I guess I don’t see it. It definitely needs to do something exciting if it’s going to regain momentum and stay ahead of everyone else, but Apple products are still top of the line.
Apple products have always run on lower specs than competitors and what innovations is the iPhone missing? NFC? Sure, but that’s only beginning to be useful to anyone in any way. The only thing that’s obvious is the screen size, but that’s a continual deliberate choice by Apple; maybe because it fears that making too large a screen will alienate users (having a smaller phone certainly isn’t harming sales). Hopefully with a second iPhone model coming, it will branch out and have a 4.3 or 4.7-inch phone and a smaller one.
I judge by the products I see and if I’m recommending a tablet, I still recommend an iPad (if you can spend the money). For phones, the iPhone is still a great option. I agree that the Mac Air will need touch, but it’s a very compelling option next to Windows 8 devices. Apple’s choosing to cater to hardcore users instead of try to make its Macs into touchable tablets. It can’t hold out forever, though.
Samsung is not the new Apple. How does it innovate? Samsung’s idea of innovation is to pile on so many new apps and features that no one even knows how to use them all, or that they even exist. Most of Samsung’s innovations are difficult to use. I like it’s ideas with the Galaxy Cam and it integrated a stylus well in its Notes, but a lot of its innovations are confusing. There are at least five different versions of the Galaxy S4, and on AT&T, it is selling two different versions of the phone at the same price.
Nokia making a Lumia PureView? There’s an S4 for that. Sony has a water-resistant phone? There’s now an S4 for that. HTC making a smaller version of its phone? There’s an S4 for that.
Samsung doesn’t come up with innovative ideas so much as make sure that it’s devices have every single idea anyone else has thought of in them. And the ideas it does come up with are often designed to lock people into a Samsung ecosystem, or confuse them into buying apps from Samsung instead of the Google Play Store.
The Galaxy S4 and other Samsung products are fantastic, but Samsung has not shown, in almost any way, that it’s capable of larger innovation like Apple did with key devices or Google is doing now with Glass, self-driving cars, and several other fronts.
As far as profits, if I were a stock broker I’d care more. Apple is making plenty of profit and has more cash than any other company I know of.
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