Fans of innovation will be familiar with the S Curve. For my more visual readers, it looks something like this.
The best example is the phone. It took decades to get from the brick phone to the Nokia to the iPhone. Then, in the space of 7-10 years it went from cool to incredible. And now, it’s flat. Each year Apple brings out a new phone that is slightly faster, slightly thinner, slightly better photos, translation options now for ancient Assyrian etc. The days of week long build ups to the new launch are over.
It’s going to be tough for Apple. The glory days of the iPad + iPod nano + iPhone all simultaneously crushing it are over. The Apple Watch was a banger, but the headset has been a disaster. Their laptops still continue to be world class and wildly expensive, so the future remains bright. Ish.
PS I was inspired to write this after updating my iOS software from 18 -> 26, and seeing almost zero improvements, and a noticeable but small lag.