Apple 2011: Copycats or blindsiding?

It’s currently that time of the year again where Apple hosts their immensely popular developers’ conference, WWDC (World Wide Developers’ Conference), and just like all the other previous years, the tech jungle is abuzz with the announcements made by Apple at their keynote. This year Apple made a pretty strange break from their usual mode of silence and secrecy. The company, which is extremely particular about not letting a single piece of news leak out, was sharing details several days before the conference on what was to be discussed and the three items that came out were

a)   A full reveal of the Lion OS for Mac

b)   A first time reveal of iOS 5. The fifth iteration of Apple’s mobile Operating System

c)   iCloud. Apple’s own cloud system.

Now none of this should be anything brand new if you’ve been following the tech news. Apple’s executives came out onto stage and demoed the products and for each product they revealed 10 features out of 200+ promised features for each item that left the audience cheering and on their feet.

 

Meanwhile the Twittersphere and the comments sections of the news sites covering the keynote erupted into a metaphorical war as fans from each sector clashed with the fans of Apple insisting that Apple had lost its ability to innovate and was now the one playing catch up. If you haven’t seen the list of features yet I suggest taking a look at Apple’s keynote and making some observations for yourself. Tomorrow I will try and publish a list of the features announced along with the services Apple had imitated in implementing them. This article instead focuses on setting the record straight on what the thinking should actually be like for fans, critics and developers alike.

 

Apple rarely innovates anyway

Before you throw away this article claiming absolute nonsense you should ask yourself when exactly did Apple ever innovate on any product? The GUI was not a product of Apple or Microsoft. Both companies saw it fit to visit the research company Xerox and “borrow” the concept from them. Apple did not invent the first smartphone. Even their third iteration of the iPhone lacked features that more basic Nokia phones had. The company made a huge deal about Facetime which was in fact a proprietary, glorified way of video calling between Apple devices only. The iPad claims to have enabled the first use of Natural User Interfaces where individuals interact with a computer system in a way which is more natural and modeled after real life actions. The reality is that Microsoft was far ahead of them in this area with their NUI based device, Surface. Tablets were also nothing new with Microsoft, Intel and Samsung leading the charges in this area. The fact remains though that Apple is by far the more successful company with their value being greater than both Microsoft AND Intel put together. How does that work out? If Apple doesn’t innovate, then why is the tech world gushing over Apple products while the rest of the tech giants are scrambling to play catch up?

 

Truth is, Apple does actually innovate

This is a conflicting statement with a simple explanation. Many people assume that Apple is the pioneer of most of the technology they reveal to the world. This is false. Apple has rarely ever innovated in technology but instead choose to innovate heavily in user experiences and marketing.

 

Case in point, Microsoft revealed their pioneering into the world of NUI with their coffee table size Surface device. Even after revealing their second iteration which is still coffee table size but only a few inches thick this time they still haven’t gained as much commercial traction as they would like to see. Apple instead came out with their 10.1 inch product which most at the time called a joke and aimed only at rich consumers. This product, the iPad became the second fastest selling electronic product in history and ended up setting a standard for corporate devices. Many companies including BMW now use iPads as kiosks within their shops allowing users to interact and browse items as they would a physical catalogue.

 

There are so many more examples that could be given like this and they all lead to one thing. Apple is fantastic at taking an existing concept, making it into an experience approachable by mainstream (without ever altering the original technology concept) and then marketing it as if they were the ones who in fact created it.

 

So what did Apple do this year?

With the staggering growth of Android, Apple probably looked at their products and at the online polls to identify what people wanted in their mobile experience. I recall many polls which pointed to Android notifications, widgets and sync being the top reasons to switch to Android. These were the reasons I bought into Android in the first place. Did Apple innovate this year?

 

No. This is important for many people screaming foul on forums and blogs. Apple simply looked at what features their competitors had over them, what applications people used the most and simply brought those concepts together to enhance the experience of Apple product users. This is why the Apple users were cheering at the end of it because for them it meant an enormous leap in user and developer experiences. If anyone in the comments section can name a truly innovative feature shown off by Apple at this year’s WWDC I will gladly edit this part of the article to include those features as unique and innovative with credit to the commenter who points it out.

 

I will however concede that Apple did innovate with their iTunes matching songs to ensure that the user having to upload songs to their online libraries (the most time consuming experience of a cloud based music player) was minimized. This was more due to Apple’s existing muscle power over large record companies than actual innovation however. Other companies did not have this influence to even think of heading down this path.

 

Isn’t Apple being unfair?

In some ways, yes and in most ways, no. People claim that Apple is being unfair by copying features and then showing them off as if they were the first to invent it, such as the lock screen to camera option which was one of the first features shown off in the first iteration of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. This is not unfair, it’s business. Competitors will always try to match the best features of each other before stepping up and trying to have one over them. This is why competition is good since it expedites improvements.

 

Apple may have been a little unfair on its application developers however. Given Apple’s financial power, no application development team is going to be able to go head on with them claiming that they infringed on patents and stole ideas thus ruining their businesses. After this year’s WWDC conference there must be a number of companies that have to pivot their ideas to create new businesses. It isn’t all gloom and doom for them yet though. While Apple has basically baked their apps into their iOS experience it may actually open the doors for the developers of these applications even more.

 

The vertical obsession

No company can ever spread into every single vertical and still be effective. It is the reason why no leader in history has ever conquered the entire world before their economy collapsed. When you spread your resources too thin you end up doing nothing correctly. Developers affected by the improvements to Apple’s products should actually rejoice that their products are actually in demand enough for Apple to want to bake it into their ecosystem. For example, Safari introduced the “reading list” for Apple users which allows them to quickly save a web page to read later rather than getting it lost in a list of bookmarks. This functionality is provided by an application called Instapaper and while it looks like Instapaper might be doomed to fade away, here’s what its creator says.

“If Apple gets a bunch of Safari users — the browser that works best with Instapaper — to get into a “read later” workflow and see the value in such features, those users are prime potential Instapaper customers. And it gives me an easier way to explain it to them: “It’s like Safari’s Reading List, but better, in these ways.”

This is how every single developer should be thinking. Now that Apple has in fact included the experience of their (the developer’s) apps into its ecosystem it means that the developers have more opportunity than ever before. More importantly developers should understand that since Apple has so much more to focus on, they can be more agile by adding features on and improving their experiences heavily and thus out maneuvering the giant’s efforts. Let “Goliath do the marketing for you by shouting out to the world where you are” said David in this modern corporate world.

 

Did Apple mess up?

Despite the lack of innovation to please the fans more and upset the opposing corners, Apple has by no means messed up. In fact this may be their most interesting strategic move yet as they definitely struck fear into the hearts of the other major players by taking on the biggest features consumers cite as reasons to switch from Apple to any other brand. With their latest move played it will be interesting to see where the mobile wars go from here.

 

Final verdict

On one hand Apple has actually dealt their deadliest card yet which removes the advantages of other mobile Operating Systems over them significantly and in some cases completely. This move has been called copycat and foul by some but I think Apple simply blindsided the competition by doing what no one thought they would ever do, imitation. On the other hand however they have been forced to take a risk of not overtaking any of these Operating Systems in a significant way thus leaving room for others to finally try and take the lead pushing Apple into the catch up game this time.

 

What do you make of this year’s WWDC then? What do you think of Apple’s “revelations”. Comments interesting enough to spark off an intelligent debate may be the focus of the next article with the thread starter’s name being highlighted.

 

You can follow the author Adnan Issadeen’s opinions on Twitter via @area51research or find out more on where he haunts the digital realms via http://identyme.com/adnanissadeen