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Innovation is difficult to achieve on a regular basis. Just look at any other company and tell me which one is doing it. If you look at the past 20 years, how often is this company innovating? How does Apple compare?

Exactly.
 
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People may not want to hear it, but he's right. Remember the magic when Jobs was in charge pulling rabbits out of the hat all the time? We haven't seen that level of interest in a product launch since...well, never
 
Hes not wrong though, Since Tim Cook Apple has played it very safe and has not really done a lot of exciting updates to the iPhone for example. The X was the big leap but since then innovation has stalled. The Apple Watch as well. I upgrade annually, but lets be real, Apple has not innovated in a long time.
Agreed. The folks here that are getting twisted need to read what he said. Apple does not make you look forward to the next big event. There is no “one more thing” to look forward to. Everything is just evolutionary at this point. Sure, moving to ARM was huge, but was anything that the average person would get excited over? These were things that kept people interested - even non-tech folks. That’s gone. No, he’s not wrong. Not in the least.
 
Why does every Tesla looks like a Mazda?
Oh, Franz comes from Mazda.

It's like an amateur composer complaining that all Beethoven symphonies sound similar.
I look at an iPhone and see a design that never really tires.
(I look at the chin of the iMac and see a design that should have been changed a long time ago. But that's a different question.)

And, yes, the Tesla Y was radical compared to the Model 3 ...
 
Tesla does not even update their cars annually. In its entire run, the Model S has had only 1 iterative revision. I can barely tell the Model 3 and the Model Y apart. Only two new things they have done are Model X (which has not significantly changed since release) and the (gag) cybertruck which they have not delivered.

Of all people to complain that Apple is not doing anything new in design it should not be coming from this guy. Even copycat Samsung has done more drastic innovative designs with their foldable phones.

UPDATE: I figured out what he must have meant by “There’s Nothing to Look Forward To”. He thinks Apple should announce more products and services that they are not going to deliver for years or ever. That way you can look forward to them.

Tesla has set the example here:
- Tesla Semi
- Tesla Roadster
- Tesla Cybertruck

And the best one of all… the one you can pay for in advance while looking forward to it and hoping it will one day work:
- Tesla Full Self Driving
This still doesn’t change the fact that he is not wrong in his assessment of Apple. It’s inconvenient, but it’s true.
 
We all know that he’s right but the Apple apologists will backlash as they do.
In 14 years:
1. Trash Can Mac Pro (which was a surprise and fun but ultimately poorly designed)
2. Apple Watch (if you’re into that sort of thing)
3. Wireless earbuds.

And that’s it!
Makes you wonder what they’re spending their tens of billions of dollars of R&D on.
What about these items:
4. iPad
5. "A" line of Apple Silicon mobile processors (starting with A5)
6. Apple Silicon graphics processor architecture
7. Metal - graphics API for Imagination and Apple graphics processor architecture
8. Swift programming language
9. "M" line of Apple Silicon processors with high-throughput memory architecture

Tesla's innovations are mostly under the hood (literally), other than that they are "just" making 4-wheeled vehicles like everyone else. I would argue that most innovations are like that these days. Looking around, the iPhone in terms of form factor associated with new functions (slab screen with responsive touchscreen) perhaps was the most life-changing innovative physical new item in the last 50 years, together with computers.
 
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I'll gladly take my rectangular phone that looks remarkably similar to previous ones over a trapezoid in the name of "something to look forward to." ... and I happen to like that trapezoid they made, but let's be serious here. There's not much leeway in the way these devices look and feel like there are for cars.
 
When the Tesla designer complains that Apple designs are boring because they are incremental, the implied claim is NOT that Apple designs have become less adventurous over time. The implied claim is that Tesla is doing much better. I personally did not notice much difference between the different Model S designs or even between the model Y and the model 3. The Cybertruck seems to be about as radical (and soon canned again) as the round Mac Pro: interesting but short lived.
 
As a car company, your design language is your identity.
Is Tesla the model 3 or the Cybertruck?
Given their move to Texas and complaints about women getting harassed, I think the latter. But that's a niche market of over-testosteroned men who never got over their teenage years.
 
Tesla does not even update their cars annually. In its entire run, the Model S has had only 1 iterative revision. I can barely tell the Model 3 and the Model Y apart. Only two new things they have done are Model X (which has not significantly changed since release) and the (gag) cybertruck which they have not delivered.

Of all people to complain that Apple is not doing anything new in design it should not be coming from this guy. Even copycat Samsung has done more drastic innovative designs with their foldable phones.

UPDATE: I figured out what he must have meant by “There’s Nothing to Look Forward To”. He thinks Apple should announce more products and services that they are not going to deliver for years or ever. That way you can look forward to them.

Tesla has set the example here:
- Tesla Semi
- Tesla Roadster
- Tesla Cybertruck

And the best one of all… the one you can pay for in advance while looking forward to it and hoping it will one day work:
- Tesla Full Self Driving

Don't forget the Tesla bot and those robo taxis that were defiantly coming out by the end of 2020.
 
Tesla Model S 2012 1st Gen:

View attachment 1956797

Tesla Model S 2022 3rd Gen:

images

Big changes over a decade right?.....
I think you flipped the images. Oh no, you didn't. Progress?
 
Agreed. The folks here that are getting twisted need to read what he said. Apple does not make you look forward to the next big event. There is no “one more thing” to look forward to. Everything is just evolutionary at this point. Sure, moving to ARM was huge, but was anything that the average person would get excited over? These were things that kept people interested - even non-tech folks. That’s gone. No, he’s not wrong. Not in the least.
The problem with statements like these is they always just say "innovation" without ever having an actual idea of what they are talking about. Because if everyone knew what was "innovative", then by definition it wouldn't be.

It's still pretty weird coming from Tesla, where I don't think there's much you can say is innovative about them, certainly as cars—they've put a lot of effort into battery tech, but that's like the ARM transition—arguably not meaningful to non-nerds. Despite being freed from the internal combustion engine as a limitation, Tesla's cars look... like cars. Even the Cybertruck just looks like a low-poly Warthog I've seen in a video game two decades ago. Where's the innovation in half-baked driving features that threaten to kill the owners or more likely pedestrians?

Apple under Cook has continued highly profitable lines started under Jobs, and added new ones (the Apple Watch, the various services people now rely on.) "Well, there's no innovation" is a killer line when there's really no other way to impeach Apple's success as a company, especially since it doesn't require the claimant to prove anything, and said success will always be denigrated as not innovation.
 
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Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen recently commented on Apple's design principles and product launches, lamenting that Apple doesn't deliver something "to look forward to."

tesla-red-orange-bg-feature.jpg

During a podcast interview with Spike Feresten of Spike's Car Radio (via iPhone in Canada and Sawyer Merritt), Holzhausen said that Apple's devices are "just a continuation" and a "slight refinement on the same thing."

He also said that he "hates to say it" but he wears an Apple Watch "just because of the fitness thing side to it. Otherwise I haven't really found much purpose to it, other than the fitness part."

Holzhausen is responsible for designing the Tesla Model S, the Model 3, the Model X, and the Model Y, along with the unreleased Cybertruck. He has been with Tesla since 2008, and before that, he was the chief of design at Mazda and led the design of the Mazda Kabura concept car.

Apple and Tesla have a long history of poaching employees from one another, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also publicly sniped at Apple. Back in 2015, Musk famously called Apple the "Tesla Graveyard," and claimed that "if you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple."

Article Link: Tesla Design Chief on Apple Products: 'There's Nothing to Look Forward To'
Funny, all the Teslas look nearly alike, and haven't revised since they first came out.
 
Agreed. The folks here that are getting twisted need to read what he said. Apple does not make you look forward to the next big event. There is no “one more thing” to look forward to. Everything is just evolutionary at this point. Sure, moving to ARM was huge, but was anything that the average person would get excited over? These were things that kept people interested - even non-tech folks. That’s gone. No, he’s not wrong. Not in the least.
Who says people aren't getting excited? It may be your opinion the "excitement is gone", but I am not in agreement.
 
Agreed. The folks here that are getting twisted need to read what he said. Apple does not make you look forward to the next big event. There is no “one more thing” to look forward to. Everything is just evolutionary at this point. Sure, moving to ARM was huge, but was anything that the average person would get excited over? These were things that kept people interested - even non-tech folks. That’s gone. No, he’s not wrong. Not in the least.

I am sorry but if Franz implied that the average person shouldn't be excited over the ARM transition. He has odviously not used any of the M1 Macs. There is a clear advantaged in dramatically improved battery life and across the be board performance improvements. You can unplug your MacBook edit some videos and still have more than a days worth of battery life. How can the average person possibly miss that.
 
We all know that he’s right but the Apple apologists will backlash as they do.
In 14 years:
1. Trash Can Mac Pro (which was a surprise and fun but ultimately poorly designed)
2. Apple Watch (if you’re into that sort of thing)
3. Wireless earbuds.

And that’s it!
Makes you wonder what they’re spending their tens of billions of dollars of R&D on.
While I don't feel like listing some of the additional innovations that may have been left out...it always seems the "Apple apologists" and "Apple critics" are each in their own lane with the same narratives that have always been there.
 
All credit to Musk and vH for building Tesla into what it is today.

But years into the future, I would enjoy a good book about what transpired behind the scenes during the disputes with Tesla's true founders, Eberhard and Tarpennng, as well as Henrik Fisker, who was hired to design the Model S. All of which has been hidden by confidential settlements.

It would be interesting to see how much of Fisker's work remains in the S, from which the 3 and Y are derived.
 
Airpods? They are a great product, but their design is practically identical to earpods with the wires cut off. Not a bad thing, but definitely not new.
I mean, Earpods with the wires cut off was a new design at the time. They pretty much invented the true wireless earbuds market. Yes there were a few niche products available before, but not anything like Airpods.
 
I wish Tesla and Apple could get along. I'd love to have Carplay working on Tesla, but unfortunately Tesla is stuck with their own proprietary system and doesn't seem to play nice with either Android Auto or Apple Carplay.
 
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Are people forgetting that Jobs visited Sony to learn how they did their product upgrades?

Yearly, incremental changes giving people just enough reason to upgrade.
Kept the coffers full for a long time.
 
The guy is just trolling and you're all falling for it.

Have you seen a Tesela? Great tech, most uninspiring design ever. Bland to begin with when the S came out a decade ago, never ever changed since. S3XY all look the same.
 
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