“From June 11- 15th Apple Inc. held its annual World Wide Developers Conference to luke-warm review,” Brian Booker writes for ValueWalk. “Many were expecting or at least hoping, for an unveiling of the iPhone 5. And just about any WWDC without an iPhone 5 was all but bound to fail to meet expectations. Perhaps more tellingly, Apple failed to unveil any true innovations or ground-breaking developments.”
“Some pundits are already beginning to wonder if Apple is losing its step and if the lack of ground breaking products and services since the loss of Steve Jobs points to a loss of creativity and innovation within the firm,” Booker writes. “The most talked about announcement at the WWDC was the inclusion of the retina display on the Macbook Pro line. The Retina display is Apple’s ultra-high resolution 15.4” screen sporting 2880×1800-pixel resolution. Yes, scaling up the retina display for the Macbook [sic] Pro line is certainly an achievement, but it doesn’t have the ‘oomph’ of launching a new iPhone or Mac line. On the other hand, the launch of the Macbook Pro line with Retina does dispel a major rumor, that Apple would be dropping the Macbook line.”
Booker writes, “More importantly, Apple has arguably failed to launch a ground-breaking product since the release of the first iPad in April of 2010 and iPhone 4 in June of the same year. Since then, Apple has focused on incremental upgrades across it’s line of hardware, and despite rumors of an iPhone 4, the company has launched only the moderate upgrade iPhone 4S… So is Apple losing its step? While it may be too soon to tell, the news coming out of Apple does seem less revolutionary these days. Whether this is due to the loss of Steve Job’s business genius, difficulty in pushing an already pushed envelope, or part of a larger business strategy remains to determined. Yet after years of leading the consumer electronics market, Apple will now have to look far and wide to come up with a truly innovative product.”
Booker writes, “Apple is still the unchallenged king of the tablet market but change may be on the horizon. The Android-based Amazon Kindle Fire debuted in the 2011 Christmas season and had a strong showing, selling some 4.7 million tablets during the 4th quarter (2011). In total Android tablets account for”
MacDailyNews Take: That’s it. No, seriously, that’s exactly how that paragraph ends; with no punctuation, in midstream, it simply cuts off – just like Brian’s oxygen supply in the womb.
Oh, BTW:
• Apple’s revolutionary iPad widens lead as tablet sales surge – June 15, 2012
• Apple’s massive domination of tablet market unabated as Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire demand tumbles – June 5, 2012
• Apple’s iPad remains dominant in Q112 while Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire fizzles – June 4, 2012
• Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire shipments have dropped off a cliff – May 9, 2012
• Amazon’s Kindle Fire shipments fizzle to anemic 4% market share – May 4, 2012
Booker writes, “Meanwhile, Microsoft is about to launch Windows 8 for tablets and will enter directly into the market with their own tablet, the ‘Surface.’ While it may be too late for Microsoft to enter the tablet market, early previews have been largely positive. Windows 8 has received promising early reviews…”
MacDailyNews Take: Booker’s definition of the word “positive” is obviously unique in all the world:
• Jason Schwarz: Top 10 reasons why Microsoft’s Surface is DOA – June 22, 2012
• Acer founder: Microsoft will quit making tablets soon – June 21, 2012
• Thanks to Apple, Microsoft is doomed in the era of mobile computing – June 20, 2012
• Apple’s revolutionary iPad vs. Microsoft’s anti-tablet ‘Surface’ – June 20, 2012
• Microsoft’s Surface tablets provokes ‘sense of betrayal’ among Windows PC assemblers – June 20, 2012
• Fox News: Copier Microsoft is doomed to fail with Surface tablet – June 19, 2012
• Microsoft’s Surface tablet destined to be as successful as the Zune – June 19, 2012
• Surface: Why Microsoft’s big mystery turns out to be a big mistake – June 19, 2012
• Microsoft’s Suicide, er… ‘Surface’ – June 19, 2012
• ZDNet Sr. Tech Editor Perlow: Microsoft’s Surface has catastrophe written all over it – June 19, 2012
• ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
• Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
• Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
• The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unfortunately, the world is full of abjectly stupid people. If they were all herded onto an island, Brian Booker would be their king.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BIll Elkus” for the heads up.]