It's funny, the dichotomy between the people who want Apple to innovate and the people who want Apple to keep a narrow focus on the things they are already doing. I realize some percentage of the participants here are probably trolls hired by Apple's competitors, but still.
The reality is that most of Apple's game-changing innovations have actually been enhancements and re-combinations of things that already existed. Whenever something is proposed, it's scoffed at as imitation or incrementalism. If it's in a new or expanded market category, then they're stretching themselves too thin, and doing things they have no business doing.
The early Macintosh computers were too expensive, nobody wanted an OS tied exclusively to one manufacturer's product, and the UI was infantile and didn't let users get under the hood to customize everything. The iPod was a trifling novelty, and with the introduction of iTunes, Apple was getting into a dying business asking people to pay for music that was free on Napster. MacBooks and MacBook Pros are still too expensive and users can't tinker under the hood to customize. iPhones had no physical keyboard, Apple had no business getting into the cell phone industry, wireless data was too slow for anything but email, the camera didn't have enough pixels, and nobody would buy a phone that had to be tied to a computer for software updates and maintenance. When the app store was introduced, it was another closed system dominated by novelty fart noise generators and serious developers would never spend time creating apps that sell for only 99 cents, with Apple keeping a third. Everybody made fun of the iPad as an unnecessary category between the phone and the computer, and besides, don't you remember the Newton? Plus, wasn't "iPad" the subject of a hilarious SNL sketch about feminine hygiene?
Those are the initial reactions to many of Apple's game-changers and category-killers. All the updates and enhancements in between were scoffed at as failures, inferior me-too copies of the competition, or incrementalism that showed that Apple could no longer innovate.
The truth is, some of the things Apple creates fail. Some do well at first, and the market diminishes and plays out over time. The vast majority of modifications and updates really are incremental. But you know, that's how the business works. If the rumor is true that Apple might sponsor and distribute original content for Apple TV, it could just be a blip on the radar, or an obvious development when seen in hindsight, or it could be a piece of something that upends the film or TV industry. Only time will tell, but if past experience is any indicator of future performance, the one thing that it isn't is a foreshadowing of the demise of Apple as a going enterprise.
