There's no denying that the Iphone was progressive. I watched Steves key-note half a dozen times, and I didn't even like apples back then, but would an Iphone II stand out the same way?
Right now I'm shopping for a new cellphone, I've looked at dozens of neat new phones; The curve, Storm, Glyde, Voyager, Dare, Kraze, just to name a few. I know very few of them actually out-class the Iphone but the industry certainly seems to be catching up. Multi-touch still seems to elude the rest of the industry but touch-screens and sleek designs are popping up everywhere, so the real question is: Does apples track record indicate they'll stay on the ball?
Apple was the first company to really jump into the ultra-light laptop game, most of us remember the apple Quicktakeas the first color digital camera aimed at a consumer market and early adoption of LCD technology. But apple never released another sub 13" notebook, they dropped the digital photography program, and their monitors haven't been stellar in recent years. I know that they've always been well built and the new line is supposed to be "technologically advanced" but they're fallen behind the pack on screen resolution, refresh rates, and contrast ratios.''
I could go on all day about where apple has innovated and then pulled back. In this writers opinion they've spent years in a pretty predictable cycle of releasing an amazing product and coasting on customer loyalty until their next big release. This has worked great for them in the PC market where average turn around time is upwards of five years and nobody really innovates, but now they're in a new market. Do you think apple will be able to release a truly stand-out product every 1-2 years in an innovative industry?