
Apple is in danger of being boring - begrudger
http://www.zdnet.com/apple-is-in-danger-of-being-boring-7000002599/
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zoul
Did we really arrive at a point where we are ready to condemn a well working
product ecosystem just because there's nothing new and flashy to look at?

~~~
mootothemax
_Did we really arrive at a point where we are ready to condemn a well working
product ecosystem just because there's nothing new and flashy to look at?_

That was my thought as well. I'm no fanboy, and actively avoided the iPad
mania some of my friends were going through. That is until a friend came to
stay, along with his iPad, and my wife and I suddenly discovered ourselves
actively choosing to borrow his iPad over loading up something on our laptops,
just because it worked so well.

A huge shame to discount such success. I put it down to the "It's 2012,
where's my flying car?" train of thought.

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DeepDuh
So someone who has never owned an Apple device makes an analysis on whether
new Apple devices are being innovative. ok.

IMO the MBP's retina display is a game changer for professionals who need to
be mobile. Once you use it you can't go back - and there is no PC laptop in
sight giving you that kind of resolution. But probably the number one reason
why mac users are caught up in the ecosystem? The touchpads. And this is
something the author can't possibly understand. Testing it in the apple store
is not enough to realize that this is how a laptop interface should work and
that no other manufacturer has been able to match it.

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sin7
I don't understand why people need such high resolution. Most people don't
have the eye sight to see the difference.

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lancefisher
You can see the difference. The end-goal for display resolution is that the
pixels are so small you can't see them or, more importantly, the effect they
have on rendering curves. Fonts have been designed just for the screen because
the curves of normal good-looking fonts didn't fit into the pixel grid and
didn't look good. With very-high resolution displays we can start using good
fonts on the screen.

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eykanal
iMac: 1998. Started a whole breed of computers with fancy physical designs.

Original iPod: 2001. Completely destroyed the walkman/cd player industry.

iPhone: 2007. Redefined the mobile phone.

iPad: 2010. Defined what tablets look like.

\----

How often do you expect one company to completely shake up an entire
ecosystem?

~~~
rednukleus
> iMac: 1998. Started a whole breed of computers with fancy physical designs.

What? How many computers are there out there other than the iMac with "fancy
physical designs"? The iMac had virtually no impact on the industry.

Your other points are dubious at best. Apple are never first to market with
new products, they only ever tweak existing markets and set up hype and an
ecosystem around them.

The question is, are there any other markets out there right now that are just
on the edge of taking off, that Apple can sneak into?

~~~
zoul
Take a look at the smartphone and tablet markets and tell me with a straight
face that Apple did not turn them upside down. I don't care who was first to
enter a market, I just care for the first one to get it right.

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rednukleus
Tell me with a straight face that phones would not currently have multi-touch
capacitive touchscreens if the iPhone never came out.

Tell me with a straight face that mp3 players would never have taken off
without the ipod.

Apple have had a big impact on the market, but most of the time they just
release products at a time that the market is changing anyway and then claim
to have "invented" all the technology that goes into it.

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startupfounder
I can't see myself being excited about the iPhoneX in 5 generations or the
iPad XIV because they will essentially be nothing new.

I do believe that Apple is working on products that are 3-7 years out that are
more in-line hopefully with the Google Glass Project. Hopefully some Apple
innovation is happening...

The concern is that without Apple's founder at the helm the product will
continue to fall into the squeal death spiral with the iPhoneX coming out in
2020.

~~~
slantyyz
I don't know that future iterations of the iWhatever need to excite me though.

As a middle aged user, I don't use the advanced or cool features of the iPhone
or iPad. Most of my time is spent doing relatively unexciting stuff like
Safari, e-mail, calendar, weather, maps and the phone app.

Right now, the only thing that really drives me to upgrade my iDevices is when
the OS gets too fat and things get slow or crashy, which seems to translate to
3 years.

~~~
mandeepj
"Most of my time is spent doing relatively unexciting stuff like Safari,
e-mail, calendar, weather, maps and the phone app."

Please tell me what is the exciting stuff then :-)

iphone was launched and sold on the basis of these so called unexciting stuff
and this is how apple disrupted phone market.

I hope I did not get your sarcasm, if it was :-)

~~~
slantyyz
The exciting stuff?

Augmented reality, location based anything, multiplayer gaming, Bump, filtered
photography, CPU intensive stuff like iPhoto, iMovie, etc.

>> iphone was launched and sold on the basis of these so called unexciting
stuff and this is how apple disrupted phone market.

Well, that's not so much the case today. Today, it's all about showing off all
the wizzy apps in the app store.

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crusso
FTA: _I don't personally own a single Apple device_

Obviously, this person has never been excited enough by Apple's direction to
even shell out any money.

Are we supposed to be surprised that he still doesn't want to shell out any
money when there's a lull in game-changing product releases at Apple? The real
question is, "Will that lull continue now that Jobs is gone?"

It's too soon to tell. It will probably take a couple of years before we could
say, "Apple no longer releases products that can shake things up."

~~~
k-mcgrady
The lull is interesting. After every Apple product announcement I can remember
there are dozens of complaints (and the stock dips). The rumours always build
expectations way to high, Apple doesn't meet them, and people complain. Then
people use the products and the complaints stop.

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gavinlynch
I'm getting pretty bored with pundits describing their genius master plans
that will take one of the most successful companies in the history of the
United States and REALLY _make something of it_. (rolling eyes)

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steve8918
Everyone I know has come to the same conclusion. The iPhone 5 is the make-it-
or-break-it event for Apple, in our opinion.

They've had 2 years since iPhone 4, so the expectations are pretty high, and
most are expecting something jawdropping. This is the double-edged sword with
being an innovator at the level that Apple has been over the last 10 years -
people's expectations get bigger and bigger, possibly to unrealistic levels.

To be honest, I can't imagine what else Apple can do that would blow my
mind... fingerprint scanner? Breathalyzer? If it's just another "faster
processor, better screen, more flash memory", then people like me are going to
be sorely disappointed. I'm hoping for the best though.

~~~
slantyyz
>> people's expectations get bigger and bigger

You mean nerds' expectations. Most normal people don't even really care.

~~~
steve8918
As well, Apple's own financial data shows that many "normal" people care. They
said they had material a drop in iPhone sales because of people anticipating
the iPhone 5.

~~~
slantyyz
Sure, but why does that happen? Because nerds or the news tell them that
something newer is coming out, so they should wait.

Avoiding buyer's remorse is normal consumer behaviour.

People do the exact same every summer/fall for cars when the new model years
start trickling out.

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5teev
Stopped reading at "I've been tempted, but have never been able to put form
over function…."

~~~
atourgates
Yep. This is an article by someone who doesn't understand Apple's unique value
proposition.

Apple isn't really about making devices with the highest specs out there
(things like retina displays are the exception, not the rule), nor are they
about innovating brand-new types of devices (there were plenty of Mp3 players
around before the iPod, plenty of tablet PCs around before the iPad, and
plenty of Palm and Windows Mobile smartphones around before the iPhone).

What they are about is building things that do what they do, extremely well.

Part of this is design, part of this is their legendary supply chain (though
that's a relatively recent advantage) but in my opinion the most important
part of this is an intentional willingness to sacrifice features for user
experience.

My first iPhone was the 4, and when it came out, I was debating between it and
the Evo 4G. On paper, the Evo 4G was a higher spec device. Hell, it's right in
the name. It had 4G.

I'm very glad I went with the iPhone. I have friends who didn't, and now,
2-years out, their Evos last for about 4 hours before they have to plug back
in. My iPhone can still go happily for 2 days of normal use between charges.

Could Apple have included a WiMax radio in the iPhone 4? Of course! But they
had the foresight to say, "It's better to have a phone that lasts for 2-days
without having to be recharged than one that has faster download speeds."

That's a single example of a very "Apple'esque" decision, and the type of
decision that makes most of the hardware they make, very good hardware.

There are valid reasons to criticize Apple, and be concerned about its future.
But this article didn't touch on any of them.

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k-mcgrady
The complaint about naming of the next iPhone is stupid. They can't stick with
the iPhone+number naming convention forever. It would start to look really
silly after a while (e.g. iPhone 14).

Having a range of 3 iPhone's, each priced differently and with different specs
is better. So the lowest spec, cheapest model is 2 years old, the mid range is
one year old, and then the highest spec is the newest one. This is pretty
similar to the way computers are sold. A new MacBook comes out, the old one is
cheaper at retailers.

~~~
untog
But what happens when the _next next_ iPhone comes out? Then you have the
current model, the iPhone, and the previous model, the iPhone, both for sale.
What do you call it then? I very much doubt they'd like it to be called the
"old" iPhone.

~~~
k-mcgrady
They won't have different iPhones on sale they will have 'iPhone'. But there
will be different prices levels and spec levels, just like with computers.
Most people don't go to a computer store and ask for a specific generation of
product. That look at the price and specs and choose which is best for them.

~~~
untog
_They won't have different iPhones on sale they will have 'iPhone'. But there
will be different prices levels and spec levels, just like with computers._

I very much doubt it, given that Apple seems to do all that it can to hide the
specs of the iPhone to consumers. And rightly so, IMO- a 1.2GHz CPU vs a dual
core 1GHz processor means absolutely nothing. The model numbers they have
right now makes a lot more sense.

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Yaggo
"I've been tempted, but have never been able to put form over function for the
amount of money an iPhone, iPad or MacBook costs."

Fine, but I can't take the rest of the article seriously after that.

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mladenkovacevic
Hardware/software wise they are rather mundane but with regards to consumer
mind-share and brand recognition I'd say they're performing better than ever.

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neilmiddleton
What exactly are they expecting Apple to do with an updated version of a well
received phone? There's only so much worth doing with a mobile handset…

