“Steve Jobs died in late 2011. Since then Apple has upgraded the product line, pretty much as expected; thinner, lighter, faster. Yet, during that time period since Jobs’ passing, Cook’s Apple has managed only two new products of significance, both accessories for the iPhone. Watch and AirPods,” Jeffrey Mincey writes for Mac360. “Mac sales are at record levels, but the product line has languished; the Mac Pro has never been upgraded, and both the Mac mini and iMac are in need of a refresh, a year or two overdue.”
“Meanwhile what was Jobs’ last hurrah– the post-PC era ushered in by the iPad, has languished as well, and sales have fallen to their lowest level since before Jobs died,” Mincey writes. “Instead of upgrading and improving the iPad line, Cook seems satisfied to not bother with putting his pipeline of products where his mouth is. If Apple is firing on all cylinders then how is it that so many product lines are in need of an upgrade[?]”
“The stock price, cash pile, and recent financials make Apple look good on the surface, but a company’s future is not to rest on its laurels. New products are the future and Apple doesn’t seem capable of doing much more than keep the status quo humming along while sending in a few accessories to disguise the empty pipeline,” Mincey writes. “The Tim Cook era is likely to go down in history as Apple’s most profitable but based upon the most anemic products.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cook has an impossible act to follow.
That said, the less Cook talks of Apple’s pipeline and the more it delivers, on time and in sufficient quantities, the better.
“Pipeline Tim.” That sticks until the vaunted pipeline actually delivers… On occasion, Steve Jobs teased the product pipeline, too. The difference is that Steve Jobs repeatedly delivered. — MacDailyNews, November 23, 2016