If Tim Cook spends his time as CEO working on the tasks of his previous position as VP, then Apple is in worse trouble than I thought. In all the hype and gushing over these trivial devices and pieces of colored plastic, has anyone noticed that the music store is dying? iPad sales are declining? The MBP hasn't been updated in two years? AppleTV is a nothing burger? OS X is in its fourth beta release since X.6?
Apple Inc. is a giant gleaming ship with a talented crew, it can go anywhere. Too bad it lacks a captain to set the course.
The Apple that took the world by storm was the unique result of one visionary afforded a unique degree of power and wealth at his disposal. It continues to be fascinating to observe his company since his departure. It is obvious to me that Apple continues to create useful, beautiful technology motivated and in the spirit of Jobs. The problem is that they aren't Jobs and this Apple doesn't have his vision.
The result is what we see today. The products that are nice, but just not the same. Take the 6. The iPhone now comes in two sizes--choice I agree with fwiw--exactly what Jobs didn't want and said wouldn't happen. And the different sizes and colors, the protruding camera, the bland design...it's a nice phone, it's just not one Jobs would have let out the door. Now we have the Apple watch.
The watch is ridiculous in so many ways. It does virtually nothing, and even less than many competing products. Jobs wouldn't have jumped into a whole new category like this unless his device offered real utility, that this watch doesn't. My guess is that it was intended to be revolutionary with GPS, health sensors, and probably connections with augmented reality UI--a product we honestly haven't seen anywhere else. What the Apple watch turned out to be is a pure marketing gimmick. It's a smaller iPod nano they've prettied up.
My guess is that there was pressure to release something new, and they didn't have a big product ready for launch this year, so they went with the best alternative R&D/Jony had been working on...a designer watch that wasn't nearly there yet. Supposedly it's been in the works for two years (which doesn't seem long for an Apple product). Suspiciously, we previously been told Ive was submerged in iOS development for major chunks of this, making me wonder how much focus the watch actually received. At any rate, the two years development didn't come up with anything remotely revolutionary. The watch needs to be tethered to your phone, negating most value, it requires daily charging, it can't be worn at night to monitor sleep (assuming you want to wear it the next day), it won't map your run or act as a better fitness monitor than products already on the market, and on top of all this it's homely.
Facing the reality of the non-revolutionary Apple watch, Apple has decided to do what they can to market it differently. Instead of one awesome product, they're going the Samsung route and offering near limitless choices, with different sizes, materials, bands, and price points. They've decided to only offer early review to a few outlets they could count on to be complimentary, they're getting celebrities to wear them, and they're sticking in fashion/luxury promotions. Regardless of what the fanatics will claim, this simply is a different Apple than we've seen previously. It isn't nearly as cool, it lacks the polish, and the devices themselves aren't that interesting.
