Apple innovation: MIA

For those unaware, Samsung recently announced a new tablet. This tablet can be folded, subsequently becoming a smartphone, and then can be stored easily in your pocket for transportation. Even if the product sells poorly, Samsung should still be congratulated for the milestone in innovation that is the foldable smartphone. However, this phone has done one other thing for Samsung: It has highlighted the stagnation in Apple products. A stagnation that, in the end, has no effect on their sales. In recent months, conversations regarding Apple have been dominated by the Airpods debate. Despite the item’s popularity, Apple did not come up with the original idea of the bluetooth earbud. Rather, they expanded on the idea of it in slight ways, such as the double-tap capability bestowed into the Airpods. This strategy—taking a pre-existing idea and making minimal changes and improvements—has been the foundational approach of Apple and their products in the past couple years. The iPhone 6 was released in 2014. The iPhone 8 was released in 2017. If one was to compare the two phones side-by-side, the only difference physically, as well as one of the few differences mechanically, is the camera. Besides this camera, they look identical. In the recent iPhones, each generation gets exponentially larger with essentially no changes. The iPhone X, despite being released a year earlier than the iPhone XS Max, actually has the same camera capabilities and nearly identical displays. The iPhone XS Max is just slightly larger, has longer battery time and is 100 dollars more expensive. It seems that with each new iteration, Apple gets less innovative. But the reason this trend is happening is because Apple no longer needs to be the frontrunner in technological innovation. As time progresses, more and more companies will burst onto the scene with some new design that is unique and unheard-of. Apple has secured their position at the very top of the smartphone industry. They know that their product sells, and that they already have millions upon millions of fans anxiously waiting for the next generation of products. As long as they keep creating the phones that they know sell well, then they get to maintain their throne at the top of the smartphone kingdom, regardless of whether or not they are innovative along the way.