The Mac Lounge forum: Has Apple Lost Its MoJo (mo~jo | noun) : charm, magic?

As a shareholder I am worried...Apple releases an iphone once a year. If they don't have a super advance phone they are constantly playing catch up as other manufacturers release phones every 3-4 months. Since Apple main revenues are from the iPhone they need to have at least one other model - perhaps bigger? Not everyone is content with a tiny (by today's standards) 4" screen. They aren't really innovating anything people are ASKING FOR? They are doing what they want to do - not listening to consumers. Who cares the iPhone 5 is lighter? People want better/longer battery life - function OVER fashion. The Maps shouldn't have been launched and stuck with Google for the 1 year remaining on their contact with Google.

Now the iPad mini is going to cannibalize their sales with lower profit margins to boot! Apple is suppose to launch their TVs next year - could be a fiasco as the pricing is going to be expensive in comparison to other TVs at the same size.

I agree about the management changes. Having said that, I do believe that apple will rebound under Mr. Cook. After all, he was hand-picked by Steve Jobs, so that is one thing to keep in mind. As far as the product line goes, it takes years to get something revolutionary to become evolutionary. Steve Jobs had a lot of ideas and they must be cultivated by the right people just the right people. For now, though, I am quite pleased with my new iPhone 5, as I have had two of the previous models. As for my ipad2, I love it and will be trading up soon.
All this from a dyed in the wool Blackberry user. BTW does anyone know if RIM is still around? Haven't seen an advertisement from them in a while. But, hey, this is the same person who wrote about BB's software issues on its Torch. Still ticked off about it. But, hey, all of us who post here are just techno geeks!

I noticed a couple of years ago that the Apple Stores did not have the same magic as I stepped through the doors. And the window displays looked a little bit "cheesey"- maybe what I would have expected at Sears....but not Apple.
Blown-up photos laminated to foam board. But too much foam board visible. And the displays not quite hung perfectly. Practical, cost-effective, but somehow not enough color, not enough image, not enough "something"

Years ago, I remembered walking into a store with window displays that functioned as works of art, into an environment where beautiful twenty-ish models appeared to come alive from the back wall, promising with their easy smiles that if I too had an Apple product I could participate in their lifestyle. I knew I was being manipulated, but I didn't care. There was a "genius bar" to the side in the back of the store which could only be approached by the anointed. Apple product owner- check. Appointment- check. Apple Care purchaser? Ahhh- red carpet treatment.

Now, in the store nearest me, there is a zoo of service and check-out lines, with Apple employees swooping about in a hodge-podge of conversations with customers and each other. It is at times more like the trading floor of a stock exchange than the refuge from reality that it used to be.

Most people understand the value of a "Well thought out" product, not just an engineered one.

Such is the case of Apple vs. Samsung vs. all other. Subsequent iterations of product are just market segmentation of a "good thing". That also inspires customer loyalty. If you don't think so....just look at the piles of cash on AAPL's Balance Sheet.

Take a look at following posting from my own personal experience:

http://www.linkedin.com/updates?discuss=&scope=446537&stype=M&topic=5674506103631663104&type=U&a=7Vke


I'm back again...Sorry Apple...I strayed off the path and went down a 20 day journey to ANDROID LAND with a new GALAXYs III from T-Mobile. Short story: Samsung 65% Apple Clone and 35% Blackberry. Samsung core apps (i.e. mail, contacts,..etc) aren't well thought out..requiring larger than human thumbs to access delete...improper placement of icons, as well as a lot unneeded flexibility and manual configurations. 95% of the Apps..same as iPhone but you need to go to various sources to find them. T-Mobile's 1700 MHZ won't penetrate bldgs.4G is inconsistent. Close Samsung but no cigar!

OK. I am 85, almost 86. Have owned Macs since the beginning of the Mac Era. Is profit the only drive? Must we keep upgrading our machines, and learn to handle new software?

"Festina lente", the ancient Romans would say. Make haste slowly.

While change is always unsettling, no company has possibly embraced more change since its inception than Apple. While I am not being so simplistic as to believe the leadership changes were orchestrated solely to help "reinvent" the company; yet as has already been stated, at this juncture, where can Apple legitimately go? Were these changes a response to the less-than-thrilling recent product releases? Perhaps Apple has decided its practice of allowing the hype to grow from the lack of information releases to now be passe`? Maybe Cook & Co. has stared into their crystal ball and realized they can no longer assume the light at the end of the tunnel is more progress--it could be a train!

Apple is a company with a rich history or leadership which definitely thinks outside of the proverbial box; the unfortunate things is Steve Jobs is gone and Tim Cook needs to chart a new course for Apple. All one gets when one rests on their laurels is crushed laurels. Apple needs a new post-Jobs identity. There is no good way to do this without everyone screaming "blasphemy" or "traitor!"

Yet it had to happen sometime for their to be future successes.

Has Apple lost their MoJo? Well, yes and no. They are still producing devices with exceptional UIs and consumer appeal but where the expected life of an Apple product was 2 years plus it is now less than a year. The passion that was Apple passed with Jobs! Since Cook took the helm there has clearly been a flood of incremental changes across the product lines that has Apple looking more like a PC company. Cook has mortgaged Apple's future in this game of leap-frog where the new device just clears the nose of the last model as it jumps over..shall I coin "jump frog" instead? Those of us who bought Apple products because they had great UIs, usability, AND longevity are now facing a decision as we consider our upgrade path; "are we willing to pay a premium for Apple products now that the model we are replacing is worth 50% of what we paid verses 85% when Jobs ran the show?" Windows machines are as disposable as diapers, I certainly hope that Apple does not follow the PC makers into the abyss.

Simply put, Apple's mojo was Steve Jobs. Without his vision and coherent, cohesive leadership, Apple is just another humdrum group of bright people.

Apple never had Mo-Jo.

Apple took other people's good ideas and simplified them and released them with Glitz and Fanfare to a people who were living on credit and dying to fit in.

Times have changed.

Every other company in the world has figured out how to boil down ideas like Apple.

The Economy no longer supports people living off credit and as a result people (lacking capital) expect more from the technology they are buying.

And I'll say it again... Apple takes other peoples ideas and boils them down. They have not and still do not originate ideas on their own. Therefore, they are waiting for someone else to come up with the next Revolution so they can copy it. Makes the whole Patent Lawsuit thing even more offensive, IMHO.

I don't think Apple has lost it's mojo mainly because it has not been that long since the ipad. Really, what do expect out this company? They have revolutionized music distribution, mobile phones, & created the tablet market. Seriously, if they funded a project that created unicorns I don't think we would be that surprised.

They will no longer be the manufacturer of Steve Jobs vision, and that may not be as interesting as it used to be, but it does not mean that Apple is not one wildly successful company. And this is coming from someone who only owns an ipod classic.

I was a late adopter of the iPhone and got it at the 3Gs stage.

It was good and easy to use compared to my Original Blackberry Storm and the G-d-Awful Windows phone that Verizon replaced the blackberry with.

After 8 months, the 3GS started to heat up and die. 9 refurbs later, Apple send me an iPhone 4 under warranty and that only made it about 7 months.

I still have the 4, went to get the 4s and found that the battery life was ridiculously short and gave back two of them. I cannot see spending $299 for an "upgrade" to my 4, when the Galaxy S3 is less than $129 at costco. Is the 5 that much better than the two previous iterations of the 4? How soon before they make the 4's obsolete and force me to buy another phone at a ridiculous price?

I also was an early adopter of the iPad and bought mine in July of 2010.

When they last upgraded the software to IOS6, my iPad was not considered to be a part of the Apple product line eligible for the upgrade and has now been put on the obsolescence path thanks to marketers at Apple.

At this time, Apple's only goal is to force everyone into new iPhone and iPad purchases every two years. That is an expensive cycle for me and my business.

I'll pass. I can probably get by with a Kindle when it is time to upgrade.

Apple was built on the computer hobbyist. The latest Macbook Pros are commodity items with soldered in memory, hard drives and batteries. They are usable, but throwaway items.

I switched from Windows machines to a macbook pro and iMac a few years ago, but will NOT support Apple anymore as long as they hold fast to their non-upgradable path.

If Apple wants to keep it's mojo throne, then it will need to abandon its proprietary path and go back to its roots. I don't expect it will do that though.

OK so Apple are not revolutionising the world every 6 months, but they've certainly changed the world around. Imagine life without an iPhone - or since it's inception one of the copycats. I liken the iPhone as something from the future today.

You cannot expect revolutions every 5 minutes, because meticulous Evolution is a vital part of product development.
Just look around at great companies which instead of following gods of novelty and fashion pursue instead excellence, winding up eventually with products no one else can touch. And yes I am talking about the iPhone/IOS combination.
Oh yes - another example of this sort of thing might just be Porsche?

At this point we can only ask ourselves: 'Is it a plain, is it a tree..."
How strange is the fact that a computer company makes the most money selling gadgets? Is the computer division really that bad? Going back to their gold nugget, the iPhone, basically a sole product made Apple what it is today, but can it keep up with the rest of the world? Believing that no ground change won't draw you back is so wrong. Competition is more than ever present, bringing to THE SAME BUYERS, fancier and more versatile products in a variety which (I'm sorry to say) makes the iPhone look obsolete.
Wall Street evaluates this phenomena right, stock holders made a lot of dough over the past couple of years and now it's time for them to move on.
Their "Best Operating System on Earth" is a joke. How did they come up with being the best and who believes that? The Computers, even the latest are far from being near to compete in productivity with powerful PCs on any level. Gaming??? Zero!!! Limitations all over the place... Well, if for a reason that makes it the best, well than I don't know...
Playing the same "coolness factor" of Apple over PC, as being the only feature, has come to an end with Windows 8. Can you still play the same card while you have the option of a completely new look and concept involving computers with touch screen ability? BTW, the touch screen is a Microsoft concept and invention and has been seen and used long before Apple. I would say that as of now coolness of Apple over Microsoft is no longer a something you can bring up, while the products themselves became boring, obsolete and the market will start treating them for what they really are - toys.
It hurts my fingers to write these lines because I was an enthusiast of the iPhone, I'm a iPad and Mac Book Air user (Mac Air runs Win 8 over Parallels). Now I feel that my once cool Mac Air is obsolete lacking the touch screen...
I was really hoping that the new line-up, besides ridiculously prices, would keep up with the times we live in, but I'm obviously wrong.
I can only say Microsoft nailed it for real, finally.
Tim Cook??? A clown! If Steve would still be with us, this Cook character would still be doing what he did before.

YES IT HAS. it lost it again when Steve Jobs died because without Steve apple is illrelevent.