Apple is dangerously behind, so watch out
It seems hard to argue that Apple isn’t behind. It has no Virtual Reality products like Samsung’s Gear VR, PANIC AT THE DISCO BLACK WHITE Cover iPhone 8 Google’s Cardboard Daydream and Facebook’s Oculus. No library of subscription TV content like Netflix or Amazon Prime. No electric car strategy circulating like Google, Tesla or Faraday Future. And Apple’s Siri appears to be behind Alexa and Google in the race to dribble out a few million cloud based, voice surveillance appliances aimed at home installation.
Lots of brands have fallen behind in the markets they once mattered in and ended up unable to ever catch up again. Prime examples are Sony, Palm, Nokia, Windows Phone and Windows Tablet PC, Blackberry, Google Maps and FitBit.
The common thread among these isn’t evidence that Apple “could be next.” The common MINI COOPER S LOGO Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 thread was that Apple entered their markets and crushed them.
Is Apple the next Apple
Recall last year’s punditry cycle of “is Apple the next Blackberry” HOT NEW TOMMY HILFIGER ART Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 In OVERWATCH D.VA BUNNY Cover iPhone 8 that pinnacle of fallacious logic, the fact that Blackberry (nee RIM) could dramatically fall from its massively successful perch was evidence that Apple could too, XXXTENTACION ft LIL PEEP Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 sort of like how Nancy Kerrigan was evidence that Tonya Harding could be attacked, because she too was a figure skater.
Or for a less obscure reference, does FitBit’s massive decline in MINNESOTA VIKINGS NOLAN Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 smartwatch shipments present evidence that Apple Watch might be AHEGAO SENPAI ANIME Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 next Who knows, really! Cause and effect are so TROY LEE DESIGNS TLD 3 Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 difficult to connect together in a relationship. /s.
It’s actually quite easy to see the relationship between death and killer when you have a series of bodies each marked with a telltale mark of the same assassin. That would be evidence that vulnerable targets should be on the lookout for flying bullets, not evidence that a sniper is probably about to fall from his perch because it’s apparently dangerous to be outside.
A decade of Apple being crazy behind like a fox!
I’ve been writing about Apple for more than THE LEGEND OF ZELDA Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 a decade. So looking back, the broken record of observations that Apple is being “passed up by True Innovators who are years ahead” leaps out as evidence PUEBLA FC Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 of a clear misunderstanding of what is actually happening in ALL BLACKS NEW ZEALAND RUGBY 3 Cover POKEMON TRAINER'S KALOS POKEDEX Cover iPhone 8 Samsung Galaxy S6 the tech sector, and why.
Examine a decade of history recounting the various companies leisurely ONE DIRECTION PROMISE Cover iPhone 8 crossing the tracks just ahead of the Apple Train, while the media cheered them on as being avant garde rather than fated for death. Consider why their celebrated efforts to crush Apple with various “iPhone killers” failed. Note: because this game involves capitalist enterprise, points are awarded in dollars rather than pats on the back or participation trophies.
MP3 Phone
2007: A year prior to Peak iPod, Microsoft announced its own Zune to much fanfare as the “iPod killer,” just as pundits began imagining in parallel that phones playing MP3s would kill Apple’s SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS SF Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 iPod empire. Everything seemed so dire for Apple. Zune could do wireless WiFi sync and MP3 playing feature phones appeared to cost much less than an iPod!
However, that year Apple introduced iPhone. Steve Jobs described it as “a widescreen iPod” in addition to a phone and “breakthrough internet device”. Zune staggered along like a zombie until it was terminated while basic phones playing MP3s were blown away by Apple’s “iPod phone” with a real web browser.
Incredibly, we also had proof collected by PR firm ABI that given a contrived survey, many participants exposed to slanted marketing would agree that they might actually buy a Zune. But headlines aren’t facts, and Zune lost miserably. The feature phone industry did too, despite its “overwhelming global market share of units shipped.” Apple also overcame being clearly behind PIERCE THE VEIL FRANKENSTEIN AVAGE STATIC Cover iPhone 8 in smartphones which had been around for half a decade by the time Apple showed up. And it was just getting started.
App Store
2008: Before iPhone even went on sale, the same ABI group that had previously insisted Zunes were ‘potentially capable of selling’ next announced that Apple’s new iPhone “wasn’t a smartphone” because it didn’t run third party apps like CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1 Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 “real platforms” such as Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, Symbian, Flash Lite and Java ME.
ABI analyst Philip Solis explained, “We must conclude at this point that, based on our current definition, the iPhone is not a smartphone, but rather a high end feature phone.”
In the spring of 2008, Apple launched the App Store, and developers jumped to join. By mid 2009, iPhone had outsold Windows Mobile globally. Nothing since has caught up to the profitable success of the iOS App Store. Mobile software markets for those other “real platforms” died off really quickly. This is so obvious that in hindsight it’s crazy why so many people lied about what was going on.2009: Blackberry was supposed to keep Apple out of government and corporate enterprise due to the “Crackberry” BUDWEISER KING OF BEERS Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 allure of its centralized Blackberry Enterprise Server messaging platform. Meanwhile, Apple didn’t even support MMS photo messaging LA KINGS LOS ANGELES 2 Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 with other smartphones!
In iOS 3, BARCELONA 2 Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 Apple replaced iPhone’s basic DISNEY TSUM TSUM 4 Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 Text app with Messages, enabling MMS picture OAKLAND RAIDERS LOGO 2 Cover Samsung Galaxy S6 messaging as well as basic SMS. iOS 5 bridged Mac and iPad instant messaging with SMS and encrypted all communications, effectively making IM free and erasing much of the value of services like BES. Coincidentally, BES PANIC AT THE DISCO Cover iPhone 8 also suffered a series of service embarrassing blackouts. A leader dropped the ball just as Apple was poised to run with it.
Today, iMessage has become one of the largest messaging platforms. It distinguishes Apple users with blue bubbles, highlighting that conversations are encrypted (and SMS chats with Android users are not).
Last year, Apple introduced an apps platform for iOS 10 that integrates iMessage with utilities, games, message effects and Stickers, borrowing from other popular standalone chat platforms. This year, it may integrate Siri into iMessage for assisted chat. Blackberry barely even exists. So much for being behind.2010: Apple was woefully behind webOS (remember that) in the emerging arena of . Android was also floating support for local app and remote push notifications organized in a single log of events. iOS didn’t have any of that.
Apple introduced Mobile Me with the unreliable sloppiness of a Google beta launch, earning much finger wagging. It then hired away key webOS developer Rich Dellinger to create Notification Center and built a robust, secure PushSystem integrated with Mobile Me (renamed iCloud) to build a powerful messaging and rich app notification system…