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In a "Confirm or Deny" feature by The New York Times this week, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel "confirmed" that "the age of Apple is over" based on his belief that smartphones will lack further innovation.
The age of Apple is over.
Confirm. We know what a smartphone looks like and does. It’s not the fault of Tim Cook, but it’s not an area where there will be any more innovation.
While the iPhone has become a familiar product as it turns ten, which perhaps makes it less exciting to some, to say smartphones are not an area where there will be any more innovation will certainly fuel a debate. And, of course, while the iPhone is Apple's most profitable product, it's not its only.
Thiel's comment can be argued one way or the other, but it does raise the question of what Apple's next "one more thing" will be after annual iPhone sales declined for the first time amid an uncharacteristically down year for Apple—perhaps something in the augmented reality or electric vehicle spaces? Will this be the year Apple pushes deeper into artificial intelligence with Siri and an Echo-like device?
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has routinely teased about what's around the corner. Last year, he said Apple has "great innovation in the pipeline," including "things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today." Likewise, he told employees last month that Apple has "great desktops in our roadmap," and earlier this week he said "the best is yet to come" for iPhone.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)a) You could have made this statement about any of Apple's products throughout history. "We know what a computer looks like and does." See what I did there?
b) Peter Thiel is a complete bozo.
You'll never need more than 640 kB of RAM.
But WHY do they have to change an industry with a new product every year?
Can't they just make great products that tech blogs can gripe about (but secretly love) so that they can get clicks?
Apple makes all the profits in the smartphone industry (who cares if you sell phones if you don't make money at it). They dominate in customer satisfaction and the quality is second to none. Let them make products with incremental improvements that work and enjoy life...have fun creating and using these products and stop demanding a ground breaking revolution every year.
Saying there is no more innovation in the space is ludicrous. Here are a few areas where there is a ton of innovation.
* Battery Technology (weeks on a charge, organic cells)
* Camera Tech (DoF, Color, resolution, white noise)
* VR / AR
* Digital Assistants (We're not even close to samantha from her yet)
* iPhone as the only computer you need. just keep a keyboard, mouse & monitor at your office & home and move the iPhone between them
* CPU speeds
* RAM miniaturization
* 1 terabytes on a smart phone
* Multi-users on phones or tablets
* integrated fingerprint sensors on the LCD scree itself
* Completely eliminating the wallet
* Eliminating the need for house & car keys
* embedding a lot of the functions in our own bodies (the watch is step 1 to having computer abilities connected to our skin)
* Wireless charging or the complete elimination of needing a lightning port at all
* Wireless cell data that is just as fast as your home cable connection
Over the next 15 years, a lot of this will come true and Apple is spending billions to make sure the iPhone is that. Apple may fail but to say the age of smartphone is behind us from a supposed technology person is laughable.