re: #4 Stoatly

This,

Apple’s come out with products that have defined whole new markets - and the big question is can they still do that post-Jobs?

I’ve worked in IT for 19 years. During the 1990’s, when Jobs was not part of Apple, they virtually disappeared off the face of the planet. He was a huge part of their revival as a company, and if he hadn’t come along when he did nobody would be talking about iAnything right now.

He is no longer available to return and save the company, and it is obvious without his kind of manic vision they are going to act like any cowardly American corporation: low to zero risk-taking, low to zero actual innovation (NONE of the things the iPhone does these days are innovative, period, especially the fingerprint scanner which is the dumbest security device of all time).

So, they are probably doomed in five years or less. The snafu with the maps last year, the generally tepid advances made in the iPhone package overall, the lack of anything stunningly new, means they are just milking their mojo from the Jobs era.

Back in the day Apple controlled every single aspect of hardware/software. Now, the hardware is Intel, the software is Unix, and the only innovation going on is in features, which won’t be enough. They aren’t willing to compete on price, and I refuse to pay $600 for a dumbphone from anyone. I don’t care what features it has, it is being assembled by shit-wage workers in China who have to have nets outside to prevent suicide. It is SIMPLY NOT WORTH that kind of money, period.