There is a classic argument that Apple’s game was never really innovation, but that would be wrong. Strictly speaking, Apple has shifted paradigms several times, and most times during Steve Jobs’ second tenure, the shift was a hit. If you start as a desktop hardware manufacturer and become a media & consumer products company with a heavy dose of retail shop management…I’ll call that innovation.
I’ll even call iPod to iPhone an innovation…it changed how we organize ourselves and live our lives. Inventions can spur real innovation, after all…if you have a visionary maniac with complete control of the team and the Board running things.
But today, with the launch of the iPad Mini, Apple’s CEO and even Jony Ive had the brass to call 2012 a very innovative year for Apple. Respectfully, no. This is a classic case of abusing the word innovation purely for marketing purposes, and in a year where presidential candidates routinely and crassly trample on the meaning of words to score emotion points with soft-brained voters, I’m tired tired tired of it.
Apple did some amazing inventing this year. Lots of it on the inside engineering of their devices. They did some incredible improving to their existing products, though I’m not sure I really needed an even-lighter, even-thinner iPhone. (Notably, I haven’t bought one, and it’s a first for me to not buy a new Apple product on day one.)
What Apple didn’t do is redefine how we perceive what we could do with their products. I’m giving points to Samsung for that. The Galaxy Note II is a strong attempt to squash the concept of a tablet and a phone into the same device. One device to rule them all. Might not sell as many as the iPhone or S III, but it would have been innovative. If the iPad Mini had come out with the ability to make phone calls, I’d have given props for that. But no…it’s just a regular iPad that was left too long in the dryer.
And yes…I’ll probably end up buying one anyway. Apple might not be innovative anymore, but who said you couldn’t make money by just selling really nice, if conventional, products?
What does Apple need to do to get its true innovation mojo back? Think different not just about the fine engineering, but also about how you will cause people to change how they experience the world through it. That was the magic of Steve. He liked using technology to bend peoples’ reality.