When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007, he didn’t just ship a device—he handed the world a cultural earthquake that toppled entire industries. “Think Different” wasn’t branding fluff; it was AirPods-deafening defiance of the status quo.
Fast-forward 13 years under Tim Cook’s watch: Apple still prints money, but innovation is in intensive care.
From Revolution to Repetition
Cook’s legacy is operational brilliance, and nothing more. The most groundbreaking things he’s delivered? Slightly better cameras, unibody refinements, and the illusion of progress through glass-n-gizmos. His tenure shows that Apple can still out-engineer rivals at scale, but no longer out, create them.
Steve Jobs turned whole categories on their heads. Cook? He just tweaks them.
The Siri Sellout
Siri has been a dud. Once cutting-edge, today it’s barely treading water. Everything pointed to an overhaul, until it crashed and burned. Now Apple is in talks with Google to embed Gemini AI into Siri. That’s right: the company that built its legend on building everything in-house may soon outsource its core AI to its chief rival.
Analysts have been scathing. Wedbush’s Dan Ives called Cook’s AI strategy a “disaster”, “Nothing is going to happen internally,” he sneered. “No one believes innovation is coming from Apple organically.” Benzinga
And a new class-action lawsuit accuses Apple of misleading investors about Siri’s AI progress at WWDC 2024, even though those features were delayed until 2026.
The Visionary Void
Look at Apple today: brilliant execution, runaway profits… but no real vision. Analysts suggest Apple needs a different kind of leader—a product visionary, not a supply-chain czar. “We need a CEO focused on products, not logistics,” LightShed Partners declared. CPG Click Petroleo e Gas
It’s a story that echoes BlackBerry’s downfall. Remember them? Once-coveted, then collapsed because they stuck to the old script while the world changed.
News Flash: Apple Is (Gasp) Trying to Innovate—But Is It Too Late?
Here’s the new intel:
- Apple is weighing a foldable iPhone in 2026 and curved-glass models in 2027—patents since 2014, mind you. A sign of intent, but not of execution. Barron’s
- Discussion with Google could land Gemini-powered Siri as early as 2026—but Apple still hasn’t decided whether to keep trying to build it internally. Reuters
- Meanwhile, analysts warn that these announcements may trigger a short-term stock dip post-iPhone-17 reveal, unless Apple does something truly innovative, now. Investors
The Dangerous Slide Toward Irrelevance
Apple’s lost glow isn’t about its balance sheet, it’s about its soul. No one doubts Cook can run a company, but can it still lead culture?
Under Jobs, Apple invented the future. Under Cook, it’s busy polishing it, and perhaps selling it off.
If you keep replacing vision with version numbers, eventually the world won’t care anymore.
