Did Apple lose it’s spark?

Just casually wondering on a Monday morning.

It’s September 2016 and what should have been a post how Apple has just ‘did it again’, I start wondering if we have passed “peak Apple”.

For many decades, Apple has been the front-runner of customer-centric innovation. Bringing us amazing products like the original iMac (1997), the iPod, the iPhone, to some extent the iPad and the lovely Macbook Pro and Air series. Completely reinventing how we use and live-with technology. And I admired them for it.

Instead of designing products that we desired, they invented products that were paradigm shifts.

They didn’t just make new products, they created new markets.

Their products were so far ahead of what customers were wanting we became desperate for anything they offer. For example, at a time when MP3 players were in strange shapes using incompatible formats in low quality, Apple introduced the iPod with an enormous capacity (for the time) and an easy to use interface. I still remember when moving to Hawaii how I brought a big box of CDs, which of course did not survive the ordeal.

While Nokia (RIP) was creating durable efficient handsets which were simply becoming smaller and smaller, Apple introduced the smartphone and rocked the world.

These developments were not evolutionary, they were massive leaps forward. Apple completely changed the game. Customers never knew they wanted Apple’s products because they couldn’t even conceive the next step forward in technology and design.

Sadly those days seem gone. The iWatch, the iPhone 7, and now AirPod all seem like steps backward.

It does not make sense anymore. Especially if you look at the usability.

We have a watch which is well a watch and a fitness tracker combined (‘Now in stunning ceramic.’) where it should have been an iPhone on your arm. And we have a phone that needs dongles like its 1999. Simplicity and usability?

In reality, AirPods and the missing head-phone jack will be a problem for me. And even though I understand the vision behind it, it annoys me.

The Future Is Aural Augmented Reality

Over the past year I have understood the true power of aural augmented reality and as a result bought these cheap invisible headphone and like them so far.

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Invisible-Microphone-Hands-free-Smartphone/dp/B01H5CBC1G/

The battery life holds up, the sound quality is acceptable and I can have conversations like a normal human being when I go about my daily business.

The times I misplaced them throughout the year is off the charts!

But I several times re-bought them this year because the form factor is great and they are around 10 USD. One-tenth of Apple’s product!

On the other hand the current version of Apple’s headphones suck. They usually stay in the box because I have wonderful Shure headphones in addition to the aforementioned Bluetooth ones. These headphones give me wonderful music quality when in flying around in Asia, one thing that I frequently do these days. If I would upgrade to the iPhone 7, I would not be able to do so anymore. And I don’t want to get into the argument of me-frantically-searching through my seat for the AirPods because they fell out after I fell asleep.

It feels like that at Apple lately, and I am surely not an insider, there have been too many design decisions which have been made without consideration for human use.

In the past, Apple has always remained ahead of the curve by ignoring it and building the things it wanted to. And they created amazing products with this approach.

What they are doing now just feels like exploitation of the avid following they have created for profit. They are truly testing the power of the lock-in effect of their ecosystem. They are no longer to sacrifice capital in order to innovate and invest in creating incredible products and unmatched service.

I simply don’t understand why they not created AirPods that were truly in-ear that were find-able using iBeacon technology, can charge while connected to the phone (or ear), and adjustable enough to ensure optimal fit.

But, this would have been amazing.

And that is what my problem is. Apple has become not-that-amazing, consistently so. Apples relentless progress has slowed to iterative walks backwards. Risk aversion is a strange strategy when you have billions in cash lying around.

Apple should be applauded for how far they have taken the tech industry over the last 30 years. But it feels like we are losing Apple to progressive dementia.

For me it feels like Apple now completely lost the spark that made it’s products beautifully different.