“On July 22, during Apple’s third-quarter earnings report, CEO Tim Cook responded to a question by Bill Schope of Goldman Sachs about the long-term market for the iPad, competitive landscape, and the next driver for renewed growth,” John Martellaro writes for TheStreet. “Cook said: ‘We feel that there is significant innovation that can be brought.'”
“On hearing that, it’s easy to jump to conclusions. It’s always tempting to think in the short term, with high hopes, even when an Apple CEO is talking about the long-term competitive landscape. Cook often speaks in a code that must be interpreted,” Martellaro writes. “As we’ve seen, iPad technology development has moved along incrementally, and so Cook is really suggesting that significant innovation will take time. Apple’s powerful ability to develop technology incrementally will accumulate and pay off in the long run.”
“The point here is that when we finally see the iPad Air 2, with incremental improvements, we shouldn’t reel back in horror that it is incapable of striking a mortal, technical blow to the competition. What’s important is the additive effect of gradual innovations over the long term — when done right,” Martellaro writes. “What’s more important than whether any single feature makes it into the blend is the aggregate effect.”
Read more in the full article here.