An "army of products"
It sounds like the rumors of iPaper, iWatches, iCondoms, etc. etc. are probably true, after all. Clearly, Mr. Cook intends to focus on on quantity of products rather than quality or innovation (and no, putting chintzy controls on a watch is NOT innovation; it's stupid and will give Apple a bad name in the long run, IMO).
You know every time I use my Bluetooth stereo for hands-free calling in my Subaru WRX (and again when I rented a Ford Fusion in Arizona last year that used the Microsoft "Sync" system), I can't help but think the first company that can make voice controls that ACTUALLY WORK in every day products rather than misunderstand 60-90% of what you say is going to make a TON of money. I remember trying dictation software in the early 2000s and it just SUCKED. No matter how much time I spent in learning mode, it would get the words wrong over and over and over. I spent 20x more time correcting its mistakes than I would any typing errors I might make just typing out a paper. It was WORTHLESS and a total rip-off.
Now I see similar systems in cars and phones and frankly, they STILL suck to high-heaven. I can't get my car to recognize the last digit of a dial-by-number phone number to save my life. It won't let me use preset buttons while in motion (because THAT is "dangerous" and yet it screwing up EVERY SINGLE TIME to the point where I'm in a RAGE over how badly it screws it all up is supposed to be SAFER? Bullcrap. I'm FORCED to either pull over or take my chances fiddling directly with my phone because the darn voice recognition software doesn't work worth a darn (and it's not the mic as callers always tell me I sound crystal clear when I actually get connected). I've heard bad things about SIRI even with the server-side system that is probably 20x better than the stuff found in stand-alone gadgets, but still FLAWED.
Maybe Apple should be spending beaucoup bucks on getting stand-alone voice recognition perfected before anyone else (accents matter in a global market too for that matter) and make a killing on all corporate and industrial levels in the process because the CRAP that is out there now SUCKS (save perhaps some commercial stuff for phone answering that only expects certain keywords and not word-to-word recognition).
THAT is the kind of "innovation" I think Apple needs. We don't need all new devices, but rather devices that are so much friendlier and easier to use that we can't wait to buy one over the competition. Smart phones existed before the iPhone already, for example, but they SUCKED. The iPhone did not suck. And that is where Apple needs to be. Creating new devices in markets where existing devices just plain suck.
If Apple wanted to make a washer and dryer, for example, don't just stick a glossy black piano lacquer coat on it and Siri's voice, but make a machine that can automatically sort delicates and color clothing, move them into a holding area or separate cleaning chamber and wash and dry them all in one cycle (Japan has all-in-ones already for example, but they don't sort clothes for you). Then have it fold (and steam iron if necessary) them as well automatically. THAT would take the monotonous task of doing clothes into a whole new level of convenience. You put dirty clothes in and get a basket of folded, sorted clothes back. ANYTHING less than that is a DON'T BOTHER for me and just leave it to the usual crap to make baby steps over a 100 year period (because that's all they've really done in the past 100 years; it's hardly any different at all today). No, it would not be easy. But that's the challenge of making something SO much better than what already exists and THAT is why people bought the iPhone over the garbage that came before. I would buy that Apple Washer & Dryer in a heartbeat if it was even remotely affordable. Anything less would never be worth much more than existing units.
The same would hold true to ANY new market Apple might want to get into. If it's just a slight improvement over existing products, it'll never cut the mustard for innovation and making huge new leaps in stock prices, etc. It has to revolutionize a product line somehow. I'm just not seeing any signs from the current Apple that they have ANYTHING in the pipeline that is going to do that. Because anything that would do that would also be incredibly risky and costly to boot. That's something Steve Jobs wouldn't hesitate to sign off on if he thought it would work, but all I'm seeing from Mr. Cook is "fashion" cases for a Mac Pro that LOSES functionality, not gains it. It's one step forward and three steps backward. I'm not impressed.