Will Apple Ever Delight Us Again?

Apple stock shares dipped after their Special Event yesterday. Ten years ago, Apple revolutionized the mobile phone industry with its iPhone—a phone that bundled phone calls, music and photography into a handheld device—and gave us something we didn’t know we wanted or needed.

And today we cannot really live without.

I lost my iPhone traveling in Europe last week. We all joke about going off the grid and the happy-sad moments we embrace. In the end, I find, it’s better to have the iPhone than to live without it.

Unfortunately, Apple knows that.

They may never again have to present us a device that changes our world as dramatically as the iPhone. Judging from the output, and recent Apple pullbacks from driverless cars and other me-too enterprises, Apple management seems content with simply updating their smartphone until they reach the iPhone 100. It seems to be a game good enough to employ top management and co-workers until they cash out.

Separate subject: While Apple has co-opted music, photography and the small screen, Apple also announced their new Town Square retail concept—a space that conflates commerce and community with a heavy hand. Is this the same company that gave us ergonomics and user-friendliness? It’s one thing to have a “Town Square” assembly with co-workers—but Apple retail stores are not a place that brings together a mixed community of dissimilar perspectives. It’s an immersion tank for Apple’s brand community.