Apple has been rocketing to the top for ten years. Exactly when does this stop being a short-term fad?
Innovation is not about producing a big hit every time research is done; that would be unreasonable expectations for any company or even any individual.
Yet Apple tends to do that. This would logically mean everybody else is doing something wrong to be getting such low return on investment.
They are not branching out
2001, computer company branches out into music players, becomes #1. 2003, same company branches out into music sales, now #1 retailer in the US. 2007, that company further branches out into smart phones, #1 smartphone in the US for years. 2010, same company branches out into tablets, has been the #1 since the introduction. Meanwhile, the traditional market, computers, has grown faster than the PC market for years. Obviously Apple has a history of branching out into new products and services that are very popular. You seem to think this will suddenly stop.
In fact, the latest rumors are about an Apple TV, with iOS inside.
Wow, you are behind. The Apple TV started with OS X on Intel (basically a smaller Mac), then moved to iOS almost two years ago. Your rumor sources are extremely slow.
And what's wrong with that anyway? The original XBox ran a version of Windows, and it's a pretty good bet the XBox 720 will be running a version of Windows 8 (Windows was kind of sucking around 2005, so the XBox 360 got its own system software). Microsoft's ARM tablet and all Windows 8 desktops will be versions of the same OS. The original Surface used Windows Vista and then Windows 7.
You think this is a good thing from Microsoft, representing great R&D, but not from Apple. It is a smart thing to consolidate operating systems, because developing and supporting multiple systems is very expensive. What sense does it make to have a whole new OS for a new product if the current one is capable of doing the job?
You never even mentioned the graph, which does show Apple to be, basically, sleeping when it comes to R&D.
The graph looks like that because Apple's profits have been going up so much faster than everyone else's. So in your strange business world, profit is a bad thing.
Apple is using what they have, and improving those SAME THINGS.
XBox, XBox 360, XBox 720. Windows 3 through ME, Windows NT through 8. Office 3 through 11. "using what they have, and improving those SAME THINGS." That represents most of Microsoft's profits over the last 20 years. Actually, as I said before, I'm not even sure the 360 has paid off its loss leader yet. Last I heard, Microsoft's gaming division was still a few billion in the hole. I would count Microsoft's mobile division, but that hasn't been profitable since a certain fruit company that "can't innovate" came out with a phone.
In fact, the R&D department for Apple, is the rest of the industry, whereby, Apple takes some other company's innovation, and tries to "innovate it" into their own products.
Before the iPhone and iPad, nothing on the market looked or worked like them. Now everything does. Early Android prototype phones looked like Blackberrys, post-iPhone prototypes looked like iPhones. Show me where Apple followed instead of led.
Given the ten year historical trend of bringing new, profitable products, you have the burden to show why this will now stop happening.
What you can't seem to differentiate is smarts vs. management. Microsoft has a LOT of smart people working there. However, Microsoft also has a lot of crappy, non-visionary management that has no idea how to do anything original with what those people invent. Meanwhile, Apple has reinvented four markets in the last about ten years (personal music players, music sales, smart phones, tablets) and made serious profit in doing so. There is no logical reason why this trend must stop.
Like I said, keep this discussion in mind, because, in a year or two, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about, when Apple starts its downhill slide.
While you are looking at how Microsoft's tablet is going to kill the iPad, Apple already has the next big thing in the works. Apple will produce that, and then Microsoft will rush to copy the new thing. And then you'll be sitting here talking about the new Microsoft product that is so good it'll kill Apple's products. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Simply, you're not as smart as the people running Apple, so your predictions of their actions will probably be wrong.
Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 2:54:57 PM by adorno
"However, if what I have in mind becomes successful..."Help! ????? - not a valid win32 application
myself | myself
Posted on Friday, March 07, 2008 3:25:03 PM by adorno
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1982166/posts
"My bank accounts are empty."