Roger Fingas
Trying to rally people at Apple's annual shareholders meeting, CEO Tim Cook said that he company is "planting seeds" and "rolling the dice" on future products that will "blow you away."
Cook claimed he's "never been more optimistic" about where Apple is going, according to Bloomberg. The company saw a rough December quarter in which iPhone sales fell 15 percent year-over-year, and most analysts don't expect them to resume growth until this fall's models ship.
The executive didn't elaborate on what future products he meant, but Apple is known to be working on an augmented reality headset and self-driving car technology. Both are potential gambles, given intense competition in the autonomous car space, and the absence of any affordable, mainstream AR headsets. Products like the Magic Leap One and Microsoft's HoloLens have so far targeted niche audiences like businesses.
Apple has meanwhile been criticized as failing to innovate the same way it did under co-founder Steve Jobs. The success of the Apple Watch has been offset by lackluster HomePod numbers, and even the Watch is limited by iPhone ownership.
During today's meeting Cook separately addressed a defeated shareholder measure calling for "ideological diversity" in the board of directors. Apple is a famously liberal-leaning company, if mostly on social topics, not economic ones.
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92 Comments
Let’s just get those Mac Pros, MacBook Pros and iMacs taken care of first. The “mind blowing” is speculative stuff like those idiotic folding phones, with no proven market.
„even the Watch is limited by iPhone ownership“. I understand. Only 728 million* to sell. What a pity ;)
*https://www.statista.com/statistics/755625/iphones-in-use-in-us-china-and-rest-of-the-world/
Well, I hope all the effort they're putting into AR comes to fruition in a worthwhile product. For all the talk about how great it is the experience on iPhone/iPad so far is pretty lackluster. Sure, the Measure app is cool and works fairly well, but I hope there's more to AR than a virtual measuring tape.
I've been saying this since ARKit rolled out in iOS 11, most of what is available or has been teased during keynotes is kinda useless or something that could just be done in 3D with no AR required (like the really cool but also kinda silly model of Apple Park at the visitor's center. It's a good demonstration of the tech but why can't I just download an app at home and get a virtual tour in 3D the same way? I don't see the reason I have to walk around a physical model to see an overlay on my phone).
Also, I've noticed that all the comments of "wait for developers to figure this out" have pretty much disappeared. Which I find a little funny as, way back in 2017, when I made similar comments I was told "not to crap on it" before we saw what developers will do. It's coming up on two years...
Cook's leadership in new innovative products is questionable. His relationship with Jobs worked because Jobs was the visionary and Cook did the logistics.
I have little faith in his leadership of a corporate vision, especially after the hype he built behind the "Hello Again" keynote only to introduce a silly Touch Bar keyboard.
Expectations are low...