Apple’s lack of groundbreaking change in the years since Steve Jobs’ untimely death is beginning to take a toll that’s becoming more and more apparent with each passing quarter.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
This lack of groundbreaking change has taken a toll. Sales of the iPhone have tapered and are lower than where they were two years ago. The Apple Watch suffered a 14% revenue drop last year, according to analyst estimates. And overall revenue is only slowly picking up again after a stagnant stretch.
It’s clear that Apple needs something bigger and bolder on the horizon. But the speed of its innovation engine is slower. Whether it’s due to the company’s larger size, inertia or a cumbersome development process, things have changed: The days of getting frequently redesigned devices and a major new product category every few years are long gone.
The timing for this slowdown isn’t great. Apple is dealing with a more competitive marketplace than ever, with Chinese players like Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi Corp. popping out innovative new designs like foldable phones. Governments and third-party developers around the world are pressing Apple to rein in its business practices. And now tariffs are threatening its profit margins.
The company also can’t seem to catch up in artificial intelligence, which will make it even harder to create trailblazing new devices…
That said, Apple isn’t preordained to be the next BlackBerry, Nokia or Compaq. The company has the resources to evolve, buy up startups that can help it create breakthrough technologies, and design its way into new areas. It’s also true that hardware innovation has been a tough challenge for the whole tech industry lately. But Apple is undoubtedly in a lull.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in February 2024:
Apple’s time a having a caretaker CEO to milk products and services conceived and created under Steve Jobs will, hopefully, draw to a close sooner than later.
Apple is clearly not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs who even started the company’s work on Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro, but the company — thanks to Jobs and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure — now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s lack of vision.
Tim’s not a product person, per se. – Steve Jobs
If Apple can manage to train its generative AI in an unbiased way – a big IF – Apple will be just fine in generative AI soon enough. The company has an install base of more than 2.2 billion active devices in the hands of the highest quality customers; even “good enough” generative AI will be just fine. Anything above and beyond that will just be icing on the cake!
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024)… – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
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