I would not like to be an engineer working for Apple. I have nothing against engineers, nor do I dislike Apple, but the company has set a precedent for itself which in my opinion will eventually become unsustainable. In essence, the iCompany has amassed a loyal following which demands innovation on a regular, literally scheduled, basis. With the release of the 5th generation iPhone, the company unveiled yet another one of its amazing feats of technological magic, but iPhone users have simply come to expect more. Concerns over the tardiness of the product compared to past releases were raised. Why didn't they do it during the summer? A few of my friends asked, "Why does it look the same?" Why can't it do this and why can't it do that? The crux of the disappointment stems around the question: why is it not the iPhone 5?
Why indeed? Apple has established itself as a major competitor in the smartphone industry by cultivating an air for its products: sleek, powerful, light on buttons and heavy on features. To maintain this reputation for its products while consistently releasing 'revolutionary' new gadgets... I'm not an expert but that sounds close to impossible. Yet they've done it for years now, under the leadership of the late Steve Jobs. The old adage that innovation stems from necessity holds true, except here the necessity is consumer demand. In this year's iPhone's case though, could it be that - say it ain't so, you must be joking - the company simply couldn't come up with a smooth version of the technology fast enough? If Apple doesn't live up to this image of itself that it's created, it risks losing a significant number of fans, an unacceptable outcome in the vicious modern markets, where myriads of companies can step up to replace customers' purchasing needs. How much pressure must Apple engineers be facing constantly, with the expectation of creating a vastly improved and simultaneously polished smartphone every single year?
Perhaps I'm being naïve. Competition is an aspect of virtually all industries in the global economy, and there are bound to be more companies than Apple which must rely heavily on constant innovation to remain competitive. But it still astounds me that consumer culture has grown into this - a persistent hunger for sleeker, faster, bigger, smaller, lighter, better. It's created a system similar to evolution, in which only the best products get bought so that the companies that provide those best products may survive to sell another day. The difference is that technological innovation is intentional while genetic mutations are random. But how far can innovation go? That's what worries me. Competition can only motivate; it's up to the actual players to figure out the innovating part.
How far can innovation go? Well, it started from the beginning of time and here we are today, still innovating. I feel like Apple is slow in releasing newer features, but they know what they're doing. They do release new features slowly, but for a reason. I'm sure such a big company like Apple probably has the release of products planned for the next few years. If they employ some of the world's smartest engineers and creative minds, I don't think they'll run out of ideas. They have newer and more effective technology, but they don't release it until a couple years, just in case they happen to run out of ideas. They'll invent an Iphone then spend 5 years on improving little nuiances of it. (It's the same thing they did with Ipods: First Ipod shuffles, then nano, then bigger Ipod screens, then Ipod speakers, then Ipod in Iphone...etc.)
ReplyDeleteSo, on the contrary, I'd actually want to work with Apple. Even if competition was the motivation, I wish I was smart enough to get physics and become an engineer, and use creativity to create new features, etc. I just feel like it's fun and it's pretty safe in terms of long-term planning.