
Ask HN: Will Apple continue to be a major disruptor? - hellofunk
Apple disrupted several industries and also several areas within the technology industry. All of modern life seems to have started at the moment the iPhone was introduced.<p>Is Apple going to change mankind in this way again? Will a car, or a home robot, or some magical VR application we can&#x27;t currently imagine change us all again? Or is it too much to expect a single company to make such sweeping changes to the world more than once?
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b34r
The only thing I can say for certain is the obsession toward quality has
faltered. All their software has been to show atrophy in the past year or two.
There are still hardware innovations, but no "wow"s for some time.

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Gustomaximus
This quality drop is a key weakness IMO. Jobs was the master of doing a few
things really well. You could see he was so personally vested in products. And
people loved apple products as they always worked well. It was a safe choice
in the tech world. That approach seems gone. I sometimes wonder if this stems
from the cult of Jony Ive after the vacuum Jobs left, where design seems to
trump all else for Apple these days.

On top of which I hear Apples got an increasing ratio of career men whose
passion is advancement not technology.

On the flip side the innovation cycle under Jobs was roughly 4 years per
'wow'. Many people expect something every year which isn't realistic. The
watch did not fire this cycle but maybe the next product will. If it does they
only really missed one product release cycle since 1998. Not bad, though the
first not under Jobs watchful gaze may say something.

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floppydisk
Apple has never been disruptive in the "we invented a new product category"
sort of way. They've been disrupted in the "we take a raw idea, simplify it,
refine it, make it KISS simple to use and polish the presentation" sort of
way. That requires fanatical dedication to detail and getting it right and
reading the market tea leaves to understand what's truly revolutionary and how
to deliver.

With Jobs' passing, Apple's fanatical devotion to quality and polish looks
like it's starting to wear off in some areas. Jobs did a great job staffing
with people who could implement his visions superbly but didn't bring in an
heir apparent who looks at the world differently and drives the same slavish
attention to detail and polish.

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hellofunk
I agree, though I would argue that the iphone was genuinely a new product
category (and perhaps also the iPad). Some re-imaginings of existing tools are
so dramatic, they create new categories.

~~~
floppydisk
Nokia had a clunky version of a smartphone on the market for years before
Apple launched the iPhone. Apple iterated on the idea, but they didn't create
it. Similarly, Blackberry was already there. Didn't have touch screens but
they had most of the major functions of a "smartphone" like email, messaging,
etc. The category already existed in many ways, Apple fantastically riffed on
it.

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seren
> All of modern life seems to have started at the moment the iPhone was
> introduced.

In 30 years the iPhone will look as clunky as the first black and white
television set. I honestly don't know when "modern life" started, but I would
rather put it around the first light bulb than the first iPhone.

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mark_l_watson
I think so. I love my iPad Pro - I can't believe how many hours a week I use
it, with a lot of that time spent on creative/work projects like working on my
new book, better learning Haskell (I keep one of the Haskell books I bought
open and the Haskell App based on hugs - as I am reading I can flip back to
the Haskell App to experiment with code snippets), and general research
activities.

The iPad Pro has disrupted my work and entertainment flows.

Apple's weak point is web/cloud services but with their deep pockets, I expect
that to get better.

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Mimu
Attributing modern life to Apple, nice one OP. No Apple won't change
"mankind", are you kidding me mate? Mankind, why not the whole universe?

Maybe they'll discover God or create a new one. In 2000 years people will eat
an apple every Sunday in memory of Apple our Lord and Savior. You could be in
the book too, you are already talking like an archangel.

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rajacombinator
Without Jobs around to oversee the car or the TV it seems hard to imagine them
revolutionizing any fields again.

~~~
joefarish
I really can't see how anyone can revolutionize TV though. 99% of the time you
are watching the TV there is zero interaction between the user and the TV.

I'm sure apple would make money if they started selling Apple branded TVs
(basically a TV with a built in Apple TV box) but it would hardly be a game
changer.

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DanBC
>All of modern life seems to have started at the moment the iPhone was
introduced.

Why do you say that? Why don't any of the many (admittedly clunky) PDAs that
came before Apple count?

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Detrus
iPad Pro and iPhone 6S advertise 4K video editing capability that's only
possible with custom chips, re-architected motherboards, etc. They could again
be first in the industry to do something noticeably different. Here they're
giving cheaper, low power, mobile devices capabilities that are otherwise only
possible on desktops. Preferably $3000+ machines. That's what their vertical
integration allows.

Although currently this 4K video editing on iPads is not working well.

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AndrewUnmuted
> video editing capability that's only possible with custom chips, re-
> architected motherboards, etc.

> first in the industry to do something noticeably different.

Apple had better hope that not just competitors in the mobile space, but also
in the cloud technologies, playback, and other such spaces, follow suit.

As somebody who worked extensively with AVFoundation-based video editing apps
for iOS, I can say with certainty that such ambitions have a long way to go
until they're enterprise or even startup-ready. The engineering challenges
associated with taking the malformed bullshit Apple calls a "QuickTime media
file" into something actually usable at scale is insurmountable for even a
very media-knowledgeable dev team.

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milkey_mouse
no

