State of Innovation

Today's Apple a Day topic is the current state of innovation at Apple. As a former hater of but now long time fan of Apple's products, design and ideology I find the current state of Apple to be very interesting and quite concerning. The impact of Steve Jobs absence from Apple has been talked about at length by many people much more qualified than myself since his passing, however his absence has largely not been felt because of the product pipeline he left in Tim Cook's hands. Many had hypothesized that Job's left Apple with a good 5 years worth of products and that his absence would not truly be felt until that pipeline was empty. At the time I was one of those that believed this theory and figured Apple would continue churning out revolutionary world class products at a breakneck pace. Lately it seems that I may have been wrong.

In order to explain my concern we first have to look at how Apple has operated in the past. Traditionally Apple has stuck to a fairly rigid product release schedule that included product releases (and frequently keynote speeches) in January, March (iPad), May(iOS preview), June-July (iPhone), August-September (iPod) and sometimes a fall release in the November timeframe. While this schedule has occasionally shifted and some events like an event just for iPods have been eliminated as the business has shrunk, Apple has almost always maintained a fairly constant presence and released products throughout the year. Now let's look at 2013. It is almost June and there has not been a single major Apple product announcement or keynote this year. To say that is disturbing would be a vast understatement. Yes WWDC is coming up, but even that event is expected to bring few updates mostly to the shrinking MacBook segment. So what is the problem? In order to really dig into the cause of the current draught of products I think we need to look back at one facet of Steve Jobs leadership style that seems to be seriously lacking in Tim Cook.

Steve Jobs was known for his ability to create masterful world class products, many of which he is listed as one of the primary inventors for on Apple's patents. However it was not his technical ability that allowed him to contribute to the creation of those products, it was his ability to push people to their breaking point and get more out of his employees than anyone thought possible. Jobs was known for setting incredibly unrealistic timelines and someone pushing his to team to accomplishing the miracles necessary to make those deadlines. Additionally, he was known for being a brutal businessman when it came to making deals with forging partnerships, whether it was with record labels or movie studios. Tim Cook seems to be lacking the ability to get the same level of results out of his team and certainly does not have the business knowhow to strongarm other companies into doing what he wants. Proof of this can be seen in the repeatedly delayed iRadio service I mentioned yesterday. This service has been known to be in the works for quite some time but has been delayed due to Apple's inability to get the record labels to sign on. How is it that Tim Cook can't get record labels to sign on for a streaming service yet Jobs was able to get support from them when crafting the digital age of music?

Another prime example is a topic that I will cover in more detail later this week and that is the long rumored iTV. When Walter Isaacsons biography of Steve Jobs came out in 2011, it was revealed that Steve Jobs believed he had cracked a way to revolutionize the television experience and that Apple was working on a television product that employed his vision. The news was much with an enormous amount of excitement from the consumer electronics industry and rumors began to run rampant about the device and its' possible release date. Fast forward to 2013 and Apple still has not managed to release this product which has given way to companies like Samsung to release "Smart TVs" that do many of the things Apple's device is rumored to do, although admittedly the quality of these devices is pretty poor. Furthermore companies like Microsoft have taken a stab at simplifying the living room experience with devices like the Xbox One. I'm not saying that Apple has missed the boat quite yet but they are definitely in danger of it, especially considering that the latest rumors are now saying that device may not get released until the end of 2014. It's hard to imagine that this would be the case if Jobs were still in charge given his tact for pushing his employees to deliver a product at exactly the right moment.

So in closing it seems that Apple still has the ability to innovate and create good, if not great, products however their ability to maintain the pace they were known for under Steve Jobs' leadership seems to be gone which is unfortunate not only for Apple fans but for the industry as a whole. The forcast for 2013 looks pretty bleak. It is likely we will see an iPhone 5S announcement this fall, as well as a redesigned iPad and iPad Mini to follow sometime by the end of the year however it seems that the truly innovative new devices like the iWatch and iTV are unlikely to see the light of day until at least 2014. Can Apple really survive on just some minor refreshes to their core products or will the faithful start to jump ship to companies like Samsung and their hot selling Galaxy S4 and upcoming smart watches? Time will tell...