The only possible thing lower than that, would be to have it be done for you by an army of shills.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook: Apple's 'Creative Engine' Has Never Been Stronger
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The only possible thing lower than that, would be to have it be done for you by an army of shills.
What do you want? It probably cannot be done yet. Money doesn't lie, Apple is doing just fine.
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They are profitable because of the products they create. If you don't think Apple is creative, we'll you're wrong and/or trolling. Nothing else really to be said.
This sums it up nicely, I sadly have to agree. Tim's rehortic of over-hype is like a repeat at every single event and the show doesn't seem to match his hype. He's a good accountant/bookkeeper/controller but a not-so-good leader. Apple needs a decision maker that can say something is ***** when it is. I feel everything is performing moderately just to keep their jobs and to ride the wave. Apple is not pushing themselves to be a winner - to be on top - to be an innovator. And eventually, people will look elsewhere. Right now Apple is the old Microsoft. So sad.
Hmmm, I'm not sure about their 'creative engine'. I actually thought this last year was a bit disappointing.
1). iPhones - yes, the new sizes have been widly popular. Much more than I really thought would happen. But there isn't much creative about the jump to larger screens, in fact, had they not made the jump I would have sold all my APPL stock. This was simply a MUST DO to stay viable in the Mobil phone market.
2). iPads - ha ha, nothing creative here. In fact, this year's updates are pretty much a bust in my book. IN my opinion, Apple must get creative with the OS for the iPad to reinvigorate the market. At least optimize the OS for a tablet. Right now it's nothing more than a phone OS. To make it a prohibits product that people want to upgrade more often they need to do more to open it up.
3). Computers - the move to 'no user upgradable', mid-range specs with preminum prices...eventually the consumer is going to get wise. I know folks reading this always proclaim 'the average user doesn't know anything', but the 'average' user is getting more and more knowledgable. My 10 year old grandson already knows more than most of you did 10 years ago. Why, because they are growing up with it. Future consumers will be much more technologically competent.
4). IWatch - nice product. Can't see it becoming much more than a niche product, at least for the foreseeable future.
5). Software updates - frankly, Apple has failed this year. Too many issues. Yes, software has bugs. But IOS 8 certainly seemed unusually bad. And their try's at iCloud....
5). ApplePay - the one bright spot this year. Why? Because Apple was able to convince banks to give them a cut of every transaction for something that the banks could have actually done themselves. And it will be a cash cow for Apple. Think about it, just a cut every time it's used but no hardware to upgrade, no real further R&D, probably only 1-2 people for maintenance/troubleshooting. This concept and the sell-job was absolutely brilliant. So much so that I bought another 200 shares of APPL last week. This could turn out to be Apple's 'Office' without the headaches.
Of course Tim said they are at the top of their game. But considering he said basically the same thing last year and yet it didn't pan out, well, he won't get away with it again. If 2015 doesn't pan out, nobody will ever believe him again.
Apple is not doomed, but they probably are not still a shooting star. But if they continue with their current lack of focus they will decline. The 'form over function' mindset is hurting them with their 'base'. The refusal to set out a road map, seemingly planned obsolescence for their devices, these will prevent them from ever being taken seriously in enterprise. And that's where a company thrives. The consumer market is fickled and fleeting. Enterprise is constant and predictable.
As for now, I'll keep my stock and see.
1). iPhones - yes, the new sizes have been widly popular. Much more than I really thought would happen. But there isn't much creative about the jump to larger screens, in fact, had they not made the jump I would have sold all my APPL stock. This was simply a MUST DO to stay viable in the Mobil phone market.
2). iPads - ha ha, nothing creative here. In fact, this year's updates are pretty much a bust in my book. IN my opinion, Apple must get creative with the OS for the iPad to reinvigorate the market. At least optimize the OS for a tablet. Right now it's nothing more than a phone OS. To make it a prohibits product that people want to upgrade more often they need to do more to open it up.
3). Computers - the move to 'no user upgradable', mid-range specs with preminum prices...eventually the consumer is going to get wise. I know folks reading this always proclaim 'the average user doesn't know anything', but the 'average' user is getting more and more knowledgable. My 10 year old grandson already knows more than most of you did 10 years ago. Why, because they are growing up with it. Future consumers will be much more technologically competent.
4). IWatch - nice product. Can't see it becoming much more than a niche product, at least for the foreseeable future.
5). Software updates - frankly, Apple has failed this year. Too many issues. Yes, software has bugs. But IOS 8 certainly seemed unusually bad. And their try's at iCloud....
5). ApplePay - the one bright spot this year. Why? Because Apple was able to convince banks to give them a cut of every transaction for something that the banks could have actually done themselves. And it will be a cash cow for Apple. Think about it, just a cut every time it's used but no hardware to upgrade, no real further R&D, probably only 1-2 people for maintenance/troubleshooting. This concept and the sell-job was absolutely brilliant. So much so that I bought another 200 shares of APPL last week. This could turn out to be Apple's 'Office' without the headaches.
Of course Tim said they are at the top of their game. But considering he said basically the same thing last year and yet it didn't pan out, well, he won't get away with it again. If 2015 doesn't pan out, nobody will ever believe him again.
Apple is not doomed, but they probably are not still a shooting star. But if they continue with their current lack of focus they will decline. The 'form over function' mindset is hurting them with their 'base'. The refusal to set out a road map, seemingly planned obsolescence for their devices, these will prevent them from ever being taken seriously in enterprise. And that's where a company thrives. The consumer market is fickled and fleeting. Enterprise is constant and predictable.
As for now, I'll keep my stock and see.
Isn't this essentially the same thing Jobs' critics said about him when he ran Apple?
Not a bad idea! My guess it will follow the metallic black of the Mac Pro.
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I'd love to see a cartoon with Apple execs sharing the "Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field" device as needed in the current Apple PR.
Are there any leaked iCloud photos of Schiller's ass (as in his famous "Can't innovate my ass anymore")? I wanna see that ass that can't innovate anymore. I think it looks like iPhone 6.
The 5K iMac wasn't good enough for you? What do you want them to do? Apple's the only one changing the PC market. Look at all the MacBook Pro clones. I'm baffled by the horrible Mac mini update, but everything else has been solid or better.
lol yeah right..the iPhone 6 offers nothing new and was merely catchup to existing devices that have been out for months/years
This "creative engine" lacks a core that says "the concept is good, the detailed ideas are good, the overall impression is ****"
Reading the top comments on this story 1 thing is abundantly clear.
The vast majority of commenters seem to have no understanding of how design / technical and industrial design actually work.
It's as if people think this stuff just comes out of thin air.
Apple has some of the most robust industrial design of any tech company. From iPods to Mac Pro's these things are so incredibly well engineered and thought out that you can 'feel' the care and attention to detail. That's even before you get to the fact they are then running some of the easiest to use and awesome software and connected services.
It's almost as if people think Apple just decided to slap a retina display into the iMac or any other device the day before release. Like something like that is easy. Or that a new iPhone design that's bigger is just a case of stretching a design like one might grab a box shape in a word processing app and drag the corner to make it bigger. Yep that'll do. I'm sure the internal components, powering the screen, making the thing and a million other things that need to be considered will all just fall into place. Yep. Done. Build it.
Apple designed a watch a week before they announced their plans. Ive had an idea. Told Tim. And they just knocked something up over lunch.
Apple saw an opportunity to change payments. Sent Eddy to talk to some banks and over a weekend came up with a payment mechanism that might just change an entire industry. Apparently it was all done over a weekend.
The more I have used Apple products the more I have realised the only technical feature I'm most concerned about is how much memory something has. I've built up a massive amount of confidence that the integration of software and hardware means everything will work. I just need to know any given decide can hold the amount of stuff I need. That's an incredible place to be. Whether something is octo-core or mega-supercore or whatever is something that matters, but isn't the be all and end all.
Sure, not every update is going to match the expectations of every user, and guess what? Bugs happen, that's software for you! - but from where I'm standing the creative engine is chugging away amazingly well when it comes to physical products and software from Apple.
The vast majority of commenters seem to have no understanding of how design / technical and industrial design actually work.
It's as if people think this stuff just comes out of thin air.
Apple has some of the most robust industrial design of any tech company. From iPods to Mac Pro's these things are so incredibly well engineered and thought out that you can 'feel' the care and attention to detail. That's even before you get to the fact they are then running some of the easiest to use and awesome software and connected services.
It's almost as if people think Apple just decided to slap a retina display into the iMac or any other device the day before release. Like something like that is easy. Or that a new iPhone design that's bigger is just a case of stretching a design like one might grab a box shape in a word processing app and drag the corner to make it bigger. Yep that'll do. I'm sure the internal components, powering the screen, making the thing and a million other things that need to be considered will all just fall into place. Yep. Done. Build it.
Apple designed a watch a week before they announced their plans. Ive had an idea. Told Tim. And they just knocked something up over lunch.
Apple saw an opportunity to change payments. Sent Eddy to talk to some banks and over a weekend came up with a payment mechanism that might just change an entire industry. Apparently it was all done over a weekend.
The more I have used Apple products the more I have realised the only technical feature I'm most concerned about is how much memory something has. I've built up a massive amount of confidence that the integration of software and hardware means everything will work. I just need to know any given decide can hold the amount of stuff I need. That's an incredible place to be. Whether something is octo-core or mega-supercore or whatever is something that matters, but isn't the be all and end all.
Sure, not every update is going to match the expectations of every user, and guess what? Bugs happen, that's software for you! - but from where I'm standing the creative engine is chugging away amazingly well when it comes to physical products and software from Apple.
I don't see why people are debating this. Clearly he meant more in line with the future of products, not what came out recently. He likely means an Apple television, the future of the Apple Watch, more integration of Apple Pay, some sort of Google Glass-type thing, that kind of stuff. He clearly means more than iPhone 7 and iPad Air 3 and is more or less reflecting what is to come in the next decade.
Pretty much everything we've got under the Tim Cook reign was likely decided and planned from the Steve era (mostly refinements and improvements to established products), and I think he's talking about what's to come after that.
Pretty much everything we've got under the Tim Cook reign was likely decided and planned from the Steve era (mostly refinements and improvements to established products), and I think he's talking about what's to come after that.
The reality is it all feels rather stale...
Been there, done that, oh we're doing that again? OK... if you say so, but I'm not impressed.
I pondered a little while ago when I got a bit of extra money to blow... What do I want, I should get a little something for myself since I rarely get anything new for me.
I thought about what Apple had to offer, and really wanted to get something new. But, it all just felt so blah... Seen it, done it, owned one before, have the old one and don't feel inspired to upgrade... etc...
It's all reruns now. Oh, you made it a little bigger... oooohhhhh.... Awwww... whatever...
Oh, you made it slower... ok, that was stupid...
oh, you didn't do anything but add a little screen upgrade and slap a big price tag on it... whatever...
oh, you're making a new watch... that looks clunky, and I don't like watches anyway... whatever...
It's just so blah now....
Sure, I still use the products I have. But, there's no attraction or draw to get anything new. I like the idea of getting something new from Apple.. but there's nothing there that makes me want it. I don't even feel drawn to it at a store... just another one of those, seen it....
You can only shine and polish something so much before it's time to do something impressive with it again. Surprise me, blow my mind...
Well, ok, I guess you surprised me when you slowed down the Mac Mini, and that blew my mind, but that's not really the kind of thing that's going to draw me into spending more money.
In the end, I naturally went practical and spent the money where it should go and was responsible with it because I just couldn't get excited or feel drawn to anything from Apple, even though I tried for a moment to think of a new toy to spoil myself with.
I suspect a lot of people are going to find similar feeling quite soon... Oh, another iPhone, ok... I'll get one if mine breaks... Oh, another iMac, yeah... seen that, been there... blah
Been there, done that, oh we're doing that again? OK... if you say so, but I'm not impressed.
I pondered a little while ago when I got a bit of extra money to blow... What do I want, I should get a little something for myself since I rarely get anything new for me.
I thought about what Apple had to offer, and really wanted to get something new. But, it all just felt so blah... Seen it, done it, owned one before, have the old one and don't feel inspired to upgrade... etc...
It's all reruns now. Oh, you made it a little bigger... oooohhhhh.... Awwww... whatever...
Oh, you made it slower... ok, that was stupid...
oh, you didn't do anything but add a little screen upgrade and slap a big price tag on it... whatever...
oh, you're making a new watch... that looks clunky, and I don't like watches anyway... whatever...
It's just so blah now....
Sure, I still use the products I have. But, there's no attraction or draw to get anything new. I like the idea of getting something new from Apple.. but there's nothing there that makes me want it. I don't even feel drawn to it at a store... just another one of those, seen it....
You can only shine and polish something so much before it's time to do something impressive with it again. Surprise me, blow my mind...
Well, ok, I guess you surprised me when you slowed down the Mac Mini, and that blew my mind, but that's not really the kind of thing that's going to draw me into spending more money.
In the end, I naturally went practical and spent the money where it should go and was responsible with it because I just couldn't get excited or feel drawn to anything from Apple, even though I tried for a moment to think of a new toy to spoil myself with.
I suspect a lot of people are going to find similar feeling quite soon... Oh, another iPhone, ok... I'll get one if mine breaks... Oh, another iMac, yeah... seen that, been there... blah
Uhh, working on the iPhone.
Exactly my point.
Steve Jobs was working on the iPhone between 2002 and 2006, but didn't release anything.
Tim Cook is undoubtedly working on things right now too, but people seem to imply that Apple has lost it because of 2 years of no 'new' products (or products which they don't consider 'new' like Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Touch ID, etc.)
...
Hype, check. Not enough iPhones to satisfy demand, check. More Hype, check.
Spending money on stuff that is not necessary > see 3.whatever billion on music acquisitions, check.
Even more hype, check.
Freakishly obsessed with form over function, check.
Slipping Quality control, check.
Super duper magical hype, check.
Gimped Mac Mini and iPad Mini 3. <sigh>
Seems like all the creativity went into the nMP and iPhone 6 design and has not been seen since.
I really hope Apple proves my discontent wrong in 2015, but after all the missteps this year I will watch the product rather than pitchmen. I'd like to buy another Mac and iDevice in the next 18 months. C'mon Apple prove me wrong.
Hype, check. Not enough iPhones to satisfy demand, check. More Hype, check.
Spending money on stuff that is not necessary > see 3.whatever billion on music acquisitions, check.
Even more hype, check.
Freakishly obsessed with form over function, check.
Slipping Quality control, check.
Super duper magical hype, check.
Gimped Mac Mini and iPad Mini 3. <sigh>
Seems like all the creativity went into the nMP and iPhone 6 design and has not been seen since.
I really hope Apple proves my discontent wrong in 2015, but after all the missteps this year I will watch the product rather than pitchmen. I'd like to buy another Mac and iDevice in the next 18 months. C'mon Apple prove me wrong.
Well Tim, it's hard to agree.
- A reversed engineered Mac Mini
- A 5k resolution computer, which can't use the screen for the superior Mac Pro. Hence you have to decide between screen res or CPU/GPU perfomance.
- Taking 100 USD for a finger-ID for the iPad Mini 3
- A phone that bends, and a samsung replicate
- A watch that requires charging more often than any other device you have
If this is a "Creative Engine", the future looks pitch black.
Where is Steve, when you need him?!
Taking nonsense to a whole new level. You win today.
- A reversed engineered Mac Mini -> Not sure what you're on about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering
- A 5k resolution computer, which can't use the screen for the superior Mac Pro. Hence you have to decide between screen res or CPU/GPU perfomance. -> If you want the screen res buy an iMac. If you want the Mac Pro buy a monitor from another company. You really don't need to buy everything from Apple, it's a bad habit.
- Taking 100 USD for a finger-ID for the iPad Mini 3 -> Or charging the same $399 and reducing the old one in price?
- A phone that bends, and a samsung replicate -> all metal phones bend, 9 complaints in 10,000,000 initial orders but carry on with the fud. A Samsung replicate? Do explain.
- A watch that requires charging more often than any other device you have -> you have no idea how many times it needs to charge. And you don't even know the full functionality yet.
The 5K iMac? You mean where the creative engine took a very expensive display panel and permanently attached it to last year's mid range hardware? Hardware that can't even properly drive that many pixels without stuttering when scrolling text?
Oh and if you view from 28 inches away or more, the human eye can't even tell the difference between a 2560x1440 and a 5120x2880 panel. The old 27" reached the resolving limit of your eye at 28 inches. So wow Apple is brilliant.
Not to mention people have been asking for the higher res panel on this forum for over 2 years. So it's not like their creative team came up with a good idea, they just stole a bad idea an ran with it.
And even if the 5K iMac were a good thing (which it isn't). They took a 3rd party panel, and welded it to 3rd part stock chips on an apple designed motherboard. Wow those smart, creative people.
Wow.
Hype? It's an earnings release. He's hardly going to say. "We sold a few, we did ok. See you next time".
Not necessary? Ha, streaming is the future my friend. Not to mention Beats will pay for itself within a couple of years. Plus the exec hirings they got too.
You've not been using apple for long have you? They are way better now than they were 10/15 years ago.
I assure you they are not gimped, they work just fine. But perhaps do not do what you want.
Not to mention the lower price points means they even more accessible to people who want a Mac but historically couldn't afford one or didn't want to pay so much.
The iPhone 6 came out a month ago - you think they're going to pump out redesigns of their lineups every week?
Have you seen the Mac Pro, of the new 5k iMac? There's plenty of creative stuff coming out of Apple.
Why do want to buy another Apple device in the next 18 months. Do you actually need one? Never understand why people have to buy something.
As for your discontent, it seems sales, customer satisfaction, review scores and anecdotally me and my non-tech friends are in disagreement.
I've been using and following Apple for a number of years and you get posts like yours every year. Had them when Apple were in trouble in the 90's, had them during their rise over the last decade and still have them now when they're on top.
Jobs' greatest strength wasn't so much his decisiveness but his ability to bend perception. The vaunted and reviled Reality Distortion Field really was his thing. Many have tried to copy, but he was a, no... THE grandmaster at it. But it's not just smoke and mirrors.
Behind that he had a keen ability to take unrelated things and put them together in an untested way that just felt right to him. A lot of people can do this but a lot of people are also wrong and have horrible taste. He was usually right and had excellent taste... someone had to be that guy. It was him. But even that would fail easily if he couldn't get the public to tilt their heads in the same direction and see it through his lenses.
But Apple was his baby. No successor to him will ever have the same amount of vested interest because they weren't there. They don't have the history and sense of ownership, the need for validation of their baby.... If it doesn't work, they can take a package and work for someone else. Totally different mindset.
But just as important as his ability to shoot first, ask questions later, designing products based on what they could position rather than gobs of focus group testing ("design by committee") which would rip out all the elegance and introduce feature creep.... Just as important was his ability to move on from failure.
If a product tanked, he knew how to drop it fast and steer past it, or quell the outrage while simultaneously rushing to improve it, rather than bet the farm on it and ride it into the ground.
What Tim Cook lacks is not decisiveness. What he lacks is charisma. People follow him because he knows what he's talking about, because he's sure of where he's steering the ship. That's useful for a mature company of Apple's size... but as Billy Joel sang, "The King and the Queen went back to the Green but you can never go back there again." They've got shareholders to please, bills to pay... they cannot and will not ever be the Apple of old. As a conservative investor, I like that... it's stable business. Stable business is profitable and boring, because the average consumer's tastes are just that... average.
People followed Steve not because he was good at steering, but he was willing to venture into places nobody else wanted to go and he could convince anyone that it was going to be a hell of a trip... because he could create a sense of adventure out of thin air, and that made engineers and customers really excited to see where that might lead them.
Suffice it to say the most common comment I hear about Jobs is that he was simultaneously the best and worst person to work for: That engineers lived out their most miserable years working for him, but also produced work the likes of which they have never repeated in their careers.
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I've been using Apple products a very, very long time. This past year has been one of the single worst for me as far as software, hardware and all around hiccups. 2010 was the last year I had any issues prior to late 2013. And before that, it was 1999. When something works and I get great customer service (as I usually do), I am in the trenches with my pom poms. When it does not, I am not.
You misread some of my post (such as the praise of the new iP6 and new Mac Pro), so I snip my response accordingly.
It takes a long time for me to get this frustrated, so you and many others may not agree with my me, that's fine. But I do not agree with your post either. I watch what people do, not what they say. I am weary with a lot of the frustration and bad product/customer service I've had. That's not the Apple I've been using for almost 20 years.
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