“Ben Bajarin, analyst with Creative Strategies, a technology consultancy, points to promising signs in the iPhone and iPad’s 64-bit A7 chip and iOS 7 operating system. ‘The last year was about setting the foundation to build upon for the next decade plus,’ he says,” Tim Bradshaw reports for The Financial Times.
“The iPhone and iPad continue to sell in record numbers and remain among the best-selling devices in their categories. Apple sold 33.8m iPhones in the three months to the end of September, including less than two weeks of its latest devices,” Bradshaw reports. “UBS forecasts that Apple will return to double-digit earnings growth from the March quarter, totalling 15 percent for fiscal 2014, even though annual revenues are projected to be a more sluggish 7 percent before rising to 10 percent in 2015.”
“But some Apple employees are starting to grumble that, under Mr Cook, the company is putting too much emphasis on operations and not enough on innovation. The innovation question will continue to hang over Apple until it enters a new product category – something Wall Street’s growth forecasts assume it will do next year,” Bradshaw reports. “Upgrades to the iPhone 5s, including a 64-bit chip and an extra processor to handle motion data, pave the way for an iWatch or new in-car features, while Silicon Valley and Wall Street whisper about Apple’s purported plans to revolutionise television.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Apple plans on revolutionizing the next decade”. Too bad no one else is going to. I had high hopes for the 2010s decade, but so far it seems disappointing quite frankly. The problems the state of Michigan is dealing with aside, music, movies, and TV shows are all the same, boring, cookie-cutter material we have been given since about 2000 or so. The 1990s, and before, had the most innovative entertainment, and creative fashion. The Library of Congress only preserves movies made before 2000 because they are all culturally and aesthetically important, compared to movies made after 2000. If Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus are what the legacy of the 2010s will be in the future, then I have no hope whatsoever.
You give the impression you have a special kind of autism. Would the word retard suit you better? What drivel are you spouting?
While I agree that Wayne is a tool, I don’t agree with using “autism” as an insult. I know several autistic people in real life who are smarter than this doofus.
Like someone in another thread said, OS X Mavericks is only available for hardware made after 2007. Your precious 90s “sleek and austere” computers are INCOMPATIBLE with modern software. Please get that through your head. The 90s are over, deal with it.
I think Wayne bought some bad meth.
He should have bought it from Heisenberg.
Do you have a brother named Jimmy? He might be your answer for the future.
Hardware improvements are only part of the story. Software improvements have to keep pace but unfortunately this is a neglected area as far as iOS development is concerned.
I looked at the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch UI and it frightened me how much the flat icons reminded me of iOS 7. There seems to be a convergence between iOS and Android, ie. flat featureless icons, so much so that it is destroying the rich user experience offered by iOS 6.
When I compare the iPod nano UI to the Galaxy Gear, I find that a UI developed 5 years ago outshines a UI developed this year. This ought to tell you that iOS 7 is moving in the wrong direction towards Android-like territory. This is not a good thing.
If you’re going to keep posting here, why don’t you pick a name and stick with it? I’m willing to bet you’ve used at least a half-dozen or so today alone.
Call me Willy and I’ll call you Greg and I’ll consider us even.
Really? Where’s the other part to this shallow analysis?
iOS 7 is leaps ahead in both Android and iOS 6 in system services and core technologies. You’re entire lame argument is completely based in some delusional reasoning that experience is directly derived from how “flat the icons look”.
While I agree the color palette may be a bit garish and the interface elements a bit on the simplistic side, iOS 7 is no way a “worse experience”. In fact, it’s much easier and more sensible in how it works – making the experience a better one than we had previously.
I’m guessing you’ve only ever LOOKED at iOS 7 and never actually USED it.
I use it and I don’t like the icons. I miss the rich look of iOS 6, that richness has always been Apple’s trademark. As Steve told them when he wanted the original OSX, he wanted the icons so incredible he “wanted to lick them.” That’s where 7 falls flat. I love the performance though. No complaints other than the design. I like sparse hardware, but bring back the richness of the OS that made it distinct. You can ditch skewmorphism without throwing the rest out too.
“But some Apple employees are starting to grumble that, under Mr Cook, the company is putting too much emphasis on operations and not enough on innovation.”
Does the author provide evidence of this or is simply added because it makes for interesting reading? I call nonsense. Apple is firing on all cylinders.
Unanimous sources say..
Anonymous?
Maybe they were all in agreement?
Exactly, and no evidence = no credibility. We should stop reading right there and do something more useful with our time. Like twiddle thumbs or grab another coffee.
Some Apple employees are grumbling? Wow. That’s weird. I thought being employed at Apple was a Utopian fantasy world where unhappiness is impossible.
Car first. Apple wants a phone that drives your car, turns it on to heat it up, runs your cruise control, the whole auto-pilot thing. Then back to office automation: the iPad and iPhone have barely scratched the surface of what can be done in the office. Wearable technology will have more to do with clothing (the Burberry connection will be understood) not a watch.
I agree.
For a start Apple won’t do a watch, it will be a wearable wrist type device that has different utility than a watch.
They also won’t call it ‘iwatch’ either, it will be something like ‘iLine’ or ‘iBand’. From people that I e spoken too only a certain demographic wear watches to tell the time these days, most people under 40 for example check the time on their phone.
I also think that OSX will converge with iOS and that in a few years apple will have iOS on the desktop – remember apple is about a consistent user experience – so expect a massive announcement in a year or so whereby OSX is replaced by iOS. It will be along the lines of “and now about OSX. Mavericks was the last version of OSX so today we announce iOS for Mac”
I’d love to know who these unnamed employees are.
Think about how long it took to set the foundation for iOS. 10 years!
1997_Apple buys NEXT, Steve Jobs comes on board as an “advisor.”
2001-intro of iPod, iTunes and Apple retail and OS X (Cheetah & Puma)
2003-iTunes Music Store and iTunes for Windows
2005-iTunes Music Store videos/movies/TV shows
2006-ITunes Music Store games for iPod
ALL these factors made the iPhone possible and not just a hit but a megabit.
People forget how much time, work, money, vision and risk was necessary to make the iPhone an “overnight success.”
“Not enough focus on inovation under Cook and more on operation “???
Lets see, a7 64 bit, motion sensor chip…. 64 bit operating sys and fingerprint id . Wify/cell multy path……ibeacon ….macPro …All in one year… That i not enough innovation?
Please!!!
Or is this statment in the articke just another unsabsyantiated fud!