Are Apple losing their edge after death of Steve Jobs?

Apple's sales figures may still be staggering, but ValueWalk published an article yesterday claiming that Apple may be losing their cutting edge after the death of Steve Jobs.

Author Brian says that pundits are already wondering if Apple are losing their edge, due to a lack of ground breaking products and services under the leadership of Tim Cook. I actually thought the recent release of the 2880×1800 pixel Retina enabled Macbook Pro was a really good product, but outside this has there been anything cutting edge announced or planned?

Valuewalk seem unimpressed with the annual World Wide Developers conference, claiming it was held to a luke warm response. They say “Many were expecting or at least hoping, for an unveiling of the iPhone 5. And just about any WWDC without an iPhone 5 was all but bound to fail to meet expectations. Perhaps more tellingly, Apple failed to unveil any true innovations or ground-breaking developments.”

They also negate the release of the Retina Macbook Pro saying “Yes, scaling up the retina display for the Macbook Pro line is certainly an achievement, but it doesn’t have the “oomph” of launching a new iPhone or Mac line.”

The iPad 3 was part conceived under the leadership of Jobs, however Valuewalk don't class it as a groundbreaking product, even with the super high resolution screen. They say “Apple has arguably failed to launch a ground-breaking product since the release of the first iPad in April of 2010 and iPhone 4 in June of the same year. ”

So if the retina enabled iPad3 and Macbook Pro aren't enough to inspire, how can Apple change this in the second half of 2012? According to the report, Microsoft are catching up. “And while Apple may be losing some innovation momentum, the competition is catching up. Microsoft seems to have finally realized that Apple isn’t just a niche threat, but could potentially unseat them globally.”

The jury are still out on whether Windows 8 tablets will command any market share, especially as Microsoft have failed to attract a huge audience with their mobile phone releases this year.

The article concludes that it may be still too early to predict the downfall of Apple. “Yes, it is still too early to declare the downfall, or even decline of Apple, but change may be on the horizon. Fierce competition and the rise (or resurgence) of capable competitors means that Apple will have to launch groundbreaking products and services. Will Apple be lost without Steve Jobs? ”

Kitguru says: It seems a rather coloured article especially when we look at Apple's sales figures this year, but perhaps they raise a few important points. Ask yourself this … if Apple didn't have the retina display is there anything in the last year that would have attracted your attention?

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