Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I appreciate this level of cynicism, but I don't think that a company's mandate to make money excludes extensive research from taking place. Apple's enormous value helps fuel its R&D, and then the 2% of that research, tied with the value of the Apple brand, goes and finds its way into stores which perpetuate the company's growing wealth. I can see tonnes of choices they've made on grounds of cost, but I also have a little schoolboy naiveté that says they make other choices that are technological and aesthetic, and the products we get are the best compromise between the two forces.

My feeling is that Jobs's primary concern and consideration was to make products that people would find amazing, and to make the best product possible with less of an eye towards costs. He wasn't always correct in his judgement, and had his share of frustrating decisions, but as long as he was around, apple was going to be an innovative leader of unique products that people would find useful. Shareholder wealth and profits were not the primary driver of his actions and decisions.

I am not so sure of the current management team, Cook is an operations guy and the current management might be more focused on profits and stock price than they would have been under Jobs.

I cringed last year during all of the fawning media attention he got when he passed on, but as time moves forward and i look at the apple current product mix, pricing and overall business style I am beginning to think that as a consumer, Jobs is going to be missed terribly.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.