Since the untimely death of Steve Jobs in October of last year, it seems that Apple Inc. (AAPL) has been less innovative and has taken fewer risks than in the past. Apple’s latest product, the iPhone 5, brings new features many fans have been asking for, but does not raise the bar in terms of hardware or software.
Two of the major selling points of the iPhone 5, released in the U.S. on September 21, 2012, are a four-inch retina display and 4G LTE connectivity. iPhone users have been calling for these features for a long time, and Apple has finally delivered. Although the iPhone 5 is expected to break sales records, these features are not unique to iPhone and do not make it stand out among the competition. The first large-screen smartphone is usually credited to the HTC HD2, released in November 2009 with a 4.3 inch screen, and large screens became popular with HTC’s EVO 4G in June 2010. Ever since this time, various Windows Phone and Android devices have come with increasingly larger screens, leaving iPhone users left out. Android phones also offer other features that the iPhone lacks. “One reason I chose Android over Apple is because Android offers more variety, as my phone has a physical keyboard while the iPhone does not,” senior Andrew Giustino said.
Another feature that Apple has only recently introduced is the addition of 4G LTE. HTC, clearly a fast-adapting company, released their first LTE device in March of 2011. Since then, all other major smartphone manufacturers have released LTE devices, including Motorola, LG, and Samsung. In this category, Apple was again late to the game.
Apart from the technological specs of the iPhone, Apple has also become less confident in their approach to competition. Over the past year and a half, Apple has filed dozens of lawsuits against other tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, for infringing on their patents. Apple has tried to ban the products of their competitors in other countries around the world, and has also attempted to ban imports of these products into the United States. If Apple was truly the innovative company it says it is, it would have no problem with such competition, as their devices are supposedly superior. Apple’s ‘patent trolling’ has hindered innovation in the tech world, as their lawsuits cost their company and their competitors money that could be better spent in research and development.
A final aspect in which Apple has been sloppy is its recent software developments. In 2011, the new mobile operating system, iOS5, introduced the voice assistant Siri. This addition was not Apple’s own innovation, but the work of another company that they bought. While the idea of a personal voice assistant seemed appealing at first, through use one can see that it performs less than spectacularly. Oftentimes it cannot understand what a person has said; for example, it cannot perform simple system tasks such as “Turn off wifi.” “I really don’t use it very often. It helps if you’re traveling and you’re not quite sure where the nearest gas station or restaurant is located, but other than that it is not that helpful,” senior Adam Davi said.
When Siri was first unveiled, Apple announced that it would be a ‘beta’ product, or one that is not complete. This deviates from the traditional path the company has taken, usually releasing products when they are extremely polished and finely tuned. In iOS6, Apple dropped Google Maps in favor of its own maps product, which was harshly criticized for performance below expectations. The new maps app is another incomplete product, with far less information, less accurate locations, and worse directions than that of Google Maps. A recent poll conducted by marketwatch.com indicated that more than 60% of those polled called Maps a failure.
In the past few years, Apple has had a disappointing track record when it comes to innovation. While its sales figures are still strong, the company has relied heavily on its brand image as a source of advertising and reliability. Unfortunately, Apple cannot continue this trend for long without falling sales as other companies continue to push the bar higher with more appealing features.