WHY APPLE DOES NOT INNOVATE ANYMORE ?

dhruvtalksstech
Mar 19, 2023
6 min read

By this time, you must have heard a dozen of tech YouTubers complaining and claiming that Apple does not innovate anymore and is becoming boring. That’s true !!! Until recently, Apple favored form over function. This ideology was led by Steve Jobs who believed that quality and finesse superseded everything. This idea was shared by the core team at Apple including those such as Johnny Ive. Apple had always been about making devices slimmer, sleeker, more portable, more luxurious, more expensive, and more exclusive, and projecting Apple as a brand that did not care about what happened in the rest of the tech world. Until 4-5 years back, Apple keynotes sounded like a bubble that Apple leadership was confined to. They pretended that nothing existed outside of the bubble and always thought of iPhones only. We all miss Steve and although everyone knows that his charisma will always be unmatched, the least that can be done is to bring out new evolutionary products - Apple Car and the VR Headset.

The world is that the Apple will be releasing at least headset late this year followed by more options in the coming few years. I am actually a bit skeptical about this claim. I think that Apple will be releasing the VR headset sometime late in '24 or '25 because:

i) Apple being Apple wants to make sure that something is good enough to work in the real world under all circumstances rather than rushing a market into the product. Since AR and VR are such complex technologies, I believe it will take time to perfect that tech

ii) As of now, there is only the Meta Quest in the market right now. So, Apple is in no hurry to compete as the Quest itself has not been doing very well. Apple is waiting for the right product-market fit moment.

But years of stagnated sales and pressure from investors seem to have prompted Apple to start “innovating”. Apple now gives customers what they have been asking for years now with a few possible exceptions such as USB-C on iPhone. Macs are so much more powerful, the iPad has USB-C, and Apple is opening up its ecosystem and relaxing the tough restrictions on OS and allowing people to have greater customizability. iPhone is finally getting features such as a 120Hz display that Androids have had for years and even Apple apps such as Music now feature on Google Play Store. There is also an emerging story that Apple is trying to position itself as an ad company after speaking out against making money from ads for decades under Jobs and Cook. We already know that it has become harder to cross-track users and what Apple is planning to do now acts as an intermediate between ad servers and ad providers.

I do not know why but I have started to believe that the Apple Car may be a bit of a hoax. It is the same situation as the Tesla CyberTruck. We were told that the Apple Car would be launched in 2020 but we are well into 2023 and I don't believe that even if Apple is working on a car, they will launch it before 2027. It is too big of a decision for a tech company with no prior experience in automobile manufacturing. Elon Musk himself claimed that it is easier to send rockets to space than build a car company in today's age just because of the industry's sheer challenges.

The challenges being faced by Apple are far bigger than most of us can imagine even though we all know that Apple is minting more cash than it knows what to do with it.

People who would have earlier gone to FaceBook or Google to serve ads on iPhones will now have to go to Apple. I would not be surprised if Apple works on a commission basis bringing in ten of billions every year. So to answer the question, I think it’s a no. We’ve got to understand that we are all so heavily influenced by Apple that whatever they do seems revolutionary. So, Apple giving customers what they want back-to-back seems exactly the opposite of what Apple would normally do. I believe it’s more because of the tough circumstances and thirst to boost sales that Apple is going through a drastic change in its approach. They have more products and product categories than ever, they are giving customers what they want, they are launching cheaper versions of products, and are loosening restrictions on the software and apps.

This may also be because Mr. Cook has a fundamentally different approach than Steve Jobs. He has ramped up focus on the business side of Apple and does not focus as much on the aesthetic or form of the devices. This has also led some old-school die-hard ‘purists’ to say that all of this is bad and Apple is doing away with its prestige and rich image. Apple does not innovate anymore in the traditional sense. It is not the first to the market with new features like the original iPhone. Often, it is the last. The rumors are also that Tim Cook may not be around very long. The talk is that he is going to stick around for one final category of product - most possible Apple Car or AR glasses - and then he would leave the company with billions in stocks.

Proponents of this statement argue that although Apple may not be the first to the market anymore when they do bring out those same features, they are better implemented than the competition. I agree 100% with the statement but can’t Apple just be the first to the market while implementing it the best? It is not something that they haven’t achieved before and it isn't the case that they lack the expertise to do it. It only seems more and more palatable that Apple is playing it extremely safe even though has always been big changes that have driven sales and news for Apple from around the world and especially in emerging markets.

The iPhone is not the priority for Apple anymore. They have understood that the smartphone market is saturated and has reached its tipping point in developed countries. So, they don’t have as big of an incentive to innovate in a field that is declining and may soon be replaced by a different category of product altogether. Instead, Apple is focusing on iPads and Macs ever since the pandemic because it induced a great demand for personal tablets and laptops among students and professionals. This is a turn of events as before the pandemic we had been witnessing a decline in interest in tablets and laptops because our phones are capable of as much, if not more than laptops are.

Although, since this is Dhruv Talks Tech where we discuss both sides of the coin, it is my duty to inform you of some of Apple's recent innovations. Apple spends billions of dollars on R&D. Apple is constantly exploring new technologies. It is just that a lot of what Apple innovates is saved for later. These are things that will never make it into products and their research was undertaken just to pique Apple's curiosity and explore their interests. I am craving for something very different like it happened in 2017 with the introduction of the iPhone X. That moment was more special to me than the unveiling of the original iPhone.

The camera department is where Apple can make some huge strides. Especially in the Night Photography department. Don't get me wrong. iPhones takes some pretty great photos but is strongly challenged by the Samsungs of the world. I believe there is only so much that you can change in a smartphone's hardware before it just becomes too good to make any change. That is why I think that Apple should be focusing more on the software side of things. iOS is a lot more flexible than what it was before iOS 13 but I would like to see better notification management and permission settings.