“On Friday, April 1, 2016, Apple celebrates its 40th anniversary. I have had the opportunity to professionally follow Apple since 1981. When I first began interacting with the company, it was a very small firm whose Apple II personal computer had gained traction with hobbyists and some schools and was just starting to leverage a software product called VisiCalc to push this computer to business users as well,” Tim Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “At that time, most of my dealings were with Jobs and Wozniak and their small media department.”
“I am often asked what makes Apple successful and if they can continue that success in the future,” Bajarin writes. “To answer these questions, I believe one has to understand Apple’s past in order to predict its future.”
“When I hear Apple’s best days are behind them I just look at their history and, from what I know of this company, I factor that into looking at their future,” Bajarin writes. “That is why I have no doubt Apple will reinvent products, and itself, and continue to be a powerhouse in technology for decades to come.”
Much more in the full article – recommended, as usual – here.
MacDailyNews Take: No doubt.
As we’ve written many times:
Those who underestimate Tim Cook are in for a rude awakening.
Great read. In regards to innovation, if Apple can manufacture batteries that can move a car 1000-1500 miles per charge then it will be a monumental game changer.
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2015/11/apple-granted-a-patent-for-solid-state-battery-technology-for-portable-devices-and-beyond.html
Even if your battery fetish fantasy came true (Apple would have to more than quadruple what Tesla’s are capable of), you’re still getting the electricity from fossil fuels. Now if Apple got behind nuclear energy and/or natural gas, that would be the monumental game changer.
“still getting electricity from fossil fuels”
Even if fossil fuels are used to generate electricity it is still much, much more beneficial simply due to the fact that energy production is centralized, i.e. fuel would not need to be transported to fueling stations. Furthermore, the process of refining fuels is cut way back.
Absolutely.
Internal combustion engines are about 20% efficient. Toyota built one that’s 38% efficient and it was a significant milestone.
New “H Class” natural gas turbines with a triple pressure HRSG and steam turbine can run at 60 % efficiency.
And in the Pacific Northwest most of the power comes from hydro plants anyway. The only petroleum use is from backward midwestern tourists visiting the dams.
Nuclear and natural gas are available RIGHT NOW, the latter is half as polluting as gasoline and the former creates 0% pollution. Fundamentalist fanatics like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace are guilty of destroying our environment by preventing truly sustainable and green energy sources.
Assuming a ‘safe’ nuclear reactor producing 0% pollution while running, what pollution equivalent do you assign to spent nuclear fuel? As far as I know you have to dispose of it in a way that is a lot more expensive than spent gas as well as consider recurring maintenance to keep it contained.
Nuclear fuel can be recycled and used again: http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/10/01/why-doesnt-u-s-recycle-nuclear-fuel/#2dba2447db4d
The “spent nuclear waste” the US stores is used as a political football. It can be largely reprocessed. The small amount that needs to be stored in the end is miniscule relative to the energy it provides. The roadblocks to nuclear energy aren’t costs (though opponents use this as a weapon), it’s purely ideological. “Environmentalist” radicals associate anything “nuclear” with “evil”, when in fact it’s the cleanest, greenest energy we have.
Nice article. Thanks for the link. Reading it however, it appears that the ‘small’ amount you mention that will need to be stored is still a bit under half of the US’s current ‘waste’ material stockpile of 70k+ metric tons.. A nice reduction but still a whole lot of material to safely contain/maintain/protect.
It’s a negligible amount given the massive energy it provides and the fact that none of it is being pumped into the atmosphere for us to breathe as is the case with coal. I’ve heard that the waste generated to provide nuclear electricity to a family of 4 for 40 years would fit in a shoebox.
One of the arguments for decentralized electricity generation (e.g. neighborhood level) is that it is expensive both cost-wise and power-loss wise to transport generated power over long distances. There is probably a nice middle ground between large power grids and home power generation.
Just look at patentlyapple.com and figure out for yourself…
Apple will be a cash cow for a while… Jump in!
Interesting MDN take. Mind you MDN has been criticising Cook quite a lot of late as if he is pushing their loyalty to the limits.
The meme “Apple’s best days are behind them” has been going on since at least the day the Macintosh was released, if not the Lisa. Apple has constantly been expected to ‘reinvent itself again’. Meanwhile, Apple has become the most successful company in human history. And the Apple FUD memes have continued to be, mostly, utter failures.
Back in reality: Please find other companies capable of innovating technology in the spirit of Apple! There are a few. I’m always saying that Apple requires competition. Please! Bring it on!
No, it’s NOT Samsung and their ilk. They’re merely the leaches hanging on for a sip of blood from their host victim. There have to be companies better than that. How about if we go cynical and FUD mongering about there NOT being worthy competitors with Apple! That’s worth worrying about!
Amazon, Google, Tesla…, keep on really innovating! Please!
http://images2.memedroid.com/images/UPLOADED13/505a25a0c4118.jpeg
Though I would agree with you that Apple is the most successful technology company to date, we have to also keep in mind that it has a 22 year lead in being founded over Google which, though briefly, topped Apple in market cap. 😛
POINT! Much as Google has faked their way through a lot of tech and made a joke of their ‘do no evil’ mantra, they HAVE and entrepreneurial spirit. I use some of their tech every day, between their best-in-class search engine and some technology they BOUGHT in the form of Blogger.
The problem that people have with Apple innovation is that it is incremental and low key, from year to year one hardly notices change.
But compare the Apple of 2009 with the Apple of today: back then there was a *much* smaller Apple ecosystem, the iPad hadn’t even been announced yet. And compare the iPhone 3G with the 6s Plus of today, whoa! It has now morphed into a very powerful pocket computer that, yes, could almost replace a laptop. Macs are much more powerful today than back then, the 27″ iMac Retina blows away my old 2010 iMac. The Apple cloud is huge now, back then it was MobileMe. And so on.
No, Apple is innovating just fine, I have no concerns…
You seem easily amused.
It is always easy for a company to look back and beat its chest about how far it has come. The problem is, other companies are moving forward as well. As Apple has become so large and is being treated as a cash cow rather than a growth investment, users are right to wonder whether Apple leadership will stop listening to users and simply manage Wall Street and the cash flows. And it does seem to be happening. The new products just don’t seem to have the attention to user detail that they once had. It is in Cook’s hands whether the Microsoftization of Apple will be allowed to continue, or whether he will allow innovators back in to impress people with regular doses of all-new, flawless, user-friendly hardware that Just Works. We haven’t seen that since 2010.
Apple has already re-invented itself. It’s a digital appliance company. It is also a social justice company, an environmentalism company, a diversity company. They also make watches. Someday though, I really hope they get back to making the bestest computers in the whole darn world!
Meanwhile: I love this case for LINUX/Windoze
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1117471&gclid=CLyem5P16MsCFReUfgodCy4Kdw&Q=&ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876%2C92051677682%2C&is=REG&A=details
Sorry, but Wall Street says this isn’t good enough. Apple has to come out with some product that no one else has and immediately own that market with the highest market share possible. Of course, no one has a clue as to what this market will be but it just supposed to happen. Meanwhile praise will be given to Amazon for the Echo and platitudes will be given to Tesla for the Model 3 because supposedly they will be the products that will change the world we live in. Sure, they will.
PS. There’s no point in Apple making the bestest computers in the world because computers are already being written off by the tech prophets to be replaced by some amazing VR technology because everyone wants to walk around with some bulky VR googles on their faces. These know-it-alls pick and choose what they think is going to be game changers and they’re all certain it’s not going to be an Apple product based on their hatred of Tim Cook.
It’s sure hard to tell that Apple is going out of business with no layoffs, increased hirings and more store openings. But the way the story is currently being told, Apple is supposedly a dying company.
I don’t know if most people realize this but Apple’s coming A10 processor is up there with some of the most powerful processors on the planet even by microprocessor company standards. That doesn’t sound like a company running out of ways to re-invent itself. Something like that might not be as flashy as an Echo but an ARM chip that powerful should be considered quite impressive.
I suspect as with other ‘bulky’ technologies, VR goggles will in a relatively short time become something you add to prescription lenses.
The keys to technology are balanced integration of both hardware(hw) and software(sw) to simplify user interfaces. Example: capacitance touch hw and multi-touch sw features enabled all iOS devices, which are more direct and compact controls than prior mouse/cursor & menu interfaces. Voice and voice/touch are becoming the the next simplified interface.
That’s where MS, Google, Facebook fall short. Only Amazon understands and is leading with Echo products. Apple better be in pass mode ASAP or they will concede the lead.