There is a sense in many people’s mind that Apple isn’t top dog any more, they had an incredible idea, to make a multi-touch display and a user interface quite like the one you would have on a PC.
In many ways, we can say Apple created the “smartphone market” with the iPhone. Since 2007 and up to about 2011, Cupertino has ruled the smartphone and tablet market. They still part-rule the tablet market.
Apple’s problems: they have had a poor few years, their OS is getting old, we aren’t seeing any real innovating products, investors and analysts figure the company isn’t top dog.
It is true, Apple is lacking real innovation. iOS is stale and using Android is a much more fluid and exciting experience. The iPhone really hasn’t come through leaps and bounds since the first release. Competitors are capable of delivering great phones at cheaper prices.
The Mac line of products is incredible, but Apple have been slow to embrace a tablet/PC redesign. The Macbook still has no tablet style design. Windows seems to be running the race right now with their partners.
Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs, but Apple still has great idealists, like Johnny Ive. The problem is getting those people to work on great products. Ive can create a beautiful Mac but can he recreate the phone UI experience? We will see with iOS7.
Investors and users feel that Apple have lost out. They cannot sustain a great amount of innovation, simply because they haven’t got an approach Google has. Samsung is a industrial behemoth that can muster 200 million units that are thinner, lighter, perform better and are all-round beauties in the industry.
In many ways, Apple competes against two great companies. Google is, without doubt, a great software team, especially with their own Android team. Samsung is possibly the best hardware team in the world. For Apple to come out on top, they need true innovation, creativity and great pricing.
Right now, Apple has zero of those three things.