Apple Board of Directors 'Concerned' About the Speed of Innovation?

[cocacolakid]

Apple has had more than just two groundbreaking products. I think the problem is there are so many relatively new Apple user's in the last 3 years that they only think of the iPhone and iPad as Apple's breakthrough products. There are a ton of them.

Apple II - world's first personal computer. World's first personal computer you could hook up to a tv/monitor. First personal computer that came fully assembled (think of that!) AND had it's own case. You didn't have to make something out of wood or just let the PCB board lay on your desk.
Not to mention all of the other groundbreaking Apple II features: color output, disk storage, apps you could buy in a store and play at home. Without the Apple II the computer industry would not exist.

Macintosh
The first commercially released Graphical User Interface (desktop, windows, etc.) EVERY computer and device after the Macintosh uses a GUI.
And released with the Macinsoth was, tada, the Mouse - world's first commercially released mouse.
And oh, yeah, the Macintosh paved the way for desktop publishing, creating an entire new industry. And many more breakthroughs the Macintosh was responsible for.

Laserwriter - the other crucial, groundbreaking component in desktop publishing.

Portable Macintosh - first Mac laptop. First Mac with a preformatted hard drive and first Mac with a preinstalled OS. Debuted on the cover of MacUser floating in a swimming pool with a model (using a brick cell phone to tell a friend how cool it was)

iMac - first computer that didn't look like a cardboard box. First computer with USB ports. First computer with built in internet connections.

iPod - Yes, the original iPod, without which no iPhone and iPad would have been possible. Thousands of songs in your pocket.

iTunes store - first place to get consistent quality, and make music inexpensive, without viruses and fake files of P2P.

iPhone - created the smartphone, first touchscreen phone, first at dozens of things. Magical.

The App Store - yes, this was groundbreaking, it has changed the world all by itself, created new industries, and made many developers who work at home rich. Remember what phones were like when all they could do is make calls? That's life without the App Store.

MacBook Air - first laptop that could fit in a manilla envelope. First laptop with SSD, without optical drive, without ethernet jack, lightest laptop ever, thinnest laptop ever, etc. 6 years later competitors still haven't made a proper MacBook Air competitor for Windows.

iPad - just as groundbreaking as the iPhone.

MacBook Pro w Retina Display - seriously? People are forgetting this already? It's only a year ago. Every high end laptop since is trying to copy the Retina Display.

Apple has created more than just two groundbreaking products in 2007 and 2010.

Anyone who is new to Apple should go read about why the Apple II and the Macintosh were so revolutionary. They laid the foundation for everything that came after it, whether an Apple device, Windows, Linux, phone, tablet, etc. You use a computer at work because of the Apple II and Macintosh.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Sure I can see a lot of disruption, but does it really make them money & is it really innovative?

Plenty of innovations don't make their creators money, but end up hijacked by a second mover. Far as innovation, depends on what type of innovation we're talking about

We already know how Microsofts disruption is doing to them.

Success/failure is independent of innovation. The Newton was one of the few original product spaces Apple created and they failed because Palm was a second mover who took their product. That doesn't make Apple's PDA attempt any less innovative

Amazon has been doing well. But I do see its Fire HD tablets as not up to expectations for the general public. Losing money off of its tablets to try to make up by services. Then try to slip in some ad's later on when that was not working.

That's called using commoditizing a complement. Amazon's primary market is retail, not hardware so they break even on hardware to fuel retail sales. Google's primary market is ads so they take a loss on hardware/services/OS's to fuel ad revenue. Apple's primary market is hardware so they devalue software to fuel hardware.

Almost every company distributed across multiple markets exploits complements. That's how they play their competitors

Google was hoping to put its ad's and services on Android to make money that way. But it still makes much more money off of Apples iOS then it ever did with Android.

Google has a monetization problem with Android, I know and I've made fun of them for that. That issue doesn't negate the fact their open platform has managed to eliminate the feature phone and grow multiple markets at an incredibly fast pace

You think by doing anything, is good enough. Apple is not just going to do something haphazardly just to see what sticks on the wall. They have a plans that sometimes takes years to set up.

No, I'm looking for actual attempts at disruptive innovation over the past couple years, which is something Apple hasn't done. So when people say Apple is innovative and other companies are copying them, that makes no sense.

 

[Cory Bauer]

Firstly, I call ******** on the whole story. But let's pretend for a moment that it's true.

The original iPod was launched in October 2001; assuming that the fabricators of this story only accept completely new product categories as "innovation", then the next "innovation" from Apple didn't arrive until the original Apple TV and the original iPhone in 2007. Yes, a 6-year gap between "innovations". Then it was 3 years until the next "innovation" with the iPad. But now that Steve Jobs has passed, Apple is expected to enter new product markets every 2 years or else they aren't "innovating" quickly enough? What would satisfy the board and shareholders? A watch in 2013, a television in 2014, a car in 2015, and hoverboards by 2016?

If Steve Jobs were still alive, what innovative products does anyone believe he'd have brought to market by this time?

 

[robeddie]

I count 3 true 'innovations' in 30 years

When you think about it, there have really only been 3 really groundbreaking, market shaking innovations by Apple in the past 30 years.

1) The Mac: The original OS and all in one design and how Apple made us all realize the power of the gui interface. The rest of the history of the Mac has been building on that - an evolutionary process - which you could not call a 'groundbreaking innovation'.

2) iPod: Through power and ease of use, the iPod product line took over the music industry. Nuff said.

3) The iPhone: Changed how we view smartphones. And for anyone who says the iPad was also a groundbreaking innovation, I answer that it's simply an iPhone, much bigger, without the cellular service. Just making the same basic concept bigger should not count as a new 'groundbreaking innovation'.

 

[rikscha]

That's true, since they weren't done by Apple, they aren't innovations.

If you don't have an argument, just pull the old apple fanboy card out of your pocket. You Sir, are boring.

 

[Smartass]

Nothing new here. For a company like apple, that brought ipod, iphone and ipad people and stock market expected from them to continue with same pace of innovation. They didnt do that and competition caught up. And now everybody's nervous when APPL stocks are falling faster than that meteorite in russia one year ago and because currently there isnt really any new product that would spin this around and make stocks go sky high again.

 

[r3m1]

Apple has had more than just two groundbreaking products. I think the problem is there are so many relatively new Apple user's in the last 3 years that they only think of the iPhone and iPad as Apple's breakthrough products. There are a ton of them.

Apple II - world's first personal computer. World's first personal computer you could hook up to a tv/monitor. First personal computer that came fully assembled (think of that!) AND had it's own case. You didn't have to make something out of wood or just let the PCB board lay on your desk.
Not to mention all of the other groundbreaking Apple II features: color output, disk storage, apps you could buy in a store and play at home. Without the Apple II the computer industry would not exist.

Macintosh
The first commercially released Graphical User Interface (desktop, windows, etc.) EVERY computer and device after the Macintosh uses a GUI.
And released with the Macinsoth was, tada, the Mouse - world's first commercially released mouse.
And oh, yeah, the Macintosh paved the way for desktop publishing, creating an entire new industry. And many more breakthroughs the Macintosh was responsible for.

Laserwriter - the other crucial, groundbreaking component in desktop publishing.

Portable Macintosh - first Mac laptop. First Mac with a preformatted hard drive and first Mac with a preinstalled OS. Debuted on the cover of MacUser floating in a swimming pool with a model (using a brick cell phone to tell a friend how cool it was)

iMac - first computer that didn't look like a cardboard box. First computer with USB ports. First computer with built in internet connections.

iPod - Yes, the original iPod, without which no iPhone and iPad would have been possible. Thousands of songs in your pocket.

iTunes store - first place to get consistent quality, and make music inexpensive, without viruses and fake files of P2P.

iPhone - created the smartphone, first touchscreen phone, first at dozens of things. Magical.

The App Store - yes, this was groundbreaking, it has changed the world all by itself, created new industries, and made many developers who work at home rich. Remember what phones were like when all they could do is make calls? That's life without the App Store.

MacBook Air - first laptop that could fit in a manilla envelope. First laptop with SSD, without optical drive, without ethernet jack, lightest laptop ever, thinnest laptop ever, etc. 6 years later competitors still haven't made a proper MacBook Air competitor for Windows.

iPad - just as groundbreaking as the iPhone.

MacBook Pro w Retina Display - seriously? People are forgetting this already? It's only a year ago. Every high end laptop since is trying to copy the Retina Display.

Apple has created more than just two groundbreaking products in 2007 and 2010.

Anyone who is new to Apple should go read about why the Apple II and the Macintosh were so revolutionary. They laid the foundation for everything that came after it, whether an Apple device, Windows, Linux, phone, tablet, etc. You use a computer at work because of the Apple II and Macintosh.

Bla bla ... we are talking about here and now.

Not considered innovation: a high-res display on a laptop, an update to the iMac to make it thin, a lack luster concept for the MacPro, iOS7 is the mother of all that could be copied from other mobile OS-es and so on.

Its not just Apple btw, the industry has somewhat stalled.

The point is that Apple needs to come out with something new, not tweaking the existing stuff and calling at innovation. Enough patents are being registered, start using them.

 

[Cory Bauer]

Nothing new here. For a company like apple, that brought ipod, iphone and ipad people and stock market expected from them to continue with same pace of innovation. They didnt do that...

But that's the thing - it's far too early to claim "they didn't do that". It was 6 YEARS between the iPod and the iPhone. Why are people so quick to forget that? If it's three more years before Apple enters a new product category, I'd say they'd be right on track.

 

[Solomani]

Apple has had more than just two groundbreaking products. I think the problem is there are so many relatively new Apple user's in the last 3 years that they only think of the iPhone and iPad as Apple's breakthrough products. There are a ton of them.


iPod - Yes, the original iPod, without which no iPhone and iPad would have been possible. Thousands of songs in your pocket.

My favorite YouTube video regarding the introduction of an Apple product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqNHGJw2qI

 

[Scrivener]

Feel free to innovate

You vill innovate or you vill be shot!

 

[Sodner]

It has been one awful slow year for Apple In terms of product updates. Seems like EVERYTHING is due out this fall/winter. They should stagger the releases throughout the year. Like the old iPad in early spring and iPhone in Summer.

 

[Cory Bauer]

It has been one awful slow year for Apple In terms of product updates. Seems like EVERYTHING is due out this fall/winter. They should stagger the releases throughout the year. Like the old iPad in early spring and iPhone in Summer.

Yes, if the board or shareholders want to be concerned about anything, it should be this new product cycle where nothing gets released until the Fall. The result is slower sales and lower profits for 3 out of the 4 quarters of the year - which doesn't look good on paper. Additionally, I imagine it's going to result in lower sales overall; spreading one's Apple upgrades out throughout the year makes it more financially bearable and also more enjoyable. Who's going to want to pick up a new iPad, iPhone and MacBook Pro all at once? More than likely consumers will opt for one of the three and put the next purchase off another year.

 

[saturn88]

Yeah because that originates at the CEO level. Researchers and engineers have nothing to do with it.

And this CEO is no visionary. He is just an OK administrator. He is Apple's Balmer.

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True. And it was almost six years between the iPod and the iPhone. We have no idea what's in the pipeline. This story seems like a fantasy made up by a bored blogger.

But the Board knows what is in the pipeline. And from the Board's perspective there is not much.

 

[LordVic]

Innovation for me is to create something that is new to the world and that nobody thought they needed and make almost every person in the globe buy one. That is what Apple did with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Those gadgets did not exist and everyone was happy and living without them. They were invented and now almost everyone has one (if not from Apple from someone that copied them) and nobody can live without them today. That is what I call INNOVATION!!!!

1/2 true, but overall the sentiments are good.

the true definition of innovation is the ability to invent / come up / design something that has never been done before. to come up with a solution that didnt exist before and the like. Even minute or major.

The concept of a tablet wasn't Apples innovation. However, bits and pieces of innovative technology that we had not seen before overall made the iPad an innovative technology that Did change the course of tablet and mobile computing.


too often today, especially after the ipad and iphone are we looking for the one innovative idea that completely changes an industry. We often miss and glance over extremely tiny, yet innovative ideas and technology because it isn't changing the face of the planet.

what the board seems to be looking for is a new market leader innovation. Like the ipad and iphone did at the time. What they're missing is that Apple does continue to innovate, just on smaller scale of technology. everyday, there is new tech we never saw before from every company and every setgment of the market.

its a tremendous time to be a tech enthousiast.

----------

Bla bla ... we are talking about here and now.

Not considered innovation: a high-res display on a laptop, an update to the iMac to make it thin, a lack luster concept for the MacPro, iOS7 is the mother of all that could be copied from other mobile OS-es and so on.

Its not just Apple btw, the industry has somewhat stalled.

The point is that Apple needs to come out with something new, not tweaking the existing stuff and calling at innovation. Enough patents are being registered, start using them.

its a complete technological stall. Noticing it in phones, tablets, and personal computing.

we seem to have hit the point where 90% of the users do not need 90% of the advancements we are making to current tech. your 2 year old computer loads its program instantly? so why do we need to buy a new one thats 5x faster. instant is instant is it not?

the general consumer isn't seeing a difference in everyday use out of a lot of the latest tech. It's wonderful for us nutjobs who love tech and follow every mhz difference in CPU performance. But to the average consumer, we've past some thresholds that just make the newer stuff seem like not that big a deal anymore.

What the world, tech, and marketplace is looking for is that new gadget / tech idea that will make everyone go "holy crap batman, i never knew we could do that and now we can, i must get that right now".

I would love to come up with that, but there are smarter people than me at that sort of thing

 

[69650]

If the Apple Board are worried about innovation in the current product pipeline that's a worry because presumably the Board knows what's coming down the track and they're obviously not convinced that it's all that innovative.

 

[Razeus]

That's what happens when a visionary leaves the company in the hands of a numbers guy.

 

[alexgowers]

exactly who said this?

Nah, apple are innovating their asses off.

It's a technology issue not innovation.

The ipad etc all came about because new tech was available not because apple invented it!

No one is going to be releasing new gadgets anytime soon until all the bits of technology needed for new products comes around.

People who think new tech is something that comes every year without fail is living on cloud cuckoo land.

Last I saw apple paved the way for intel's thunderbolt, retina screens, 12 hour mac air! Again early adoption of wifi ac. Super fast SSDs doubling current ssd speeds. and a million and one rumours about tvs, watches etc. Low cost iphone coming, larger iphone options etc etc.

What do people want, washing machines and crap from apple just because they can sell more **** to people. No, apple are innovating on all fronts and are always on the frontline of possible new products as they become possible.

 

[LordVic]

Last I saw apple paved the way for intel's thunderbolt, retina screens, 12 hour mac air! Again early adoption of wifi ac. Super fast SSDs doubling current ssd speeds. and a million and one rumours about tvs, watches etc. Low cost iphone coming, larger iphone options etc etc.

Putting the cart before the horse a lil aren't you?

while i'm not saying Apple isn't putting everything together in a beautiful innovative package (I love my MBA), all of these tech's are technically inventions of other companies, that Apple then licensed / used in their products, and are not actually inventions of apples doing.

but it is a prime example of what i said earlier about missing the forest for the trees.

Everyone expects a new forest to be planted every year. But forget that you have to plant the trees to get the forest

 

[Irock619]

It's hard to innovate these days because of competition. The days of Steve Jobs is gone. He had very little competition to deal with and not as many people were as smart as him. Today is a different world of innovation.

 

[Oldschoolers]

Well if Apple can't innovate, does that mean we've seen the end of Samsung?

 

[Rogifan]

If the Apple Board are worried about innovation in the current product pipeline that's a worry because presumably the Board knows what's coming down the track and they're obviously not convinced that it's all that innovative.

Again the world here is IF. We have no idea if this is true. And it's not like Charlie Gasperino or Fox Business have a solid track record when it comes to Apple news/rumors. So we're really supposed to believe someone on the Apple board is a leak siv when that really has never been the case in the past? As I said earlier in this thread its a bit too convenient that the alleged concerns of the board exactly mimic what all these financial "analysts" have been saying the past 6 months or so. And since Fox Business has zero track record when it comes to reporting on Apple I'm inclined to take this rumor with a HUGE grain of salt.

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And this CEO is no visionary. He is just an OK administrator. He is Apple's Balmer.

----------

But the Board knows what is in the pipeline. And from the Board's perspective there is not much.

Ah so you talked to the board and they told you this?

 

[pirg]

Well if Apple can't innovate, does that mean we've seen the end of Samsung?

We've already seen what Samsung comes out with when there's no new apple product in the market.

Surprised they didn't call s-voice, s-iri

 

[Elenis]

In February, Arthur Levinson spoke publicly about the role of the Board of Directors at Apple. I think that Fox News should have read that before giving in to that guy story.
P.S:A larger screen is not innovation!

 

[esaruoho]

Search PatentlyApple for Apple Projector patents..

Get rid of the TV, make a Mac mini sized projector that projects an HD image that I can take anywhere and put anywhere in my house. That comes with the WatchEspn App. There's your innovation.

I guess you have been following PatentlyApple and know that Apple have taken patents for iDevice-related pico-projectors? Can't wait to see this stuff pan out, it'll be really interesting!

 

[dmax35]

Maybe it's time for a new board of directors.

What has Al Gore ever innovated, besides lining his pockets with carbon billions.