The technology has officially turned 40; we are yet to see what the future holds for it.
It has been 40 years today ever since Apple Inc. has come into existence. However, instead of sitting back and reminiscing over the achievement of the technology company, the real matter we should be concerned about is the fact that the technology world is at such an intersection where all the gold that the iPhone maker has released during this time span has started to lose its glitter. This basically means that everything that tech giant has launched in the past forty years has started to lose its charm in the market now.
Despite the fact that the company comes up with constant updates in its product line as well as its operating system, it seems quite evident that all those updates have simply become bland for the customers; seems as though the 40 year old company is facing its mid-life crisis. At the time that Steve Jobs was around, the tech giant seemed fearless and a company that was poised to reach a valuation of almost $1 trillion.
Furthermore, Jobs has managed to leave a legacy behind and to ensure that after he’s gone the company manages to maintain that legacy; the late CEO had streamlined the entire product line that had to be released till 2020. Nonetheless, Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple, is working really hard to make sure that every living human being has an iPhone in their hands; he’s working on creativity as well as panache however it should be noted that he is nowhere near to what Steve Jobs achieved in his time.
At this point, we believe that even Apple itself is not quite sure of what it stands for; in between being a market leader and a market follower, (given that it was once a market leader) the tech organization has landed at being yet another follower in the technology industry. Amid battles with the government over encryption and working on conserving the environment, the iPhone manufacturer has forgotten what it started to do – making state of the art products and emancipating stellar products for its consumers.
The real question now is whether Apple will be able to maintain its current position, go back to being a market leader or perish in the next forty years? It’s safe to say that companies that produce such technology products, mostly, do not last for long given the rate at which technology is changing in the world – quite similar to how Apple’s iPhone stole Blackberry Ltd.’s market (who was once the market leader in the smartphone industry). At this point, we are left wondering with which new technology or device will dethrone Apple.
Silicon Valley is quite a tough place to start a company at; it’s where either you’ll make it, or you’ll get crushed (in tech terms) – however customers are nonetheless the ultimate judge who make or break a company. Recently, the Silicon Valley giant released its iPhone SE; it’s easy to say that the business manages well to wrap up (repackage) its gifts (products –iPhone SE) nicely; it did feel more as if we went back to 2010 when a similar device was launched.
Customers want something new to play with every time and in every gadget – it’s a given. If a technology company fails to wow the customer, it has already failed.
