5 ms·

The most crucial sentence is the following: > "For years, it has been clear that there is no next iPhone." Now that Apple has failed to deliver a big step forw

The most crucial sentence is the following: > "For years, it has been clear that there is no next iPhone." Now that Apple has failed to deliver a big step forward with the Vision Pro or Apple Car, its retreat into AI suggests it's chasing trends to keep up interest as it struggles to chart a defining next step. and also: > The drawbacks of Cook's divestment from product design and development are now becoming clearer. While Cook is no Ballmer, his time is reminiscent of many other companies that slowly lose touch with product design and tend towards their brand as an end-all-be-all answer.

JKCalhoun 2y ago
But what consumer product has there been that Apple missed in the past decade or so? There are inevitable periods of drought in the tech-consumer space. And if you think Apple should just "invent a thing" ... they've never really done that.
- mdorazio 2y ago
  I think this is a good point. Apple’s product innovation has historically been to take something that already exists but isn’t very good and turn it into a top-tier product for the mass market. Looking at things as widespread as even the iPad in the last 10 years, it’s really been services rather than devices. Netflix, Uber, food delivery, etc. You could make an argument for wireless earbuds, bud Apple does pretty well with AirPods. They tried with VR and electric cars - the former remains niche and the latter failed.
- piva00 2y ago
  > And if you think Apple should just "invent a thing" ... they've never really done that. Some people seem to miss that Apple has been a really, really good integrator of technologies into their products. Their innovation edge is in polishing existing technologies into a more cohesive and complete whole. The early Macs lifted GUIs into a useful computer, blatantly stealing tech from Xerox PARC and polishing it. The iPod was the polished version of MP3 players, those existed much earlier than when the iPod released but the iPod was a very ergonomic solution. The iPhone polished touchscreen interfaces, and the experience of navigating the web on a phone, all of that existed previously, they just made it better. The polish has value, it made a lot of tech quite useful in the mainstream and the focus on the experience of using them is what always gave Apple an edge. They don't make the most tinkerable/power-user friendly devices and that's not their business, as much as we like to complain about that on HN and other geeky places, the real users of Apple devices don't care about that aspect if the experience works really well for them.
  - mike_hearn 2y ago
    Well, except for the Apple TV, which isn't actually a TV and thus "fights" with the actual TV, duplicating its menus, services and features. Making an integrated TV would seem to be an obvious move where stuff doesn't work well (saying that as the owner of a sad Sony Android TV).
    - piva00 2y ago
      TV hardware has such low margins that I don't think it's worth the hassle for Apple. I actually much prefer to have my Apple TV and just plug into new screens if I swap them, there are pretty decent panels in the market that I don't think I'd ever purchase an Apple-branded TV just for the sake of having an embedded tvOS in it. Might be I'm a special case but I haven't touched the TV remote in many years, I turn it on through whatever device I'm using and when I switch the device off my TV switches off as well.
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  > But what consumer product has there been that Apple missed in the past decade or so? There are some obvious consumer products with very ropey user interfaces, which are already invented, where Apple could have had a big impact: 1. Games consoles. Microsoft is giving up on the Xbox, even, so the field is open for more competition. It's well within Apple's bailiwick, being just a specialized locked down computer. 2. Televisions. Actual TVs, not the Apple TV set top box. 3. eBook readers. The ones with eInk displays that last a super long time. 4. Kitchen equipment. There seems to be an unwritten rule that all kitchen equipment must have terrible user interfaces. 5. Heck they could have another go at the workstation/laptop market. It's not like MacOS is the last word in workstation design. 6. Printers/copiers. They all suck. Yes I know Apple used to do these and got out due to lack of focus, but they didn't have the same culture around quality in the 90s. 7. The web. Yeah, the app store is sort of a parallel non-web ecosystem but not really.
darkerside 2y ago
Why is Cook no Ballmer? Both seem like competent but maligned CEOs who ruthlessly capitalized on their predecessors' innovations, resulting in tremendous cash flow and short term shareholder value while neglecting to chat a course for creating meaningful user value in new ways in the future.
- Invictus0 2y ago
  Tim Cook grew apple massively since he took over, Ballmer left without growing Microsoft's market cap at all.

JKCalhoun 2y ago

But what consumer product has there been that Apple missed in the past decade or so? There are inevitable periods of drought in the tech-consumer space. And if you think Apple should just "invent a thing" ... they've never really done that.

mdorazio 2y ago
I think this is a good point. Apple’s product innovation has historically been to take something that already exists but isn’t very good and turn it into a top-tier product for the mass market. Looking at things as widespread as even the iPad in the last 10 years, it’s really been services rather than devices. Netflix, Uber, food delivery, etc. You could make an argument for wireless earbuds, bud Apple does pretty well with AirPods. They tried with VR and electric cars - the former remains niche and the latter failed.
piva00 2y ago
> And if you think Apple should just "invent a thing" ... they've never really done that. Some people seem to miss that Apple has been a really, really good integrator of technologies into their products. Their innovation edge is in polishing existing technologies into a more cohesive and complete whole. The early Macs lifted GUIs into a useful computer, blatantly stealing tech from Xerox PARC and polishing it. The iPod was the polished version of MP3 players, those existed much earlier than when the iPod released but the iPod was a very ergonomic solution. The iPhone polished touchscreen interfaces, and the experience of navigating the web on a phone, all of that existed previously, they just made it better. The polish has value, it made a lot of tech quite useful in the mainstream and the focus on the experience of using them is what always gave Apple an edge. They don't make the most tinkerable/power-user friendly devices and that's not their business, as much as we like to complain about that on HN and other geeky places, the real users of Apple devices don't care about that aspect if the experience works really well for them.
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  Well, except for the Apple TV, which isn't actually a TV and thus "fights" with the actual TV, duplicating its menus, services and features. Making an integrated TV would seem to be an obvious move where stuff doesn't work well (saying that as the owner of a sad Sony Android TV).
  - piva00 2y ago
    TV hardware has such low margins that I don't think it's worth the hassle for Apple. I actually much prefer to have my Apple TV and just plug into new screens if I swap them, there are pretty decent panels in the market that I don't think I'd ever purchase an Apple-branded TV just for the sake of having an embedded tvOS in it. Might be I'm a special case but I haven't touched the TV remote in many years, I turn it on through whatever device I'm using and when I switch the device off my TV switches off as well.
mike_hearn 2y ago
> But what consumer product has there been that Apple missed in the past decade or so? There are some obvious consumer products with very ropey user interfaces, which are already invented, where Apple could have had a big impact: 1. Games consoles. Microsoft is giving up on the Xbox, even, so the field is open for more competition. It's well within Apple's bailiwick, being just a specialized locked down computer. 2. Televisions. Actual TVs, not the Apple TV set top box. 3. eBook readers. The ones with eInk displays that last a super long time. 4. Kitchen equipment. There seems to be an unwritten rule that all kitchen equipment must have terrible user interfaces. 5. Heck they could have another go at the workstation/laptop market. It's not like MacOS is the last word in workstation design. 6. Printers/copiers. They all suck. Yes I know Apple used to do these and got out due to lack of focus, but they didn't have the same culture around quality in the 90s. 7. The web. Yeah, the app store is sort of a parallel non-web ecosystem but not really.

darkerside 2y ago

Why is Cook no Ballmer? Both seem like competent but maligned CEOs who ruthlessly capitalized on their predecessors' innovations, resulting in tremendous cash flow and short term shareholder value while neglecting to chat a course for creating meaningful user value in new ways in the future.

Invictus0 2y ago
Tim Cook grew apple massively since he took over, Ballmer left without growing Microsoft's market cap at all.