The Death of Apple

The Death of Apple

I wondered how long it would be after Steve Jobs death, that Apple's dominance began to wane. 

I think I already see signs. 

Apple is the most valuable company in the world, for now. But I wonder how long that will last. 

Android phones are outselling iPhones 2 to 1 already. And the trend continues to favor Androids, worldwide.

Recently we learned that just one Android phone maker alone, Samsung, now outsells Apple in the smartphone category. With all of the talk of "fragmentation" in the Android market, and the many different Android manufacturers, I never thought I would see that happen.

Makers of popular iPhone apps that were intended to be for iOS alone are now seeing the writing on the wall and releasing Android versions. Witness Instagram, Flipboard and Instapaper.

Apple has relied on innovation to ascend to it's current place in the world of business. They haven't worried much about what the competition is doing--because they knew if they just kept their focus, they would produce a better product anyway. 

But shortly before Steve Jobs died, he announced that he wanted to destroy Google because they ripped off the idea for Android.  It's undoubtedly true--at least to some extent. But did Apple steal the idea of smartphone applications from Palm, whose Palm Phones had applications long before the iPhone existed? Did Apple steal the idea of a personal computer from Intel, when they created the Mac in the early 80's? Probably, but the Mac was different, and better, in many was. They built on the innovation, and out-innovated Microsoft and the various PC makers. Same with the iPhone. It was certainly better than the Palm Treo (and it's many predecessors, which I used for almost ten years), and anything in the Blackberry line. 

Likewise, Android built on some concepts of the iPhone, large screen, touch interface, app-friendly model, etc. But they also innovated. By being open-source they dealt effectively with the limitations that Apple had imposed on the iPhone. For example, the inability to "snooze" reminders on calendar events went unaddressed for years in iOS. Third parties created multiple app/extensions that took care of that for Android--and they were available for free in the android app store. Ironically, Apple has returned the favor and clearly stolen many of the innovations that Google added in Android, such as notifications, and multitasking. 

Now Apple is energetically implementing it's strategy to destroy Google and Android. They are suing in courts around the world to stop Android phones from being released. Most recently, they sued (and have lost, so far) to keep the Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III) out of the U.S.

As quoted in a recent article, this is bad news for Apple (especially since it seems they can't out-innovate Samsung anymore):

This is a big deal to both sides. The Galaxy S III is expected to sell well, and many users will be under a new two-year agreement when Apple releases their next model sometime later this year. According to analyst Dan Levine (read the source link), postponing the launch of the Galaxy S III was a major part of Apple's strategy in the battle for smartphone dominance, and we have to agree. Once users get the new Galaxy S III in their hands, they may not want to look at any other phone for a while. 

The grounds for the suit are complicated, and I'm no lawyer, but from the press it sounds like their recent complaints are primarily that the phone has rounded corners and a single button on the front. 

Is this what Apple is now about? The height of their innovation is rounded corners and physical buttons? Apparently Apple invented corners and buttons--presumably right around the time that Al Gore invented the Internet. (Ok, that was snarky.)

I am a former Mac owner and iPhone owner. But I now prefer Win7 and Android. About half-way through my iPhone ownership, I got up the courage to "void my warrantee" and jailbreak the phone. I got a little more functionality out of the deal, but still could not work around the most important limitations because of Apple's draconian lock-down policies. 

I jail-broke my iPhone, but I felt like I was STILL in jail!

The freedom of my first Android phone was palpable. And the hardware choices were awesome. I got one of the first dual-core phones, and it had a killer screen, a half inch taller than the iPhone, and with higher resolution. 

Then I upgraded less than a year later to an Android with a HUGE screen, and absolutely love it. I don't miss my 7-inch Android tablet a bit (especially since it was so painful to carry around that I basically never had it), now that I have my 5.3 inch Samsung Galaxy Note in my pocket all the time, and the screen even has a higher resolution (1280x800) than my 7-inch,  Acer Iconia a100 tablet (1024x600).

My Galaxy Note is a very useful pocket computer. Sometimes I find myself answering a text on it, then looking up something in the internet browser on it, only to eventually realize that I'm sitting right in front of my main computer. As soon as I realize it, I often switch back to the computer, but the point is, browsing on the Note is usually so painless that I often don't even think twice about it. That was NOT the case on my Motorola Atrix 4G, or my iPhone 3gs, I'll tell you that. 

Having a huge screen, or lot's of RAM, or external SD storage, or swappable battery, or LTE capability are choices that an Android user has, that an iPhone user doesn't. As long as Apple so tightly controls everything in it's world, and focuses on blocking others' innovation, rather than accelerating their own, their share of the smartphone market will continue to fade. Undoubtedly, that will eventually bleed over to the tablet market, where their lead is still tenuously hanging on--even while Android Tablets continue to stumble around looking for a purpose.

Yes, Apple is beginning to fade already, but it's not a result of Steve Jobs' death, as I suspected might eventually happen, but rather it seems to be a direct result of Apple leadership bent on honoring Jobs' dying wish of destruction (of Google) rather than his life of amazing innovation.

Rest in peace, Apple. You were awesome, once.