Apple and the peril of innovation
Now that Apple has announced that it is pulling out of Macworld after its 2009 event, during which Steve Jobs won't be making a keynote presentation, the outpouring of outrage is being heaped upon us once again by those who can't believe that Apple is ending its association with IDG and its expo.
Why? IDG and Apple's relationship over the past few years has been anything but cordial, and we can't forget that Apple wants complete control over, well, anything Steve Jobs can get his hands on. On top of that, Apple has been able to create Macworld-like hype for its own events, so the need for a Macworld keynote is even less appealing.
But to simply stop there in trying to explain Apple's decision to drop out of IDG's event would be overlooking the idea that the company may have run out of ideas for Macworld destined to send shock waves through the industry.
A quick look back at recent Apple events tells you everything you need to know about the position Apple currently finds itself in. Besides its latest, during which it showed off the new MacBooks, most of Apple's press events over the past few years have been sub-par, to say the least.
An iPod refresh event? Please. Discussions on sales figures and App Store mumbo jumbo? What a joke. I don't need Apple to drag me to a press event in Cupertino to tell me that the iPod, which was once tall and thin, is now short and fat. And when Apple decided to bring its design back to the tall-and-thin design, I didn't need to be there to hear that, either.
I don't blame Apple for holding press events, though. After all, what other company can coax hundreds of reporters to fly to San Francisco for a less-than-stellar announcement, time and time again, without any backlash?
For years, Apple amazed us with outstanding events every few months, when it unveiled some of the best products on the market. Since then, the allure has worn off, and Apple, just like every other company in the business, simply can't innovate as quickly as it once did. In essence, its product updates are being more evolutionary than revolutionary.
That's not a bad thing. I'm perfectly fine with evolutionary upgrades to the company's product line, and I think most consumers are as well. But because it has always relied on press events to unveil those updates, Apple still feels obligated to drag us out to San Francisco to see Steve pull the latest and greatest Apple device out of his back pocket, even though it's a small upgrade over its predecessor.
And although I'm sure that some Apple zealots out there won't want to hear this, I'm afraid that Apple's capacity to deliver groundbreaking products every few months at its various events is severely diminished. Suffice it to say that the Mac maker has become just like every other tech company; it upgrades its product line once a year or so, and most of the updates fail to impress most people.
It's for that reason (at least in part) that I believe Apple has decided to pull out of Macworld. It likely has little to do with IDG issues and even less to do with Steve Jobs himself. Simply put, Apple doesn't want to have to force itself to innovate for the trade show just to satisfy hype-driven media outlets.
Welcome to reality, Apple. Enjoy the stay.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Whether you think Apple is a brilliant innovator or just a media *****, it's clear from the sales figures that Apple is successfully promoting its products even in this miserable economy. The average buyer is quite happy with their new iPod, laptop, or whatever and doesn't care if it was announced at Macworld, an Apple-only event, or just on TV.
As a certified fanboy, I'll miss the big Macworld and Jobs' keynote, but Apple will get along fine without those. And, since there really wasn't anything in it for them (that they couldn't get on their own, and cheaper), why should they continue? Only time will tell.
Yep - Don does make some good points, but he also tends to bury them in confusion, starting with:
"Apple still feels obligated to drag us out to San Francisco..."
Actually they don't "still" feel obliged, considering that they announced this upcoming MacWorld as their last. Whoops.
Don also wanders very deep into Strawman Argument territory with:
"I'm afraid that Apple's capacity to deliver groundbreaking products every few months at its various events is severely diminished."
Err, okay, but since when has that ever happened? The Air is roughly a year old. The iPhone came out two years ago. The iPod came out ~6-7 years ago. The closts product differential for any two products was between Leopard (OSX 10.5, late-2007) and Air (early 2008, IIRC) - the rest have years between 'em (seriously - iPod product refreshes do not count) So, err, where is this baseline of "groundbreaking products every few months" that he's claiming? Or does his idea of "few" include numbers that get large enough to include more than a year?
I think what had happened is that he confused himself, going from "outstanding events" to "groundbreaking products" without realizing that the two have different meanings.
"Suffice it to say that the Mac maker has become just like every other tech company; it upgrades its product line once a year or so, and most of the updates fail to impress most people."
Apple, in 1997 introduced the iMac, in 2001 the iPod, in 2005 changed to Intel, in 2007 introduced the iPhone... (not to mention software or stores)
What other "tech company" has that record?
We could take any company in existence and point out it's major product releases over the past few years and say "hey, who has THAT record!?"
As an Apple Fanboy I might as well start: You make some good points Don.
What I'm not prepared to do, however, is to accept your assumption that Apple is all tapped out. Following up on the iPhone is a difficult task, but let's not forget that it was only 18 months ago. I think that Apple has provided us enough innovation over the past decade that we can give them a little lattitude.
Lol, no we don't. We definitely don't.
"We could take any company in existence and point out it's major product releases over the past few years and say "hey, who has THAT record!?""
Please, do the list!
Go for it. We'll wait.
As to Steve's health, sooner or later he will pass away, but I think that he will be around for a while.
As far as everything else, apple doesn't innovate, they market. MP3 players, thin laptops, etc.
no tech company in my lifetime (last 26 years) has matched Apple's success coupled with innovation. they penetrated the smartphone market it less than 2 years, and made a very large dent in it. they changed the way we buy/watch/listen to media, as the popularity of iTunes exploded hand-in-hand with the iPod. to suggest that Apple's now 'run out of ideas' is ludicrous. they pay people 6 figure salaries to come up with the latest and greatest devices, and the track record speaks for itself.
just wait until they unveil the $599 netbook with a multi-touch display everyone's blogging about next year.
You seem to have missed that part.
Dont blame Apple for its events and the press they get, blame the press. Like it or not, Apple pushes the envelope on somethings and simply falls in line with others, but what they do offer is a great user experience. And some folks still miss this fact. You can pack features to death in your device or application, but if ts not easy to use, people are going to be frustrated. Linux anyone?
Call me a fan boy.. but it seems to me that Apple is just getting started.
Just put Steve in front of a camera and broadcast it over the internet or stream it to my iPhone through some new fancy service, no need to cram a few hundred into a room and have millions out there just waiting to read the updates and watch the replay later.
The worldwide impact this summer of the iPhone 3G launch with no third party support was proof to Apple that they can control their own buzz from now on. They don't need a "MacWorld" show to do it.
They can hold their own events, go to CES and others if they want, and the world is paying attention.
The WDC is Apple's showcase event for their technology, and it is that event that brings together serious product developers as well.
Anyone wishing to read other meaning into this move away from MacWorld is projecting their belief/desires onto it. It's not supported by facts in evidence.
Maybe if it were not named "MacWorld" people would realize it isn't a big deal? Maybe if it were named "OutmodedJanuaryTradeShowEvent" instead, people would instead ask "why is Apple still going to this thing?"
Didn't see that coming... :-)
There, I fixed that for you. They may be on par with expensive lines (which people will complain about), but there are a multitude of decent, equally configured PCs and laptops that are almost half the price. Just because there are some PCs that are as expensive as Macs doesn't mean that you can go say they're not more expensive than PCs. If you took the average price, then PCs have Macs beaten hands down. Even if you eliminate crap hardware, its the same thing. PCs can give quality AND affordability simply because its made in such higher volumes.
Dream on
*I hope you all caught that ;)
Core 2 Duo Processor, 800mhz FSB and 3MB L2 Cache
1 Gb DDR2 SDRAM
120GB HD
Intel Graphics accelerator card with 144 mb of shared memory
Now lets take a look at a similarily outfitted Dell laptop
2.1ghz Core 2 Duo Processor 800mhz 3 MB L2 Cache
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
160GB HDD
Intel Accelerator X3100 listed at 256mb of Shared Memory
That dell computer is listed at $849 on the official dell website, needless to say if you were to go to bestbuy or elsewhere you'd catch it at some sort of discounted price, on best buy's website there was a dell almost outfitted exactly the same as the one listed save for a slightly slower processor with a clock speed of 2.0 ghz and 2mb l2 cache which in reality is much of a difference and won't show any significant improvement between the two, and that laptop was on sale for $499.99. Sorry buddy, if apple has been known for anything it's the fact that they like to overprice their laptops and they continue to do so because people continue to buy into it.
And you'll argue that its because their laptops perform better despite possessing the same hardware, you'll go on to cite how it's UI is so much easier to use and how the little icons at the bottom look so cute when they hop up and down after you click on them and how nice that little touchpad feels. Then you'll say the problems with windows vista and how it's slow, it lags, it crashes, and how us windows/pc users face the perpetual fear of viruses and whatnot. But here's my testament, I don't like windows vista, yes it some cases it is slow, in some cases the freezes and that little fear of virus is something that sits in the back of my mind. But hey, life isn't always fast, i don't like waiting in the bank line or the clinic but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Sometimes things in life just freeze, no more paycheck cuz u got laidoff, put school on hold cuz you got deployed. And hey i got a lot more things in life to be scared about than a little computer virus that can be easily removed in a couple of mins. But despite all these little kinks in my vista laptop.......and as much as I hate vista.....I will always hate Apple that much more :)
1. MacWorld is in January, just after Christmas.
2. Many consumers wouldn't buy Apple products for Christmas because they were waiting for the next 'big thing' announced at MacWorld in January.
3. Other consumers weren't able to buy the next 'big thing' because of Christmas expenditures.
4. Apple's decision to bypass MacWorld is a logical, realistic business move. Since Christmas and first quarter sales were suppressed Apple is very wise to make this change.
5. MacWorld should move their event to early October - anybody listening?
But less room to innovate? Bah!
Looks like a slow post day.
- by useful_worms December 17, 2008 11:40 AM PST
- Let me get this straight: You're basing all of your conclusions on the fact that Apple is pulling out of trade shows? Adobe and Google are also pulling out of Macworld as well, but I'm guessing they'll find a way to keep on going... and trade shows themselves are becoming more and more archaic in this industry. I don't think it's signifying any apocalyptic events to come.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (70 Comments)Your final reason actually makes sense, "Apple doesn't want to have to force itself to innovate for the trade show just to satisfy hype-driven media outlets." but I don't see where the "take THAT!" attitude comes into play. It's not like they've lost something. Last time I checked, they're doing pretty well. The iPhone came out LAST YEAR and I'll admit it's quite revolutionary. Give them a year or two before you call them evolutionary.
Also, we get that you don't want to "drag" yourself to San Francisco. Don't. It's almost 2009. We have webcams and webcasts and... telephones! Oh my! I'm pretty sure you can write an article as groundbreaking, researched and well-executed as this one from the comfort of your desktop PC. And if your Overlords decide you must go, don't whine about it. Every once in a while, a reporter (and even a blogger such as you) must get up and go somewhere for a story, and San Francisco isn't quite the third world.