Tim Cook: Innovation 'Deeply Embedded' In Apple, Company Has 'No Issue' Coming Up With New Ideas

[xwk88]

Apparently you failed to see that the majority of "features" in iOS 7 have been copies from other sources. The notification and control centers are nothing new, these have been on Android for quite some time now. You're just throwing out "oh the APIs!" because you have no clue what the APIs do compared to what is available on other platforms.

One thing Apple did innovate on was making their iOS 7 offering the least stable mobile experience I have had to date. I guess they were too busy patting themselves on the back for inventing the fingerprint scanner....



First off, a product that Google has yet to offer to the vast majority can hardly be considered vaporware, so check your understanding there.

Chromecast while not being new already offers more flexibility than AppleTV EVER has (unless you count ATV2 when its rooted). With AppleTV you're locked into the iTunes buying system, with no escape if you want to use any other source (think Xbmc, plex, etc). With the Chromecast I already have the ability to easily stream Netflix, Plex, Youtube and a growing number of apps "from" my device to the TV. The fact its also $35 (and can be found cheaper frequently) makes it a no brainer.

You ask who uses a $300 web browser? I know many people who have purchased one and enjoy using it. They can use Chrome and all of the apps that come with it now days (do tasks using an office suite, etc). If you want to do that in Apples ecosystem you're going to spend at minimum $500-600 and end up with an iPad + keyboard, if you want a laptop .. well .. $999 is the starting price.

Ok first of why do you put features in quotation?? Are they not real features because the ios was not the first to implement them by that logic I should refer to android and windows 8 as "smartphone os", I don't because I have a brain, or what's left of one anyhow, they were features and much needed ones, that yes others had in one way shape or form before ios 7 in the case of notification center even ios it self. But they are great improvement an evolutionary process, as I wrote before, just a few things that made ios 7 better.

I never said it was perfect, I too had upgrade issues try and read my post u know so u can formulate a response that won't make people thing ur dumb... Like I said messages was my main issue and app crashes had to do a clean restore in my 4s only. As for most unstable, that's highly doubtful, also if u look back every ios and OS X release of the last 5-6 years has had the same complain by different ppl will run into different problems. Yet those issues can't have been that bad seeing as they sold +50m iPhones and 26m iPads all with ios 7 and there are some +70% of older device on ios 7, but if it sucked that bad ppl would prob not be using it very often, yet last I checked more than 80% of tablet web traffic comes from iPads..... Idk that just doesn't add up seems like a small problem to me....
But ur experience sucked thus everyone must have also.
that makes sense, facts forgotten

API are sets of predefined classes and methods made by apple, to give developers access to different parts of the hardware and OS, in a manner that makes it easier and faster to develop software for an environment. I don't know by heart all new additions but I quite enjoy programming and learning as a hobby.
As for api's, available on other platforms? Why do I care?
I want to know about the ones available to me

 

[winston1236]

What did Samsung ever come up with on their own? Other than a watch that nobody wants?

The worlds first capacitive touchscreen mobile phone? I think thats pretty significant.

 

[moderately]

They did not invent the MP3, the phone or the tablet markets either.

They just happened to be the company that did it right.

quoted for truth.

Apple's innovations come from synthesizing existing tech in new ways. You could argue that they haven't invented anything. They have still had this transformative affect so much of the time when they turn their attention to a product or a market.

The "innovative" "did not invent" arguments are somewhat silly and lose the reality of how revolutionary so many Apple products have been. But maybe that is the purpose, to diminish what Apple has accomplished.

 

[subsonix]

I miss the point then on CPU design. I do not miss the point that Apple did not invent "64 bit" which is what the initial comment was.

Incredibly little is won by that observation. What does it take to dream up n-bittness? Here, have a "1024 bit".

Here's a spec: "A car of a new kind, it shall be the flying kind". If you go on and actually design a car to meed that spec, you did not invent it and no innovation was involved.

 

[hasanahmad]

Apple has not innovated at all since 2009-2010

Bigger screen size was forced due to competition having bigger size. The upcoming size increase is also a reaction only

OS functionality has remained nearly stagnant with minimalist functionality increases. Now Android products are not only functionally superior but they are quickly catching up in terms of polish

Fingerprint scanner is purely a gimmick with it not working for half the people and the other not even caring about it. I know a dozen iphone users, all of them dont care about fingerprint scanner or dont use it

 

[Rogifan]

Many people forget this. They like to shout that Apple "invented the mp3 player". "Invented the smartphone" and the like.

the iPod was not the first Mp3 player on the market. Not even the first with links to a music store online.

What they were, was a company that managed to make a MP3 player device that was fairly easy to use (Ripping off the UI of Creative Labs to do so), in a white, fancy Fashionable product that non tech geeks wished to own.

It wasn't ground breaking technologically. it had some cool different ways of doing things. But overall it was still an MP3 player.

Similar came about with the iPhone. it wasn't the first smartphone. wasn't the first touchscreen device. BUt, again, what they did was take the Smartphone out of the hands of the geeks, and make a product that your mom and dad would not mind being seen carrying around. The Jock and cheerleader in highschool no longer thought it was "uncool" to have a smartphone cause of the Apple logo and design.

Apple did change the ballgame. They have innovated in the past. But to say they're the best innovators and the best tech company in the world whose never copied anyore else and completely self sufficient is completely erroneous.


I also am getting sick and ****ing tired of this "Innovative" word being tossed around like candy.

Innovation: To introduce something new and never seen before. To implement new methods and things that haven't otherwise been done or seen before.


Adding more resolution to a screen was only "innovative" the first time it was done. Adding a few more Mhz to a CPU isn't innovation. Removing useful features (EG Media drive from iMac's) just to make it a few CM thinner, isn't innovation.

the First ever 64bit CPU in a Mobile phone? Innovation.

making a Finger print scanner work in a mobile phone better than your competition isn't innovation.

Shaving a few MM from the thickness of your phone is not innovation.

The best question you can ask yourself to clarify "is this innovation" is to ask yourself "Have I seen this technology, anywhere before? in any form?". Just because Apple might make it work the best within their systems and ecosystem didnt mean they are innovating it. Refining, Perfecting? sure. But the inventors and innovators? no.

So by your definition nobody is really innovating. Just making screens bigger with higher pixel density isn't innovation. The stylus certainly isn't new so adding that to a phone can't be innovation either. Google Chromebook is just a cheap laptop which Windows OEMs have been doing for ages. Curved TVs I guess might be considered innovative but we've yet to see a market for them. Seems more like TV makers trying to find a reason for people to buy new TVs (same could be said about 4K).

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Fingerprint scanner is purely a gimmick with it not working for half the people and the other not even caring about it. I know a dozen iphone users, all of them dont care about fingerprint scanner or dont use it

What's your source for this? The dozen users you know? That equates to it not working for half of iPhone users?

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Apple has not innovated at all since 2009-2010

As I noted to another poster w/ similar sentiment that is really short sighted. If you look at the time periods between the iPod and iPhone and iPhone and iPad and iPad and Next Big Thing the time gaps are all between 4 and 6 years.

So you can say Apple hasn't innovated since 2009-10 but then you also have to say Apple did not innovate between 2002 and 2007 and then between 2008 and 2010 too. But of course we know the iPod wasn't magically produced in 2001. It was YEARS in the making as are most ground breaking products. Similar Apple was innovated between 2002 and 2007 the public just didn't have privy to it first hand.

 

[Tech198]

"... has no issues coming up with new ideas." says Tim cook who can't think of anything unique that doesn't already exist in iOS.

Mountain Lion was the last OS you could say that was unique with features..

Now regardless of what device/desktop or laptop running Mavericks you use, they all have the same old sharing stuff in. Notification center, etc..... Once only appeared in iOS...

Some things are just left better alone....

That's all i have to say about Tim But at least he's trying.... and stuffing things up more which may be a good thing, i dunno.

To me, this is just a roller coaster.... New new, fresh ideas with.... we must build onto the desktop what already exists in a mobile device......

If we were used to it on mobile, its nothing new in the desktop world...... Kinda boring ain't it.

 

[LordVic]

So by your definition nobody is really innovating. Just making screens bigger with higher pixel density isn't innovation. The stylus certainly isn't new so adding that to a phone can't be innovation either. Google Chromebook is just a cheap laptop which Windows OEMs have been doing for ages. Curved TVs I guess might be considered innovative but we've yet to see a market for them. Seems more like TV makers trying to find a reason for people to buy new TVs (same could be said about 4K).

I agree with everythign you just said in this sentence and you listed a lot of things that I would not actually consider as innovative.


[*]just making screens bigger with higher pixel density isn't innovation.
You're right. it's not. the first ever high density display on a mobile device would be considered innovative. All subsequent ones are just expansion on that idea.

[*]The stylus certainly isn't new so adding that to a phone can't be innovation either.
Your right. Just making a stylus itself isn't innovation. Stylus (stylii?) have been around for decades. Including one now isn't innovative. Neither is pressure sensitive stylus devices. The First ever use of a Wacom style digitizer in a mobile phone mihgt be considered innovation, as it was never seen before, But the actual invention of the Digitizer was already done. The Digitizer itself iisn't the innovation.

[*]Google Chromebook is just a cheap laptop which Windows OEMs have been doing for ages.
Absolutely correct. on a hardware basis there is absolutely nothing that distiguishes chromebooks apart from any other computer. Just like Apple computers, Just like Dell, just like HP and just like your homebuilt machines. They're all standard PC components. SLap whatever OS you want on it. Whatever version of linux, ChromeOS, Android, OSx, Windows. It's still a computer. Now, those OS's might have their own innovative features. But the devices themselves are not innovative just because you change the name and call it a chromebook instead of a laptop.

[*]Curved TVs I guess might be considered innovative but we've yet to see a market for them. Seems more like TV makers trying to find a reason for people to buy new TVs (same could be said about 4K).
I'd say Curved TVs, and the invention of 4k TV to be innovative. Firsts fo their kinds. freshly invented. The Market penetration is completely irrelevant if something is innovative or not. If you invent something, just because you don't sell it, Doesn't mean it's still not invented.


I do agree though, I think the push fro 4k and "curved screens" is more a push to give consumers a reason to buy new TV's, the actual benefits is very minimal for most consumers.

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The worlds first capacitive touchscreen mobile phone? I think thats pretty significant.

Except they werent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada

Didnt do very well. And apparently wasn't a great device.

But it was still the first Capacitive touch screen phone. Not the iPhone.

 

[639051]

Incredibly little is won by that observation. What does it take to dream up n-bittness? Here, have a "1024 bit".

Here's a spec: "A car of a new kind, it shall be the flying kind". If you go on and actually design a car to meed that spec, you did not invent it and no innovation was involved.

So what you're saying is all ARM has done is say "this is a new CPU, its 64 bit" and has done nothing else? If that's the case why does Apple bother licensing from ARM at all? Why not just go out and design and build their own architecture since all ARM is doing is defining a CPU by saying "we like CPUs, this CPU shall be 64 bit"?

I have to think that Apple didn't go to the drawing board and write up the instruction set for 64 bit CPUs and implement their own version of it.

You're also telling me that ARM has never produced a single 64 bit CPU and that all they do is put down ideas on paper? They have no reference CPUs, nada?

Maybe I exist in a dreamworld. I fully admit (and it should be quite obvious) that I am not involved in the design or production of CPUs, but telling me that all ARM does is throw ideas around to define a spec is absurd.

Edit : Please don't take away from this that I believe ARM manufacturers CPUs. It's obvious they license their designs out to be used, but it's insane to think that their deigns purely exist on paper and they never test them with reference hardware.

 

[subsonix]

So what you're saying is all ARM has done is say "this is a new CPU, its 64 bit" and has done nothing else? If that's the case why does Apple bother licensing from ARM at all? Why not just go out and design and build their own architecture since all ARM is doing is defining a CPU by saying "we like CPUs, this CPU shall be 64 bit"?

I have to think that Apple didn't go to the drawing board and write up the instruction set for 64 bit CPUs and implement their own version of it.

You're also telling me that ARM has never produced a single 64 bit CPU and that all they do is put down ideas on paper? They have no reference CPUs, nada?

Maybe I exist in a dreamworld. I fully admit (and it should be quite obvious) that I am not involved in the design or production of CPUs, but telling me that all ARM does is throw ideas around to define a spec is absurd.

Edit : Please don't take away from this that I believe ARM manufacturers CPUs. It's obvious they license their designs out to be used, but it's insane to think that their deigns purely exist on paper and they never test them with reference hardware.

It's a reference to your last comment, "Apple did not invent 64 bit", which was your claim, you're the one who narrowed the scope to that. Of course Apple did not come up with the instruction set, it's an ARM chip.

ARM makes reference designs, the Cortex chips, they license this and it's manufactured by many and is the most common. But they also license only the instruction set for those who want to make their own designs, Apple, Qualcomm and so on.

 

[639051]

It's a reference to your last comment, "Apple did not invent 64 bit", which was your claim, you're the one who narrowed the scope the that. Of course Apple did not come up with the instruction set, it's an ARM chip.

ARM makes reference designs, the Cortex chips, they license this and it's manufactured by many and is the most common. But they also license only the instruction set for those who want to make their own designs, Apple, Qualcomm and so on.

Ugh. My whole reason for evening stating this at first is the belief here that Apple magically invented the first 64 bit ARM CPU.

Just because they were the first to throw it in a phone means diddly.

 

[subsonix]

Ugh. My whole reason for evening stating this at first is the belief here that Apple magically invented the first 64 bit ARM CPU.

But they did, afaik.

 

[KdParker]

According to Steve Jobs, it took them two years. At least that's what he said in his keynote: "I've been waiting for this moment for TWO years."

An let's say it as it is: When a company with more than 80,000 employees supports only a fistful of products and only manages to release thinner and faster versions of the already existing ones, then I wonder where that innovation is Apple keeps boasting about. After the original iPad was released, they've only brought minor evolutionary releases of already existing products to the market. I think that's called "model upgrading" - Modellpflege. Innovation is too big a word for it, but of course it sounds better in interviews and advertisements.

Apple's not focusing on innovative products, they're just focusing on milking their cash cows. After all, they're just another American corporation.

Not sure what you angle is here, but I think you are saying that Apple needs to release revolutionary products every 2 years or they are not innovating.

Ok. But make sure you hold every corporation to that standard.

 

[AppleScruff1]

In the context of this thread, he meant fingerprint scanner that works well on a phone. Apple doesn't specialize in any other industry. Context is important and there's no need to be obtuse.

If that's the case, what other phones use/used fingerprint scanners before the iPhone?

 

[2IS]

Really? So this is why Apple did not came up with anything new since Jobs departure. Really, really sad, just sad. It is not exactly a break-through to make things wider, smaller, longer, lighter or add colors.

Its Tim Cooks new plan for a super secret Apple

 

[LordVic]

If that's the case, what other phones use/used fingerprint scanners before the iPhone?

http://www.phonegg.com/list/182-Cell-Phones-with-Fingerprint-Scanner

a few. not overly succesfull

 

[tlinford]

The order of the day is procrastination?

It seems to me that Apple are too busy procrastinating over future products… so busy that they have allowed others to overtake..

for example others have overtaken on the subtraction front: I used to order audible book from iStore, but now I have a subscription to Audible; get a book am up to date month for £8..

I bought a couple of TV shows in the beginning on 2nd Gen Apple TV, but the prices do not compete with mail order DVDs.. For example, I today order Dexter season 7 from Amazon for £13; instead of the £21 it was going to cost from Apple TV… before anyone talks about stealing it, I don't do that!

It is true, that in the past, Jobs held back from 'Tail chasing' product releases until technology could deliver; for example printing with the first Macs was limited… Not offering colour of the first Macs until resolution increased and cost came down..… the first Macs did not offer true networking until the network standards had settled..

But I get the feeling that Apple are letting others 'steal their thunder'? particularly on content?

I just hope there is something in the bag that is going to blow us away...

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

If that's the case, what other phones use/used fingerprint scanners before the iPhone?

The Motorola Atrix had it two years before the iPhone 5s but it wasn't implemented that well (although usable) according to users and they didn't use it again on newer models for obvious reason.

http://bgr.com/2013/09/12/iphone-5s-fingerprint-scanner-motorola-mocking/

 

[AppleScruff1]

http://www.phonegg.com/list/182-Cell-Phones-with-Fingerprint-Scanner

a few. not overly succesfull

The Motorola Atrix had it two years before the iPhone 5s but it wasn't implemented that well (although usable) according to users and they didn't use it again on newer models for obvious reason.

http://bgr.com/2013/09/12/iphone-5s-fingerprint-scanner-motorola-mocking/

Thank you both for the links. I wasn't even aware of those. Now Gnasher's comment makes more sense. I don't ever remember reading about fingerprint scanners on a phone until the 5S. I apologize for the confusion.

 

[Mockenrue]

Smaller, lighter, faster, more refined, with a good design aesthetic - that's Apple's sweet spot right now. It's more refinement than innovation, but I'm OK with that. The Mac Pro and iPad Air don't DO anything that hasn't been done before, but their engineering, design, and efficiency is superb (selectively forgetting the unfortunate 1GB RAM in the iPad).

True innovation is coming from within Google (Glass, Driverless cars), being purchased by Google (Nest, Boston Dynamics), or coming from start-ups (Oculus Rift, Leap Motion) - but they are still some years away from the level of refinement that Apple brings to the table.

I'm sure the Apple smart watch will be very nice, but you could argue that the product category was ushered in by Pebble or some other precursor.

 

[639051]

But they did, afaik.

Guess ARM better pay back that wad of money Apple gave them to license the tech then.

but they are still some years away from the level of refinement that Apple brings to the table.

I'd say Apple doesn't even carry that anymore. Look at all of the complaints about iOS 7 instability, things like Safari crashing frequently and Music causing re-springs. These are things that happen frequently enough that there is no possible way they missed these things in QA.

Apple rushed to get iOS 7 out, and they made some huge errors doing so.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Thank you both for the links. I wasn't even aware of those. Now Gnasher's comment makes more sense. I don't ever remember reading about fingerprint scanners on a phone until the 5S. I apologize for the confusion.

No problem. Appreciate your honesty.

 

[oliversl]

If you want innovation, look at Schiller's *ss

 

[JediZenMaster]

I think slow and steady wins the race and with that said there seems to be a voice of people who are never satisfied.

I bet if apple released the mythical "iWatch", Itv and phones of larger sizes that still would not be enough. It seems like the cycle of technology is so fast that we end up being greedy by wanting more

I'm pretty happy with the 5s and the untapped potential of the a7 , ibeacon, touch id. I don't need everything now when I've barely taken advantage of what I have now