A day before Apple’s iPhone announcement a former exec has come forward and says “Apple has’nt invented anything”. And the guy gives his opinions on why.
As Apple prepares to launch what by all accounts will be the most successful device it has ever built — and just a few weeks afterthe company was awarded more than $1 billion in damages whenSamsung (005930) was found to have infringed on its IP — an article penned by a former Apple executive questions exactly what Apple’s role is in the consumer electronics industry. Jean-Louis Gassee, who came very close to becoming the president of Apple in the late 1980s before being ousted by CEO John Scully and Apple’s board, claims that while Apple’s success in the industry cannot be disputed, its perception as an innovator is open to discussion.
“Apple haven’t invented anything,” was the title of Gassee’s Monday note column on The Guardianlast week. In it, the former executive says that Apple is not an inventor but rather a master when it comes to taking existing ingredients and whipping up a masterpiece.
The iPad, for example, was clearly the first consumer tablet to see success on a large scale, but the concept of a consumer tablet had been around for 30 years before Apple unveiled its first iPad in 2010. Similarly, the iPhone was clearly a reimagining of the smartphone rather than a new and novel product.
[yahoo]
