man. I think what Apple is achieving technically is outstanding. I also don’t accept the inevitability of the ‘outcome’ that Apple has fully satisfied people’s needs or that the market would ‘mature’. Most of the ‘needs’ that the iPhone X serves didn’t even exist when the first iPhone came out. The idea that the iPhone X represents the pinnacle of what a pocket computer can do for a human being seems almost absurd to me. If you think about it as a bicycle for the mind, as Jobs famously did, almost every dimension of the system has room for more depth. I’d like to assume Apple knows this, and that there is a lot more to come. However I still think that in terms of the pipeline of delivering innovation to end users, it’s fair to say that the iPhone is in a patch of friction.
- endorphone 8y ago
  "Most of the ‘needs’ that the iPhone X serves didn’t even exist when the first iPhone came out." Didn't they? It takes pictures. It sends emails and messages. It watches media. It listens to music. It plays games. It's a web terminal. It's an alarm clock. All of these needs most certainly existed, and the iPhone has sold billions of units by fulfilling those needs beautifully in a more convenient, portable fashion. Of course the market matures. Beyond some hand-wavy nebulous conjecture, there is a limit to what the device can do without getting into science fiction, especially when your basis of comparison is one year over the next. If the complaint is that Apple hasn't completely upset everything in a single year, that's a completely unreasonable, irrational expectation.
  - zepto 8y ago
    Nowhere is anyone complaining that Apple hasn’t upset everything in a single year. Nice straw man though. At one point, the iPhone itself was science fiction. The iPhone X was science fiction when the iPhone came out. Even after the iPhone came out people continued to be dismissive of its potential. By all means be like them and believe that pocket computers are now done. My point is twofold - one is that I think there is a huge room for continued progress in this field. And the other is that the path of progress of the iPhone has involved delivering significant capabilities that enabled people to interact with it in new ways, and this has driven demand. The rate of delivering those new ways of interacting has slowed. We both agree on that. But you think that’s because there is no more progress to be made and that pocket computers will not gain meaningful new features. I don’t believe that.
    - endorphone 8y ago
      Everything isn't a "straw man". You specifically highlighted the, to you, negligible difference between the iPhone X and iPhone XS -- phones over a one year difference, yet still with a number of significant improvements -- and when I questioned that you claimed that I must therefore believe that the iPhone XS is the "pinnacle of a pocket computer". Which is of course absurd. But you are jumping between "not enough change over a year" and "over an infinite timeline imagine what is possible". Try to rationalize your thoughts.

zepto 8y ago

I get that people might hear lack of ‘innovation’ as an accusation, and that’s fair because usually it’s used in a bullshit way. I don’t define innovation as improving things for the sake of it. I think of it as delivering meaningful improvements to the end user. To me, Apple has been the master of this kind of innovation. Your point about the A12 neural engine proves what I’m saying. I’m not saying Apple is resting on it’s laurels - that’s something of a straw man. I think what Apple is achieving technically is outstanding. I also don’t accept the inevitability of the ‘outcome’ that Apple has fully satisfied people’s needs or that the market would ‘mature’. Most of the ‘needs’ that the iPhone X serves didn’t even exist when the first iPhone came out. The idea that the iPhone X represents the pinnacle of what a pocket computer can do for a human being seems almost absurd to me. If you think about it as a bicycle for the mind, as Jobs famously did, almost every dimension of the system has room for more depth. I’d like to assume Apple knows this, and that there is a lot more to come. However I still think that in terms of the pipeline of delivering innovation to end users, it’s fair to say that the iPhone is in a patch of friction.

endorphone 8y ago
"Most of the ‘needs’ that the iPhone X serves didn’t even exist when the first iPhone came out." Didn't they? It takes pictures. It sends emails and messages. It watches media. It listens to music. It plays games. It's a web terminal. It's an alarm clock. All of these needs most certainly existed, and the iPhone has sold billions of units by fulfilling those needs beautifully in a more convenient, portable fashion. Of course the market matures. Beyond some hand-wavy nebulous conjecture, there is a limit to what the device can do without getting into science fiction, especially when your basis of comparison is one year over the next. If the complaint is that Apple hasn't completely upset everything in a single year, that's a completely unreasonable, irrational expectation.
- zepto 8y ago
  Nowhere is anyone complaining that Apple hasn’t upset everything in a single year. Nice straw man though. At one point, the iPhone itself was science fiction. The iPhone X was science fiction when the iPhone came out. Even after the iPhone came out people continued to be dismissive of its potential. By all means be like them and believe that pocket computers are now done. My point is twofold - one is that I think there is a huge room for continued progress in this field. And the other is that the path of progress of the iPhone has involved delivering significant capabilities that enabled people to interact with it in new ways, and this has driven demand. The rate of delivering those new ways of interacting has slowed. We both agree on that. But you think that’s because there is no more progress to be made and that pocket computers will not gain meaningful new features. I don’t believe that.
  - endorphone 8y ago
    Everything isn't a "straw man". You specifically highlighted the, to you, negligible difference between the iPhone X and iPhone XS -- phones over a one year difference, yet still with a number of significant improvements -- and when I questioned that you claimed that I must therefore believe that the iPhone XS is the "pinnacle of a pocket computer". Which is of course absurd. But you are jumping between "not enough change over a year" and "over an infinite timeline imagine what is possible". Try to rationalize your thoughts.