Innovation at Apple is 'Sputtering', Says Analyst
Analyst confused over Apple's inability to bring touch technology to its notebooks and iMacs.
Some consumers criticized Apple when the iPhone 5 was revealed; apart from its height, the smartphone arguably didn't feature any major improvements over the iPhone 4S. The iPad 4, meanwhile, instilled even more anger into customers; Apple only released the third-generation iPad seven months ago, with the next-generation iPad hardly offering anything new apart from an improved A6X processor, better front camera, and the lightning connector. An analyst has agreed with concern over such products, with innovation at Apple "sputtering".
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdry singled out Apple's inability to launch touchscreen Macs. The firm had spearheaded the industry of touchscreens and high-resolution displays, but failed to instill it into its computer lineup.
"Apple's innovation is sputtering. Why is that Apple, the company that brought touch to phones and tablets, stopped just there and did not bring touch to notebooks and iMacs? Why is it that Apple brought high-resolution screens to…some Mac MacBooks and not to all devices? High-resolution screens are a commodity today."
Chowdry's comments were made after Apple revealed it had increased research and development spending to $3.4 billion this year. Either way, he believes the company's recent mishaps such as its abysmal Maps apps, which is said to have led to the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall, may be due to a lack of a solid product road map.
"Our contacts speculate that Apple executive leadership may have rushed Scott Forstall to deliver products prematurely," he stated. "This may also indicate that Apple may be lacking a three to four-year product road map, because if a roadmap existed, engineers would not be pushed to ship products prematurely — especially when they are not fully tested."

Really? Apple brought touch screens to phones and tablets first?
This Chowdry guy is an idiot.
Really? Apple brought touch screens to phones and tablets first?
This Chowdry guy is an idiot.
We used to have tablets without touch screen, you know.
Hint: Reality Distortion Field.
Actually I like the Microsoft tablets..... They offer VERY competitive features (albeit less software) than iCrap.
...and I'm sure the ecosystem for Surface RT will be great too. /sarcasm
IDK, maybe because 'widgets' were so good and well adopted since they failed over-and-over: Windows 98 widgets failed, Windows ME widgets failed, Windows XP widgets failed, Windows Vista widgets failed, Windows 7 widgets failed, and now Windows 8 widgets on steroids - not to mention MacOS widgets failed. Also, Convertible & Tablet PC's for years also failed.
I'll give Microsoft credit for having huge balls with f/k/a Metro interface with Windows 8. I've used Windows 8 off and on since it's early Preview editions, and at least on a 'PC' it's not ideal and quite honestly gets a little annoying after a while.
I 'get' OMG 'NEW' ... sheep I must buy it mentality, goodness knows I bought a few $39 upgrades just in case and for testing. Now where Window 8 f/k/a Metro interface makes since to some degree is with Phones and for now Convertibles -- not RT, RT sucks. Convertible's like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 are indeed a perfect match (i7 Ivy Bridge, 128GB SSD, Touchscreen & Folds).
So unless you have a 'Touchscreen' IMO you're not going to be happy after a a month or two of trying to swipe your PC's screen ... or ... spending $500+ on a decent Touchscreen monitor.
Apple is on the same path of oblivion that it was the first time it was without Jobs.
As for Apple, they've made a killiing in the last 10 years with iPod, iPhone and iPad. Now they're just making obscene profits and probably working on something new that may be 2 or 5 years out. You can't expect a company to come out with an insanely profitable game-changer every few years. They dominated the MP3 player market with iPod, they dominated the smartphone market with iPhone and they dominated the tablet market with iPad. When was the last time Microsoft pulled off something like that? Windows 95 and Office were their last game-changers that they just built on over the years. Zune was a failure, Kin was a failure, Windows Phone was and is a failure and Xbox wasn't dominant in the console market at any point (it was a multi-billion hole for Microsoft and it was being outsold by Wii 2:1).
So yeah, Microsoft is really changing the world with their square widgets, sorry, "Live tiles" and their kickstand equipped tablet. Amazing innovation.
Microsoft unveiled a touch tablet waaay back before Apple (Around the time of XP and its tablet version).
HP and Palm had devices out the door (The Palm OS strikingly simple much like iOS) long before Apple.
i think he meant to the mainstream. as far as im concerned, apple wasn't first with most of their ideas, except maybe the personal computer, and a few other things. what they were first in was making some of these absolutely mainstream
By the sheer number of comments and page views it makes sense. You guys complain about Apple articles then flood them with a million negative comments and page views, then wonder why there's so many Apple articles...
They sold what 5 of them?
If I make a flying car that no one buys and has zero consumer market interest, but hey I was first to market so I should get credit for the billion dollar industry that exists not because of me but by competitors' products?
So Tom's Hardware brings more articles for people to hate? Maybe they should actually read the comments instead of relying on raw numbers.
True, but then there are the lawyers...
I've had this discussion with the editor (Chris) for some period of time, and it's only about web traffic - period.
All of editors have either an iPhone, iPad or MacBook -> http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/605-toms-hardware-editors.html