Has Apple Lost Its Cool? Its Chief Says No

[Quexos]

Apple (or rather its core philosophy) died along with Steve Jobs.
They even plan to dump Samsung to do their processors and screens and I don't think those other makers that will take over the screen and processor business will have the same quality standards.

[pl001]

What else is he going to say? I agree that the fact the question was asked was more significant than his response.

Thing is, they have NOT perfected their existing products as some here suggest. They have sat around doing as little as possible to milk customers along each year while every competitor has passed them by in functionality and value.

[holymadness]

Look at all the sour grapes in this thread. Jilted lovers don't obsess about their exes half as much as mobileread obsesses about Apple.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by holymadness

Look at all the sour grapes in this thread. Jilted lovers don't obsess about their exes half as much as mobileread obsesses about Apple.

You can't expect anything else on an internet forum, where the insecure want hivemind-ready causes to make them look like comparative veterans. Meanwhile, original thought and criticism are elsewhere.

Trashing Apple on MR is like slagging Beats and Bose on Head-fi. It's like living in Portland, Oregon and berating locals who weren't actually born there. It's like driving through NYC and asking everyone you see whether they're from New Jersey. It's like moving to Williamsburg and complaining about hipsters.

Original thought is elsewhere.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Apple (or rather its core philosophy) died along with Steve Jobs.
They even plan to dump Samsung to do their processors and screens and I don't think those other makers that will take over the screen and processor business will have the same quality standards.

Actually, the recent rumours are that they're going back to Samsung for at least some of their screens.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphon...pe=allchandate

Graham

[tubemonkey]

Apple finally released a 16GB version of the iPod touch 5 for $229. The problem is, they stripped the 5MP rear cam out of it. How utterly uncool!

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Apple finally released a 16GB version of the iPod touch 5 for $229. The problem is, they stripped the 5MP rear cam out of it. How utterly uncool!

I like that idea: Uncoolness as the removal of options.

That's the reason people tend to prefer Samsung right now even over other Android-inclusive companies like HTC: Samsung tends to take the fewest options away.

A lot of boomers were taught that coolness meant disdaining ordinary people. I'd love it if coolness came to mean treating ordinary consumers with respect and acknowledging brand agnosticism.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by holymadness

Look at all the sour grapes in this thread. Jilted lovers don't obsess about their exes half as much as mobileread obsesses about Apple.

I tried hard to find anything that resembles an argument in your post and unfortunately I failed.

Obviously Apple is currently earning fabulously and no company would have been able to meet this unbelievable level of expectation that has been built up with regard to Apple. It is no surprise that questions are being asked as soon as they do not present major new products for a while.
Unlike other companies of that size their product portfolio is incredibly slim. They can't say things like "tablet sales are flat but medical equipment was strong and we received major orders for our new trains".

What does the product portfolio look like now?

- iOS looks dated; it requires an overhaul
- the iPhone looks mid-range compared to the new phones of the competition
- the computer range gives the impression of having been neglected; the Mac pro isn't even available in Europe any more.
- Apple may fall victim to its own perfection as it is difficult to see how they want to improve on the design e.g. of the iPad mini or the iMac unless they implement a major change to their design language

Are there any rumours of some major innovation to come? Not really. A watch? A TV?
TV seems so 20th century and Apple would probably rely on many external players to offer something that's radically new: cable companies, regulators, public TV systems abroad.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Unlike other companies of that size their product portfolio is incredibly slim. They can't say things like "tablet sales are flat but medical equipment was strong and we received major orders for our new trains".

Indeed.
They got extremely big and rich off essentially one product line; iOS.
(Mac revenue is just noise compared to iOS.)
Interestingly, at the same time Apple is coming under scrutiny for its limited product line, another much-maligned company is starting to be better appreciated for its diversity of healthy businesses.
Microsoft.
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-no-lo...589&ttag=e589\

Financially, Microsoft is in good health. Business wise, it's in fantastic shape. It's only from the public's perspective that things aren't going all too well. And Wall Street has woken up to the fact that Microsoft is — at least from a shareholder and investor's point of view — stronger than it appears to be.

Microsoft isn't "just that Windows company" anymore.

Most will look at Microsoft and see it as a "multi-billion dollar, multi-national software company." Perhaps it was once. Nowadays, it's not so much. Actually it's like a cluster bomb of financial goodness.

People should start looking at Microsoft as a "series of many billion-dollar divisions under one corporate roof." And it seems that Wall Street has finally woken up to the fact that when Windows 8 suffered consumer and enterprise resistance, investors still began to pile their cash back into the company.

Amazon, too, is a highly-diversified company with revenue from online hosting, dry-goods retailing, degital content, consumer electronics, and logistics business-to-business services. They keep plowing their profits into new lines of business and the financial types approve by sticking by them.

Google is another Single-product (online ad sales) company that has been trying to diversify like crazy (with mixed results). They have generally kept naysayers at bay with the churn of betaware and newsworthy R&D efforts (Glass, self-driving cars) that reassure investors that Google is trying to diversify. At some point (soon?) they too will start feeling heat over their reliance on a single revenue stream but so far not even the Motorola fiascoes have really dinged their image with the financial types or the media but the day when the hounds turn on them isn't all that far off.

Apple's problem right now is just perception.
For year they relied on hyping the latest incremental tweaks and service packs to dazzle the media into overlooking the fact that, yes, they were (and are) making money like crazy but it was all coming from a single *consumer-focused* business.
Now, the hype machine in the media is turning on them even though they're still making money like crazy because their reliance on (traditionally fickle) consumer buying.

Hence the farcical question of whether Apple is still cool.
You don't need to be cool to make money, just competent and useful.
But the media has built Apple up into a giant based on cool. A ready source of "news" and rumors and commentary. Hyping a new Apple rumor is easier than going out and looking for real news, after all.

Cool is important to the media and if Apple isn't cool then they stop being useful to them and they'll find something cool else to hype.
Like, maybe, Google Glass.

[Fat Abe]

It is ok for the OP to use the term "cool" in his/her hypothetical question. If we wanted a question like, "Has Apple lost its relevance?". then that could become the subject of another thread. Cool implies stylishness, or a quality so novel, that people want to own or carry the item in question. We are what we have in our hands. What's next? How about a tricorder to record, manage, and analyze all aspects of our daily lives?

Once before, the loss of Steve Jobs was a big blow to the company. Let's hope they survive this time- they are a lot healthier. Whether we will see another entrepreneur with the vision and sixth sense of Jobs is unknown. What we do have is a caretaker in the form of Tim Cook. Now, as for Google, they are kewl and they are relevant. As an end user, I place them way ahead of Apple in terms of impact to my life and job.

[forsooth]

Apple has money.
Maybe Apple can build affordable electric car with good range.
or bullet train?

[David Munch]

Originally Posted by hidari

Remember Apple.... cliches... It just works, no viruses, it's so simple....yet...I have friends who love Apple that have had problems with all the cliches above...

There are no viruses in the wild for Mac OS X, so at least that is one problem they can't have had. And I wouldn't blame Apple for third party developers doing bad code. Apples own applications are usually rock solid.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by David Munch

There are no viruses in the wild for Mac OS X, so at least that is one problem they can't have had.

That's slightly disingenuous. While there may be no trojans actively spreading at this time, that doesn't mean the Mac is immune. It has been attacked in the past and will be again. So, Mac owners should run AV software.

I think it also comes from this site:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Virus/Malware_FAQ

which rules that malware, adware and spyware are not included in the definition of viruses.

Graham

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by forsooth

Apple has money.
Maybe Apple can build affordable electric car with good range.
or bullet train?

Elon Musk and Tesla are doing both.
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/te...sit-6C10157218

Right now, Tesla is tops in cool. They make great electric cars, if a "wee bit" pricey.

There might be room in the market for an Apple iCar, but they'd better release it soon, before Tesla gets to their 3rd-gen model.

[samy2]

Was apple ever cool? In my eyes no...