Many seem to have this notion over the past 5 or 6 months that Apple had dried up. Done. Nothing left to give. Leena Rao at Tech Crunch says "Apple Needs to Innovate and Evolve." Analyst John Donovan at Bluefin Research Partners said there was a need for inovation from Apple to continue.
Today Apple responded, and Phil Schiller said it best during his presentation of the Mac Pro:
Can't innovate anymore, my ass.
The keynote opened with a Pixar-esque video with phrases such as "We start to confuse... abundance with choice," and goes on to layout some design philosophies of Apple: defining what people should feel, it takes many "no"s to get to the right "yes", the willingness to start over, and only creating products that change lives.
Many end-users, tech press, and financial analysts seem to think that Apple has to do something drastic such as launch a new product category every few months. They've been spoiled by the recent launch of iPhone and iPad in fairly quick succession. Many seem to forget that Apple has been innovating since 1984. Just as Apple's opening video said - it takes time, and Apple isn't just going to put their name on anything.
Naysayers frequently point to Samsung and the abundance of devices they put out every few months. How often people forget that Samsung hasn't innovated at all in the mobile market. Sure they've made devices with larger screens, but is "Value Sizing" a screen innovation? Samsung don't use their own operating system. They didn't create a game-changing tablet to define a new market. Samsung doesn't innovate - Samsung reacts.
Apple's message, loud and clear: be patient, and we'll continue to make great things.
