BlackBerry CEO Says Despite a 'Fantastic Job' With iOS Design, Apple Now Lacks Innovation

[appleii.c]

In 2007 that argument was true, yes. But when Apple itself releases content creation apps like Pages, Garage Band, and Numbers, and makes ads touting all sorts of other content creation apps its hard to argue iOS devices are not meant for content creation as equally as consuming.

So to answers your question directly, even if you were being rhetorical, no, it's not possible. Apple breached that boundary a long time ago. In fact, before Jobs passed away he was very direct that devices like the iPad would someday replace computers.

True, iOS has those features, but because it CAN do those things, it's not really meant to be a content creation device. Same way it can record HD quality movies, it's not a movie creation device.

Will it become that? Probably. I wouldn't be surprised if they create a PowerPad in the NEAR future with much more powerful processors, better batteries if the need/demand is there. But I think they have struck a very good balance of useability, features, performance. I think that balance is what keeps them ahead of the competition when it comes to real-world use. the people who need a content creation device would probably go with an android or windows tablet anyway.

 

[kobalap]

Reading all these comments have made me realized that quite a few people really think that:

1. Apple was the first one to make a smartphone
2. Have no clue of history regarding the smartphone.

Quite comical actually. Can't tell if these people really do believe the above or just trolling those who can look at things objectively...

You are right. Apple was not the first to introduce a product that was categorized as a "smartphone". This is the graphic Apple used during the release of the 1st gen iPhone:

I had a Palm Treo "smartphone". It had email capabilities and presumably web browsing capabilities. Saying that I could reliably get email would already be a stretch. Also, reading those emails was, well, a challenge. With regards to browsing the interwebs... there were maybe 2 websites that I could load.

Let's face it, while there were "smartphones" back in the day, they were far from smart. Let's take the iPhone out of the equation. If the android phones came out first, the android phones would have been the revolutionary product that would have brought legitimacy to "smartphones". Everything before it was just lacking.

 

[eric89074]

the sad fact is there are a lot of people in the world who truly believe that. They believe that Apple is the inventor, pioneer and the sole reason why we have computers and smartphones of today.

They didn't invent the concept of a smartphone or tablet but they're the main reason the current smartphone and tablet market exist as it does.

 

[DeepIn2U]

It's not a fail, but it's not enough.

Are you sure that it's not enough? Seriously?

Let's wait until March 28th after earnings call ... I don't foresee sales of the Z10 to show an increase in revenue significantly as the roll-out is a bit slow - recall their largest OEM stopped making devices for them back in January this year (announcement was made in summer 2012).

I expect the next quarter to show significant revenues. I still believe their machine to machine business is a sleeping giant currently; which is based on the company they now own QNX, the real-time OS, and their infrastructure NOC which is tied into over 208 providers (think Nortel in early 80's).

If one understands their NOC and how it hooks into providers GGSN's, and creates APN's on a top level you'll understand what the QNX team is doing with car manufacturers beyond what we see.
Porsche
Audi (MMI)
Cadillac's On-Star (this is a GOOD representation of where their going yet without a person assisting you). BTW, On-Star uses QNX from top to bottom to get sensor readout, car positioning, audio relay ... all this beyond the user UI for music, GPS, and car controls (like windshield wiper, turn indicator, engine knock sensors to communicate, oil-pressure sensors, etc etc).

....and market share is what? Ya know, I was wondering why all those Digital Drone Commands were going through Canada. RIM is ripe for a takeover.

True they ARE ripe for takeover ... so many analysts have been preaching and predicting this the past two years yet NOBODY is biting yet. Why? Because they want the leg work to be completed before purchasing - you don't buy a half working car if you're going to spend a fortune to fix it up and get it rolling, do you? Lenovo's CEO seem to be flip flopping on statements like he's pumping and dumping the stock!!

This is what I mean by Machine to Machine business ...

source: http://seriousmobile.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/rim-bb10-true-end-game-is-qnx-noc/

(NOTE: this is my blog and I've done a fair bit of research far and beyond what I'm seeing so called analysts focus on with respect to BlackBerry; something I find appalling).

This is the secure, reliable connectivity layer for mobile computing that sits on top of carrier networks. They can run their own services across it, but the secure layer on top of this, globally, will come from us.

Think of a car manufacturer that sells cars globally, and needs to address all in-car computers from a certain series, and get a message out, like ‘Put the car in the garage for the next 24 hours because we are giving it a big software update’. How many vehicle recalls do you see these days? Imagine the time and cost that can be saved if we can provide telemetry data from all these cars, on a globally connected system, and with the endpoints managed for reliability and security.

There is so much to do right now – it is overwhelming in terms of priorities. RIM needs to figure out where to be the enabler, and where to utilise our own servers. But the opportunity is huge: mobile computing, end-point management, API’s created to add sensors to devices, using the mobile data network for distribution – basically any vertical application where we think we have a play, and where we can use our push and compression services.

Smartphones and tablets part of it, but they are not the only purpose of the company.

 

[Ochyandkaren]

Then the iPhone itself was an evolutionary product. Everything in it had been done at some point in the past. Touchscreens? Sure. App stores? Yup. Grid of icons? Oh hell yes.

What the iPhone did was put all these technologies together in a nice package. It wasn't popular because it was brand new and completely unprecedented, rather because it was well built and easy to use.

Really?
But, hence, creation is a stream of consciousness.

Can you compare the original iPhone with any other phone before it?
So is the NASA’s Space Shuttle NOT a revolutionary vehicle ( because it used tech that existed centuries before USA even existed )?

Again be careful with faulty generalizations.

 

[kobalap]

If Apple comes out with an iPhone 5S this summer as their counter to the latest Android offerings...be prepared for Apple stock to tank to new record lows. What they need to do is to shock the industry by reinventing the iPhone and launch something dramatic like the tapered iPhone that was rumored from a year or so ago.

I have the 5 - but have come to the point where I will not upgrade to a 5S just for the sake of keeping current. Apple needs to go big or go home.

I genuinely fear for the iPhone sales numbers if Apple thinks they can get away with another "S" update this summer.

Are you a consumer or a stock holder?

As a consumer, all I care about is that Apple does not frack up the things I like about their products. Introducing benefit-less features into iOS that require more processing power than my current iPhone can handle only makes my life miserable. It makes my phone run slower than it needs to. And it sucks battery.

As far as aesthetics go, I propose to keeps things clean and simple. Anyone who wants convoluted looking hardware decorated like christmas trees already have about a dozen options out there.

As a stock holder, I say, make great products that are designed and built using the "think different" philosophy. The stock price will take care of itself in due time.

 

[Renzatic]

I agree. I used a Z10 for about 30 days. the UI was smooth and flawless. the baked in features into the OS were very well thought out and the phone and device worked like a charm.

I haven't had a chance to play with one yet, but from the plethora of videos I've watched about the thing, I can tell it's got a lot going for it.

And this is coming from someone who has a hate crush on BB. I owned the first Storm, and it was...

...oh god. It was horrible.

If I can think BB10 has potential, anyone can. I have a reason to be weary of them, besides "olol I own an Apple thing and everyone else sucks".

...and unfortunately it's App ecosystem, which sadly, somehow, is worse than OS7's at this point.

This is the one biggest hurdle everyone has to pass before they can say they've truly caught up with Apple. I could run off a list of things that iOS falls short on compared to the other platforms, but at the end of the day, it won't really matter. iOS has the lions share of developer support. It has the most exclusives, and gets just about everything first. Android is the closest to matching Apple on this front, but even they're weak on tablet specific apps compared to the iPad. MS and BB? They're nowhere close at the moment.

It's one of the reasons why even if Apple were to royally screw up, and fall behind the competition on the OS battle, it'd still take 2-3 years for them to start feeling the pain. As long as developers have a solid supply of people using and buying apps on Apple devices, no matter how comparatively strong or weak they are on features, they'll stay put.

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Again be careful with faulty generalizations.

Words to live by, Ochy. I suggest you heed your own advice.

 

[DeepIn2U]

They didn't invent the concept of a smartphone or tablet but they're the main reason the current smartphone and tablet market exist as it does.

LMAO! really? No Apple is not the main reason the current smartphone market exists as it does today; I'll agree about the tablet market.

IBM invented the smartphone decades ago, barely sold any it was a design interest.

Motorola furthered the design interest in smartphones yet produced very late.


EPOC is the first smartphone OS used and sold globally: Ericsson R385 I believe.
- This soon became Symbian. Nokia and a few others used this over the past 1.2 decades.

Windows CE started showing up in handheld handtop "pc's" (very LOOSE term of that word PC).

Palm OS began as a PDA and only after Microsoft worked with partners to evolve WinCE did the founders have issues with 3COM (?) and left to create HandSpring ... creating a PDA with Phone capabilities via add-on hardware (a complete joke really).

Windows PocketPC - another PDA competitor that evolved into the "PE" or Phone Edition and did much better than Palm did in this respect - even with Sony's help evolving the Palm OS immensely, no phone edition was ever created by them; not until the original Treo lineup debuted far too late with the 270.

By the time WindowsPocketPC, Windows smartphone editions, or Palm OS evolved to be used on cellular networks Nokia was killing it with Symbian OS in their version S60 for over 4yrs head start; beginning with the 7650. Far too many people thought the original Communicator 9000 series was a smartphone and their wrong. The original was still a basic phone with proprietary hooks not allowing for much tweaking & no apps could be installed (this is the phone that was highlighted in that movie The Saint with Val Kilmer).

Just because you used a few smartphones doesn't mean you're aware of their evolution over time. Some of us are old enough to have lived through many of the innovations by various company's and seen the folly's that have been made.

 

[IGregory]

I don't know about everyone else but I'm keeping my Mac and just as soon as my phone contract expires I am getting an iPhone, and when the iPad 5 is released I will be picking that up too. And to really top it off, even though I don't need it, I might get an iMac too. How you like them Apples.

 

[DeepIn2U]

SwiftKey keyboard already does that

No it doesn't.

SwiftKey doesn't allow you to set 3 or even 2 languages, then throughout the entire Android OS be able to type freely between them at will without the need to "switch languages". Oddly enough RIM er BlackBerry worked with SwiftKey and Nuance to get this innovation. SwiftKey may now have this yet did not when the Z10 was announced.

Another keyboard innovation by RIM is AutoText ... its been around for 8yrs and only in the past year/2 have we seen this on other mobile OS'. It's been renamed "ShortCuts" by all and its not text prediction. I'm unsure the need to rename this yet I suspect its due to licensing - I found reference (on a blog) to "AutoText" for Windows PC yet nothing tangible.

 

[eric89074]

Apple is dangerously close to falling into the same trap that RIM did with the Storm. RIM held onto an old original OS so long that when they introduced the storm it failed in the market place. Apple is a long way from failing...but if the 5S disappoints - there will be many users that will defect to other platforms before the theoretical iPhone 6 would be launched in the summer of 2014.

The storm bombed because it was a broken POS that had to be restarted several times a day and was plagued with other problems because RIM was trying to shoehorn an OS made for phones with a keyboard into a touch screen phone.

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LMAO! really? No Apple is not the main reason the current smartphone market exists as it does today; I'll agree about the tablet market.

LOL yes really!

Google envisioned Android as a competitor for BB phones. Just look at the early prototypes. For a while BB executives didn't even believe the iPhone was real.

Apple did not create the concept of smart phones but they ushered in the current era of smart phones with the iPhone. To dispute that is lunacy.

 

[Risco]

Without a doubt iOS needs a big shakeup but after the last two lacklustre releases I am starting to doubt Apple are capable.

 

[2005CTS]

Are you a consumer or a stock holder?

As a consumer, all I care about is that Apple does not frack up the things I like about their products. Introducing benefit-less features into iOS that require more processing power than my current iPhone can handle only makes my life miserable. It makes my phone run slower than it needs to. And it sucks battery.

As far as aesthetics go, I propose to keeps things clean and simple. Anyone who wants convoluted looking hardware decorated like christmas trees already have about a dozen options out there.

As a stock holder, I say, make great products that are designed and built using the "think different" philosophy. The stock price will take care of itself in due time.

I am both. I have purchased numerous Apple products over the last three years:

4th generation 64GB iPod Touch
iPhone 4S (one 16GB and one 64GB)
iPad2 32GB
13" Macbook Pro
27" iMac
5th generation 64GB iPod Touch
iPhone 5 64GB
iPad4 Retina 32GB
15" Macbook Pro Retina

so....when it comes to loyalty as a consumer I am tops. As a stockholder - I want Apple to stay ahead of the innovation curve. I want them to keep things clean and simply elegant as they have in the past - but they also need to keep pushing the envelope. The current iPhone5 is a solid phone - but no longer class leading in all aspects like the iPhone4 was. An iPhone 5S is a safe predictable bet from a operations standpoint - but will continue the incremental slide in market position in the smart phone space. Apple needs to get back in front. Not by adding pointless features - but by doing things such as making their multi-tasking better, add security features, make a larger screen in a similar sized phone by shrinking the bezel (edge to edge glass anyone?) and eliminating the physical button. I suspect they will do those things eventually...but right now they are going slow while the rest of the industry speeds up. Apple can no longer rest on their laurels. They need to shock the industry this summer with an all new hardware and software update.

If they do - I will be first in line for the next iphone. If they do not - I will sit by and wait. In the meantime - the rest of the industry is catching up and in some cases passing Apple.

 

[Ochyandkaren]

[/COLOR]

Words to live by, Ochy. I suggest you heed your own advice.

: AH!. Clever posing.

 

[GermanyChris]

This place is like short attention span theater...

With all these articles of late saying how the iPhone is no longer revolutionary, yep, the competition has stepped it up. But I can't help wonder where the competitors would be today had Apple not broken the ground they did, when they did, with their initial innovation.

I can't help but to wonder where Apple would be today if BB hadn't popularized the smart phone.

]First -> enabling Wifi/BT/Airplane mode is something that is only done by less than 1% of users[/B]. You don't waste precious screenspace to such a meaningless feature if you know your job as ui developer.
And IF you do it ... well all i could say is i would fire you because you suck.

Second -> even IF maps would be a complete desaster
(which it is appearently NOT if you look at the facts, ONLY 3d view and poi had a problem but this is something that gets better every day. You CAN'T map the whole word in 2 years, google neded more than 10 years and especially where i live apple maps is far more accurate than google maps) ... don't use it. use google maps. Thats why it is an OS. It is called
OPERATING SYSTEM
An Operating System is the BASELAYER for applications.
It's ONLY !!! task is provide mechanisms so that APPLICATIONS can work and communicate.
And if you don't like an application, USE ANOTHER !!!!!!

Would you say linux is absolute ******** because Libreoffice don't has a word feature ?
No because OS and APP are two completely different things.

Sorry ... i read about 2 years macrumors. And i can only state that most comments get more stupid every day.
Especially because they are written from dorks who think they are the coolest, know everything, have to criticise but don't have the slightest cue about even the most basic mechanisms like the difference between technical innovations and ui features or about the roles of APIs, OS, Apps, UIs or similar.

And this thread was just the final point why i finally registered myself.
I could not longer endure the stupidity of 90% of the commenters.
Yes call me hater, ******* or whatever. But if people are stupid and think they are so intelligent that they have to shout their stupidity into the world ... i can't any longer read without getting aggressive

Really I'm about as light a user of my smart phone as could be. I play one game, check my email, and tether it to my computer. Yet I do those things almost on a daily basis I'm hardly the 1%

 

[Risco]

The storm bombed because it was a broken POS that had to be restarted several times a day and was plagued with other problems because RIM was trying to shoehorn an OS made for phones with a keyboard into a touch screen phone.

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LOL yes really!

Google envisioned Android as a competitor for BB phones. Just look at the early prototypes. For a while BB executives didn't even believe the iPhone was real.

Apple did not create the concept of smart phones but they ushered in the current era of smart phones with the iPhone. To dispute that is lunacy.

Apple made touch not only useable but desirable, something that every previous company was unable to do. So yes, Apple did invent the modern smartphone.

 

[2005CTS]

The storm bombed because it was a broken POS that had to be restarted several times a day and was plagued with other problems because RIM was trying to shoehorn an OS made for phones with a keyboard into a touch screen phone.

Exactly...because they failed to innovate!!!

Apple is trending in that direction! The iPhone is slipping and I fear that an S variant will not be enough to keep the historical sales volumes in place.

Apple needs to be the first to launch an edge to edge screen phone. Lose the physical button. Bump up the PPI and keep the pressure on thinness.

They can do it...and if they don't...someone else will do it first!!

 

[newdeal]

I hope you're wrong. If iOS7 doesnt dazzle and isn't a huge leap forward from iOS6, Apple will get hammered in the media and all the tech blogs. A lot is riding on this and their future for Apple. Hardware-wise Apple's phones are really good. They're at or very near the top in performance. Software is where they're getting hammered right now.

Hardware wise they are at the top for GPU performance but CPU and Ram is far behind Android handsets. Luckily iOS is far more efficient than Android but if they really pull out the new features in iOS 7 that may change. It will be interesting to see how they balance thinness and battery life if they put a larger drain on the system via better software

 

[AppvanceTech]

I can remember Mr. Jobs saying the iphone was five years ahead of the next competitor five years ago....

the iPhone has stalled and needs to be revived with something that is brand new to everyone. what happened to apple innovating???

 

[eric89074]

Exactly...because they failed to innovate!!!

Apple is trending in that direction! The iPhone is slipping and I fear that an S variant will not be enough to keep the historical sales volumes in place.

Releasing a ****** broken product is not a failure to innovate. It is laziness, arrogance, and stupidity.

How is Apple trending in the direction of releasing a broken phone that doesn't work well?

the iPhone has stalled and needs to be revived with something that is brand new to everyone. what happened to apple innovating???

Change for change's sake is dumb when you have the best functioning phone on the market. Please elaborate on what innovations you would like to see.

 

[576316]

I might just be optimistic but I think Apple is merely going through a dark period and it's not even that dark. They're simply at the point of just updating all their products. I'm wholly sure we'll see some real innovation inside the next two years.

I agree with the idea that a lot is riding on these two years also. The iPhone 5S and 6, iOS 7, iWatch...they all need to be something new and something great. For example, the iPad mini wasn't a great product, but it was a good product it needed something else and I don't think it should have been released without it. Priced higher than competitors and often lagging behind them was not a good look.

 

[kobalap]

I am both. I have purchased numerous Apple products over the last three years:

4th generation 64GB iPod Touch
iPhone 4S (X2)
iPad2 32GB
13" Macbook Pro
27" iMac
5th generation 64GB iPod Touch
iPhone 5
iPad4 Retina 32GB
15" Macbook Pro Retina

so....when it comes to loyalty as a consumer I am tops. As a stockholder - I want Apple to stay ahead of the innovation curve. I want them to keep things clean and simply elegant as they have in the past - but they also need to keep pushing the envelope. The current iPhone5 is a solid phone - but no longer class leading in all aspects like the iPhone4 was. An iPhone 5S is a safe predictable bet from a operations standpoint - but will continue the incremental slide in market position in the smart phone space. Apple needs to get back in front. Not by adding pointless features - but by doing things such as making their multi-tasking better, add security features, make a larger screen in a similar sized phone by shrinking the bezel (edge to edge glass anyone?) and eliminating the physical button. I suspect they will do those things eventually...but right now they are going slow while the rest of the industry speeds up. Apple can no longer rest on their laurels. They need to shock the industry this summer with an all new hardware and software update.

If they do - I will be first in line for the next iphone. If they do not - I will sit by and wait. In the meantime - the rest of the industry is catching up and in some cases passing Apple.

Coke tried to shock the industry once. And shock it they did.

I don't know how you are judging the iPhone's market position. Sure, the do not have the biggest screens. And they do not have the highest ppi screens. And they are 2 cores shy of what the latest Androids come with.

But as a stock holder, I say that differentiating from the pack is not by out inching the screensize of your competitors. And its not out ppi-ing their display resolutions. That's how PC manufacturers think. And that's how Android phone makers think. And that's how you wind up with every shrinking margins. Differentiating from the pack has to be done a different way because there is no way to beat samsung at building the highest spec'd phone. That's a non starter.

iPhones are different than Android phones. For some people that difference is a good difference. For others, they prefer holding a notebook sized phone to the side of their heads. They prefer ever feature known to man, whether or not the feature is useful. They prefer uncurated appstores that can have sketchy apps in it.

There is a novelty in having the most features and the best spec's. But in the end, I believe that simple, elegant design wins. And sometimes you can measure the quality of something not just by what it has but also by what it doesn't.

 

[jctevere]

I don't understand why everyone is ragging on Apple for "not innovating"...

What other phone manufacturers have a more innovative UI? I have yet to find a smartphone with a UI that looks as good and performs as well as the iPhone's...

On that note - I don't think that any other smartphone maker is really innovating anymore - they've all seem to hit a roadblock and just seem to keep refreshing their offerings. This is just the natural progression of things.

If anything about the only complain you can have with the iPhone UI is not that it is "not innovating" like other smarthphone users. Its that it has remained largely unchanged.

Some may think this a bad thing - but why fix what ain't broken?

 

[DeepIn2U]

The storm bombed because it was a broken POS that had to be restarted several times a day and was plagued with other problems because RIM was trying to shoehorn an OS made for phones with a keyboard into a touch screen phone.

----------



LOL yes really!

Google envisioned Android as a competitor for BB phones. Just look at the early prototypes. For a while BB executives didn't even believe the iPhone was real.

Apple did not create the concept of smart phones but they ushered in the current era of smart phones with the iPhone. To dispute that is lunacy.

You really need to define your "current era of smartphones" statement to be clear.

Touchscreen?
- Been done by about 10 different PocketPC-PE, Symbian devices before iPhone.
Multi-Touch?
- If I recall there was at least 1 smartphone on the market available (yes even in the US) that was capable of this. Didn't sell at all well but it had it: Nokia 7710. I think there was another though. Missy Elliot featured this in one of her videos long ago. Motorola's Accompli line evolved using Linux OS but I cannot recall the exact model that had multi-touch so I maybe mistaken here. The level of 5 fingers multi-touch yes Apple brought that to market but its NOT an Apple innovation another company made this and was selling it to any buyers willing.
App Store?
- BINGO pure Apple innovation! Bar none. Completely agree. This maybe something that was bound to happen yet VERY difficult for Symbian to accomplish and other mobile OS' since the vast sparse availability to source and install applications was never governed. The Google PlayStore seems to have surpassed this by re-installing apps when you sign into another device, and push app installs done by any web-browser, something I'm greateful that BB10 offers.
1-button on the face of a smartphone
- Apple wins here again.
Glass for the screen
- Apple is NOT the first here.
Touch Sensors imbedded into the Glass (no separation of substrate)
- Apple is NOT the first here. Compaq did this some 4yrs earlier. Heck even the Palm Treo 600 had this.

So again I implore you to define what you mean by "ushered in the current era of smart phones with the iPhone."

PS: I'm well aware of the Android being originally designed to compete with BB; that was not part of our rebuttal To be honest I think the evil emporer (Google Chairman) still uses a BB, no?

 

[Oletros]

No it doesn't.

SwiftKey doesn't allow you to set 3 or even 2 languages, then throughout the entire Android OS be able to type freely between them at will without the need to "switch languages".

Then I must be using BB10 because he configurado English, castellano y català in my SwiftKey app i puc canviar entre ellos sense haver de switch the language


Ups, no, I'm using Android 4.2.2 in a Nexus 7