Is Apple dying without Steve

[Treebs]

Its unfortunate but as we see these extended release dates and disappointing product improvements I can only be left thinking that perhaps Apple is dying.

In order to be the best at innovation you usually have to be first to the market, many of the new features of ios are stolen from Android. I want my old Apple back, the company that would blow me away with their product releases. It wasn't even just the product design but how the product could change your life. My first Mac was a iisi which had an 80 mb hard drive and I've never bought anything but Mac computers since. I want to believe that I'm going to be blown away with their new ivy bridge machines but it's getting hard to get excited after seeing the last 4 products released by apple. I own them all and Siri is an incompetent assistant, apple tv bored me after an hour, I can't see the difference between retina iPad and my 2. My iMac is just a desktop computer that is solid but uncapable of being the best in its field for anything other than its exterior design.

Yes I know that Apple is the top company in the world but for how long if they don't continue to innovate like the top company in the world. All of these lawsuits make me think that apple is running out of ideas and desperately trying to prevent the others from catching up. It would be nice if they would continue their old tradition of being so far ahead that you don't have to worry about the competition ever catching up.

Apple needs another mastermind that could see into others lives and give the people what they really need and want. Apple please get your act together and finish working on my Ivy Bridge IMac with more to impress us with than Siri and retina anti glare screens. Btw don't make it touch, it's absolutely stupid for a desktop computer. Plus I don't want to have to constantly have to clean a 27 inch screen because my wife is anal about being clean. Frames per second for gaming at a super high level with retina may interest a lot of people.

Good Luck Apple
Get well soon.

 

[Occamsrazr]

wat

 

[Dirtyharry50]

Good Lord

Steve Jobs lead Apple to where it is today and in so doing, established a company that can now stand on its own two feet without him, much to his credit I might add on top of everything else the man accomplished.

 

[robanga]

Yeah those $35 million iPhones sold last quarter, have to be just horribly depressing for them...

 

[0007776]

Apple is doing fine, it's not really reasonable to expect any company to come out with huge innovations in every release. It's possible that Apple will start to decline in the future, but I think that's still a long ways off.

 

[thekev]

It takes many people to drive the momentum of such a large company. The complaints you listed trace back to when Steve Jobs was CEO. You seem to be caught up in nostalgia here. I mean glossy screens happened when Jobs was CEO. Siri traces back to his era.

Many of the "delays" are due to waiting on hardware if anything. They've done summer refreshes before, so it's not terribly late. It's also fully possible that when it passed a certain point, they decided not to release new hardware under Lion. While I'm not sure of that given the crunch they'd be in with simultaneous hardware and OS bug fixes early on, it remains possible.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Ivy Bridge?


There's nothing exciting about Ivy Bridge OP. It's just another geometry shrink.

Apple isn't a hardware company they are a software company so we're really not going to see some big improvements until we see updates:

iLife 12
iWork 12
Aperture 4
Logic X
Final Cut Pro X

Apple hardware can only do so much. The day Apple went to Intel hardware was the day that "anything could happen" died.

Doesn't matter though because the software is the carrot to get you to buy the fancy hardware.

 

[Matador Red]

OP, you are hilarious. Don't you think this paranoid rant is slightly premature? Do you really expect Apple to reinvent the wheel every quarter? Apples marketing team and strategy are one of the best. They could probably find a way to sell the current product line for another 5 years and still stay on top.

 

[brand]

Apple isn't a hardware company they are a software company

You seem to be confused. Apple has always been a hardware company and still is a hardware company. They develop software to sell their hardware.

 

[nuckinfutz]

You seem to be confused. Apple has always been a hardware company and still is a hardware company. They develop software to sell their hardware.

I see your point from a profit standpoint but from a skill-set standpoint it's Apple's software that stands out and not necessarily their hardware.

 

[Reach9]

Nope Apple is fine for at least the next 4 years. After that it is all up to Tim Cook!

I think Apple should start searching for a younger successor to take over Tim's position though, it's never too early to bring a visionary on board.

 

[Occamsrazr]

Youth has little to do with "vision"

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Yeah those $35 million iPhones sold last quarter, have to be just horribly depressing for them...

Well by your logic, Windows is better than OS X as Microsoft's sold more Windows 7 licenses than Apple has OS X...

 

[entatlrg]

I own them all and Siri is an incompetent assistant, apple tv bored me after an hour, I can't see the difference between retina iPad and my 2. My iMac is just a desktop computer that is solid but uncapable of being the best in its field for anything other than its exterior design.

Interesting post, had to laugh at the "get well soon" part. Seems Apple is doing pretty well to me.

I enjoy and am pleased with the four products/features you mentioned. Siri works really well for me, I use it all day every day as well as dictate on my iPad.

For 99 bucks Apple TV seems like a decent deal. We enjoy it as well as using airplay from all our iOS devices and computers. If it bored you after an hour you are at fault because after one hours time you certainly couldn't get in to too many of Apple TVs features. In fact you could be enjoying its features for many hours each week if you would simply learn and apply them.

The difference in displays from the iPad2 to compared to the third generation iPad is incredible. We still have an iPad 2 as well as a few third-generation iPads and 100% of the people who I show it to can clearly see the difference.

The iMac is perfectly suited for the market it's aimed at.

As far as the 27 inch display being too large to clean, wow, that amazes me that someone would have that as an objection. Are you touching the screen, are you dirty, is your house dirty, do you using it a shop? Thankfully they make a 21 inch display that could be perfectly suited for you.

What would it take in tech for Apple to 'wow' you. Perhaps you're relying too much on Apple (or any company) to amaze you.

Maybe if Siri could read to you from your blurry iPad and then clean the screen when it gets dirty you'd be all set

 

[Mufaddal]

I actually find myself feeling the same as OP, but thought I might be the only one.

Look at the last few years of apple- the Nano, the iPhone, the iPad, iCloud, the MacBook air. All these revolutionary products that came out under Steve.

And recently? They added little to the iPhone from the 4 to 4s, and similarly fr iPad 2 to the new iPad. Some revamped hardware surely, but no major innovation either in new products or redesigns. I'm curious to see what apple has in store next for the iPhone 5 and future iPad redesigns, for that will really show us if apple will keep up its innovative streak.

 

[jammybastard]

"That he not busy being born, Is busy dying."

 

[ct2k7]

I actually find myself feeling the same as OP, but thought I might be the only one.

Look at the last few years of apple- the Nano, the iPhone, the iPad, iCloud, the MacBook air. All these revolutionary products that came out under Steve.

And recently? They added little to the iPhone from the 4 to 4s, and similarly fr iPad 2 to the new iPad. Some revamped hardware surely, but no major innovation either in new products or redesigns. I'm curious to see what apple has in store next for the iPhone 5 and future iPad redesigns, for that will really show us if apple will keep up its innovative streak.

You do realize that Steve probably had the hand in the products and vision for the next few years.

What people don't realize that after such a significant event, the transition needs to be as smooth as possible. That means risk needs to be managed and minimized. So far, Apple has done well, and I expect these non-power released are a component of risk management. Apple is still healing without Jobs, and I have no doubt that the team are sufficiently competent to follow in Jobs' footsteps, and continue what he envisioned for the company.

That said, I am informed and believed that there is such thing as an iTV or Apple TV thing or whatever it is. Though, when it was described to me, the person described it as some sort of large iPad. Whilst I can't really give anything further, because the person who told me somehow managed (on purpose) to bloat and confuse the hell out me, I do believe this person given that I have looked into his credible background. How can I trust this source? Well, if I couldn't trust this person, then my future career would be screwed.

 

[danahn17]

Apple please get your act together and finish working on my Ivy Bridge IMac with more to impress us with than Siri and retina anti glare screens. Btw don't make it touch, it's absolutely stupid for a desktop computer. Plus I don't want to have to constantly have to clean a 27 inch screen because my wife is anal about being clean. Frames per second for gaming at a super high level with retina may interest a lot of people.

I think Apple is doing just fine right now. On the other hand, if Apple listened to your advice.....

 

[Hastings101]

Sorry to rock your world but Steve Jobs wasn't the only person working at Apple when he died. They've got other employees, some of which are likely very talented.

 

[robanga]

Well by your logic, Windows is better than OS X as Microsoft's sold more Windows 7 licenses than Apple has OS X...

Well if you sheer measure by volume of revenue, it is better.

If you measure success by your expectation of Apple, then maybe not. Subjective is beauty in the eye of the beholder - but if you going to say Apple is dying that usually means revenue, users, market share or some other more tangible factor than " stolen from Android " and the products don't blow me away etc.

No, dying is a different term altogether. The OP's headline could have read..."Apple is no longer living up to my expectations " but i suppose the clicks would have been less.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I'm more concerned about the absence of Bertrand Serlet and that he has never been replaced. There is no one publicly named who is in charge of OS X. Is Scott Forstall running the OS X show? If so, it would explain the direction OS X has taken. I'm not so upset about the iOS features in OS X as I am about the lack of quality control in the software.

 

[thekev]

I actually find myself feeling the same as OP, but thought I might be the only one.

Look at the last few years of apple- the Nano, the iPhone, the iPad, iCloud, the MacBook air. All these revolutionary products that came out under Steve.

And recently? They added little to the iPhone from the 4 to 4s, and similarly fr iPad 2 to the new iPad. Some revamped hardware surely, but no major innovation either in new products or redesigns. I'm curious to see what apple has in store next for the iPhone 5 and future iPad redesigns, for that will really show us if apple will keep up its innovative streak.

Consider that most of these products had a lot of development before their first versions. You're looking at a company of thousands of people and picking out one person while discounting the rest of their efforts. Sorry but there's no insight in this.

 

[mrsir2009]

You can't see the difference between a retina iPad and an iPad 2? Are you refusing to wear your glasses again?

 

[Mac Kiwi]

Sorry to rock your world but Steve Jobs wasn't the only person working at Apple when he died. They've got other employees, some of which are likely very talented.

Ditto to that.


According to his Biography SJ also took a lot of credit sometimes for others work. Lets keep that in mind.


There are a lot of very talented people still there. Like Jonathan Ive just for one. He will be hiring all the best designers.


It all depends on whether the new Ceo and the old Ceo had a different vision for Apple.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Is Apple dying? Really? Seriously? Oh man, i've seen it all now. Apple is probably going to be the first trillion dollar company, but they're "dying" because Jobs is no longer there. Oh man.