November 9th, 2012
Dan Lyons for (seriously) BBC News back in September:
More important, is this really the best we can expect from an outfit that claims to be the most innovative company in the world? This is the sixth version of the iPhone, and the user interface still looks almost exactly like the original iPhone in 2007.
Erik Sherman for CBS News:
(MoneyWatch) Apple (AAPL) announced the iPhone 5 last week, it lacked the innovation many had expected after the company's previous 4S edition. And people just don't seem to care — the latest device is selling like crazy.
Aloysius Low in a CNet article titled: "Where's the innovation, Apple?":
It's funny how back then, when Apple didn't even have a toe in the smartphone market, its first-generation handset was considered innovative and disruptive. As a market leader now, the company produces "safe" products that are really just upgrades.
Peter Nowak for CBC News:
The iPhone 5 may be Apple’s most divisive gadget yet. Since it was unveiled last week, tech geeks have derided it as disappointing and lacking in innovation. Without any big new advances, it’s being seen as only an incremental improvement over the previous iPhone, the 4S.
Joe Wilcox for Betanews:
Apple isn't as innovative as its corporate "reality distortion field" would have everyone believe. But the company has gotten quite good at something: Unleashing a torrent of suits to secure patents and to defend them — and many cover processes that should never have been awarded patents in the first place. Apple has gotten quite good at gaming the patent system.
Farhad Manjoo for Slate, prior to actually using an iPhone 5:
All over the Web, churls and haters are claiming that Apple didn’t unveil anything really innovative or surprising at the company’s iPhone launch event in San Francisco today. That’s just not true. For one thing, it’s the first iPhone to be called the iPhone 5. Indeed, this is the first iPhone whose name includes a number greater than 4. Tell me that’s not progress.
Analyst Trip Chowdry:
"Apple's innovation is sputtering. Why is that Apple, the company that brought touch to phones and tablets, stopped just there and did not bring touch to notebooks and iMacs? Why is it that Apple brought high-resolution screens to…some Mac MacBooks and not to all devices? High-resolution screens are a commodity today."
And finally, today's announcement from Booz & Co's 2012 Global Innovation 1000 Study:
For the third year in a row, we asked our survey participants to name the companies they thought were the world’s most innovative. This year, Apple didn’t just top the rankings (as it did the past two years); it increased its lead substantially. The company — which in August 2012 became the most valuable in history, measured by market capitalization — was named by almost 80 percent of respondents as one of the three most innovative companies in the world, up from 70 percent last year.
The media (and incompetent forum commenters) may be "bored" by Apple, but 70 percent of nearly 700 companies, involving 12 senior innovation executives and CTOs, certainly are not. These are the people responsible for moving their companies forward and competing with the market leader - not the company with the most market share, but the one pulling in the most money: Apple.
Innovation is not merely a new case design or adding a feature because "the other guy" has it, too. Innovation is about finding the best way to make the best possible thing you can make so it adds value to an industry and so your competitors can learn from it, improve upon it, and push you to do even better next time.