Apple’s biggest risk: Not innovating like it used to under Steve Jobs

Apple CEO Tim Cook
Apple’s biggest risk is not innovating like it used to under Steve Jobs, The Motley Fool‘s Geoffrey Seiler writes this week. The company is also not growing anywhere near as fast as it did under the visionary Jobs.
Geoffrey Seiler for The Motley Fool:
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Think about it — Apple just hasn’t been growing and innovating like it used to under former CEO Steve Jobs, and its stock multiple is not reflecting that risk. In fact, growth has been pretty lackluster recently. Revenue increased a scant 2% in its most recent fiscal quarter, and sales fell nearly 3% last fiscal year. Meanwhile, its price-to-earnings ratio has tripled since the end of 2011, the year of Jobs’ death. Do you think that Apple’s business should be worth 3 times the multiple it was in 2011? I don’t.
Especially because innovation has been lagging. While Apple’s Pro Vision augmented reality headset has gotten some good initial buzz, it is not a mass-market product at this time given its $3,500 price tag. It is also the company’s first major product category introduction since launching the Apple Watch nearly a decade ago.

See also:
• Work on Apple Vision Pro began under Steve Jobs – August 23, 2023
• Contrary to popular belief, Steve Jobs knew about Apple Watch – February 13, 2023

With generative AI now starting to transform the technology landscape, Apple could find itself playing catch-up and being ripe for disruption. Once at the forefront of tech innovation, Apple has just not shown itself to be the same innovative company it was in the past.

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MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Apple is not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs who even started the company’s work on Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro, but the company — thanks to Jobs and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure — now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s lack of vision.
Tim’s not a product person, per se. – Steve Jobs
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features.
See also:
• Apple acquired 32 AI startups in 2023, the most among major tech companies – February 8, 2024
• Gene Munster: Apple stock likely to get a boost when ‘good enough’ generative AI arrives later this year – January 9, 2024
• Apple caught flat-footed on generative AI; company preps AI features for devices, software – October 23, 2023
• Apple posts number of job listings seeking generative AI talent – May 22, 2023
• Apple reportedly to ‘re-examine’ Artificial Intelligence development – March 8, 2023
The glaring lack of a visionary who is immersed and invested in product design who is a single point of approval – Steve Jobs – means that early adopters have to take Jobs’ place en masse to perform similar functions – albeit over a significantly longer period of time – à la Apple Watch. – MacDailyNews, March 28, 2023
The Apple Watch certainly found its way – we, the users, were the Apple Watch alpha and beta testers, collectively standing in for Steve Jobs, doing much of what the singular genius would have done before release by brute force and sheer numbers after release. It took four generations of Apple Watch, but we’re here now and we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything! The same goes for Apple Glasses! — MacDailyNews, January 31, 2020
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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