Why Apple’s best days are behind them
IN SUMMARY: Tim Cook recently told investors that Apple is working on products that will blow them away but judging from the comments on social media there are very few who believe that. What happens when a company puts profits above all else, treats employees like spies and has been out-innovated by competitors?
There was a time when I couldn’t wait for the next OSX or iOS update but those days are long gone. Today Apple is only interested, it seems, on raking in the cash. Steve Jobs didn’t care about that. He wanted to merge technology with a great user experience. Tim Cook, on the other hand, is an operations manager, not a visionary who has made tens of millions of dollars while working at Apple.
Given the new products that have been introduced by competitors while iPhone sales tank I really believe Apple’s best days are behind them. Here are my reasons:
1ne: OS X has not seen a substantial update in a long time. Updates are mostly “under the hood” fixes while Chrome takes the lions share of browser share and other mail programs out perform Apple’s dated Mail.
2wo: Apple has not learned that people don’t need to update their iPhones and iPads very often. New models are overpriced and lack features to get users to fork over $800 for a new phone.
3hree: While Apple has been stagnant in innovative products Microsoft has upgraded Windows and closed the gap with Apple. In addition, both Google and Amazon own the smart home market.
4our: Apple’s products are over priced. Top Windows laptops are 20–30% cheaper than products like the MacBook Air.
5ive: The acquisition of Beats has been a disaster. They are NOT the top performing headphones and Steve Jobs would have never allowed that to happen.
6ix: Read some of the comments from people who work at Apple. Trash cans are often scrutinized for leaks and employees often don’t know what other people are working on. In addition, employees are expected to answer eMail day and night. One employee, for example, was emailed a PowerPoint presentation while in the hospital and told to review it. Treating employees like this so they can put Apple on their resumes is not a way to build a great company and sustain it.
7even: Tim Cook has run out of ideas.
8ight: Apple still holds events like their people are rock stars. Imagine, going on stage at a developers conference to display new emoji’s!
9ine: At a time when mesh routers are becoming more popular and in need of higher speeds Apple decides to discontinue their Airport? There are a number of very good small companies making mesh routers that Apple could have acquired.
10en: $100 for an Apple mouse? P L E A S E. Apple is not a cool brand anymore. Hiding money outside the US to avoid paying taxes and using the tax cut the way other big corporations have done clearly shows that they are just another big corporation now.
My next laptop/desktop probably won’t be an Apple. Sure, I could pay more but why?
Originally published at www.newmediaandmarketing.com on March 9, 2019.
