I feel like people get these rose-tinted glasses when they look back on past Apple products, like they were all 100% perfect or something. Truth is - they all had little issues, but they were still often miles ahead of their competition.
One place Apple has disrupted/built an industry is with the smart watch. I was skeptical, but got a Series 2 on sale to try it out and recently got a Series 4. When I got the Series 2 I wasn't sure what I would use it for, but it's something I would miss not having now.
It's not something Apple did twice a week like clockwork while Jobs was alive, then just suddenly stopped when he died.
This is exactly the kind of rose-colored glasses nneonneo was talking about.
- Created the personal computer industry (Apple Inc)
- Revolutionized the personal computer industry (Macintosh)
- Revolutionized film animation (Pixar)
- Shifted the electronic device industry to minimalist industrial design (iPod)
- Changed the entire music industry's distribution model (iTunes)
- Completely shifted the paradigm of a cellular phone and arguably began the adoption of the mobile internet (iPhone)
There are several other things people may consider visionary (candy colored iMac, getting rid of floppy drives, OSX, Newton, stuff at NeXT, tech advertising with the 1984 & Think Different campaigns, etc). I'm not even including things like the iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, health metrics, etc which Jobs may have been working on before his death. Clearly Jobs had lots of help along the way and is not singularly responsible for each of these things - but he's the one who oversaw and, in many cases, drove the vision.
I'm no Apple fanboy and Jobs had a very dark side to his particular brand of genius, but I find it incredibly disingenuous to dismiss the impact that Jobs had on Apple and the industry in general. Tim Cook is a very solid Tech CEO, maybe even a great operational leader, but he is not a visionary leader and my concern is that Apple lost a fundamental element with the passing of Jobs.
Come on. "We changed the color. Visionary!"
> - Revolutionized film animation (Pixar)
Pixar was doing lots of work before Jobs was on the scene (after seven years, when Lucasfilm decided it was successful / profitable enough on its own to spin it off) - he was an investor.
Another possibility is that they don't have to take advantage of their users' data because their business is largely a hardware business, with the software a loss-leader.
It might seem like a distinction without a difference but one has to consider intent when scoring individuals and companies' moral high ground.
It's an utterly laughable statement. Not surprised it upset a few worshipers of the Tech Overlords. Apple, the billionaires it produced and the people it employs should be grateful to the rest of society.