4 ms·

They do lack a driven visionary, which was instrumental to all their revival and recent success.

kposehn 13y ago
Ive.
gfodor 13y ago
The effect of losing Jobs is potentially borne out in two ways: - Lack of attention to detail in all new products (software, hardware) - High-level loss of strategy The first effect is something that we could probably expect to see right away if the legends are true. It's debatable if Apple has lost their edge wrt to "shipping it when it's ready." (See: Maps) High-level loss of strategy, however, is not something that will really be knowable for a much longer time period. Apple's high-level strategy was probably set out for the next 10 years while Jobs was still around. Major disruptive technology or trends notwithstanding, I'd imagine Apple will follow the path he laid out. The point is that any analysts pointing to Apple's lack of blockbuster product releases as being due to Jobs' untimely death are ridiculous, since it assumes the 5-10 year product roadmap they surely had evaporated when he died. (Nevermind the countless prototypes of future products they were probably working on with him.) If analysts want to obsess over the "Jobs is gone so Apple is doomed" narrative, they best focus on places where Apple is producing poorly-designed products that lack attention to detail. There's a dearth of these types of articles, they almost all focus on the "oh my God, Apple hasn't released any new product lines in the period since Jobs died, they must not be working on anything cool!" (The reason being most analysts don't know shit about what makes for good design and how to recognize it, and are not in a position to properly critique Apple's products beyond how their margins are shrinking and OMG SAMSUNG) It's beyond stupid to assume there are not many internal projects at Apple going on, the big question is if when they ship, if they are worthy of the Apple brand. The truth is, we just don't know. If anything, the lull in the product release cycle we are experiencing may point to the fact that Apple is more than willing to continue to work on stuff until it's ready, which is a core attribute of what has made Apple successful.
- cageface 13y ago
  iOS 7 seems like exactly the kind of inattention to detail people have dreaded since Jobs left. Hard to imagine he would have rubber stamped something so ugly and inconsistent.
  - gfodor 13y ago
    Maybe. I'm letting it bake a bit. Generally speaking, radically new stuff from Apple is roundly rejected initially by the digerati. I agree some stuff seems weird but I think a lot of designers don't "get" what they're going for.
    - cageface 13y ago
      To me it looks amateur, which is what I'd expect from a UI design done by a hardware guy. Giving the design job to Ive instead of somebody with the right background is Cook's first really serious mistake, IMO.
    - jgeorge 13y ago
      I'm seeing about 50/50 content of tech postings of "Apple is failing to innovate" and "Apple's latest innovations really suck". I'm not entirely sure I know what they've done to deserve the ire of the tech media lately, but they've certainly done something for all the "Apple can do no right" commentary I've seen lately. (Not saying all of it is undeserved, but it seems like there's a lot more dog-piling happening than actual considered criticism of the company's direction).

Ive.

The effect of losing Jobs is potentially borne out in two ways: - Lack of attention to detail in all new products (software, hardware) - High-level loss of strategy The first effect is something that we could probably expect to see right away if the legends are true. It's debatable if Apple has lost their edge wrt to "shipping it when it's ready." (See: Maps) High-level loss of strategy, however, is not something that will really be knowable for a much longer time period. Apple's high-level strategy was probably set out for the next 10 years while Jobs was still around. Major disruptive technology or trends notwithstanding, I'd imagine Apple will follow the path he laid out. The point is that any analysts pointing to Apple's lack of blockbuster product releases as being due to Jobs' untimely death are ridiculous, since it assumes the 5-10 year product roadmap they surely had evaporated when he died. (Nevermind the countless prototypes of future products they were probably working on with him.) If analysts want to obsess over the "Jobs is gone so Apple is doomed" narrative, they best focus on places where Apple is producing poorly-designed products that lack attention to detail. There's a dearth of these types of articles, they almost all focus on the "oh my God, Apple hasn't released any new product lines in the period since Jobs died, they must not be working on anything cool!" (The reason being most analysts don't know shit about what makes for good design and how to recognize it, and are not in a position to properly critique Apple's products beyond how their margins are shrinking and OMG SAMSUNG) It's beyond stupid to assume there are not many internal projects at Apple going on, the big question is if when they ship, if they are worthy of the Apple brand. The truth is, we just don't know. If anything, the lull in the product release cycle we are experiencing may point to the fact that Apple is more than willing to continue to work on stuff until it's ready, which is a core attribute of what has made Apple successful.

cageface 13y ago
iOS 7 seems like exactly the kind of inattention to detail people have dreaded since Jobs left. Hard to imagine he would have rubber stamped something so ugly and inconsistent.
- gfodor 13y ago
  Maybe. I'm letting it bake a bit. Generally speaking, radically new stuff from Apple is roundly rejected initially by the digerati. I agree some stuff seems weird but I think a lot of designers don't "get" what they're going for.
  - cageface 13y ago
    To me it looks amateur, which is what I'd expect from a UI design done by a hardware guy. Giving the design job to Ive instead of somebody with the right background is Cook's first really serious mistake, IMO.
  - jgeorge 13y ago
    I'm seeing about 50/50 content of tech postings of "Apple is failing to innovate" and "Apple's latest innovations really suck". I'm not entirely sure I know what they've done to deserve the ire of the tech media lately, but they've certainly done something for all the "Apple can do no right" commentary I've seen lately. (Not saying all of it is undeserved, but it seems like there's a lot more dog-piling happening than actual considered criticism of the company's direction).