Apple's Innovation

"Apple doesn't innovate", "Apple hasn't innovated since Steve Jobs died" and other similar statements are something I hear a lot on the internet nowadays. Whilst I can see why people say these things, I don't think they're strictly true.

So, many people consider Apple to be one of the most innovative tech companies of all time; after all, they contributed hugely to the popularisation of personal computers, with the Apple I arguably being one of the greats that kickstarted the PC industry. They also popularised computer mice, with the Apple Macintosh Mouse being one of the first affordable, appealing and mass-market computer mice, coming with the Macintosh. Although those are impressive, the more obvious and certainly the most innovative thing Apple released was the original iPhone, which popularised what could be considered one of the most important pieces of tech nowadays, the smartphone.

Right, so I've just listed two rather old Apple products, which obviously doesn't disprove the "Apple hasn't innovated since Steve Jobs died" statement. However, they don't need to, let me jump forward in time a bit to 2014. Steve Jobs is no longer Apple's CEO after his unfortunate death and Tim Cook has taken the reins; it's September 9th and Apple is hosting their 2014 press event and they unveil the Apple Watch, the first mainstream smartwatch, having a similar sort of industry kickstart to that of the iPhone, of course, as we know, smartwatches aren't as hugely adopted as smartphones are, but I'd certainly say that the Apple Watch was innovative, I mean, it created a whole new industry and has defined wearable computers since, with various other competing smartwatches coming out more recently.

Of course, you could say "That's just one product, that doesn't prove Apple still innovate". Well, how about we jump forward again to 2016 to Apple's special event in San Francisco. It's September 7th and Apple announce the AirPods, a product that addressed many of the complaints people had with the current market for wireless earbuds, which, admittedly, did exist prior to the AirPods, but I'd certainly say the AirPods popularised wireless earbuds with their sleek new design, improved comfort compared to other options and seamless integration with the iPhone and other Apple devices. Once again, Apple shifted a whole market with one product release.

Once again, you could say "All that innovation was quite a while ago; it still hasn't proven that Apple innovate nowadays", which would jump us to the reintroduction of MagSafe in 2020, which made a huge shift, admittedly not quite as big as those previous innovations, but that's because it didn't need to be. It's reshaped how accessories work for the iPhone and introduced countless possibilities for charging, wallets, mounting and more. I won't bore you any more than I probably have already if you've managed to read this far, so, have I convinced you? Maybe you already thought Apple still innovate to some extent, even if not as much as they might've done in the past, but I can give one simple explanation for why they don't innovate to the same extent they used to - it's because they simply don't need to anymore. Huge shifts like the iPhone and the Apple I were able to take place because there was a gap. Gaps like those don't exist as much anymore and I believe that Apple are still doing their best to fill those that are still there. (Let's just not talk about AI)

Thanks for reading. - Ben

P.S. - Sorry for the Apple glaze!