Does Apple still have it?

Watch the product videos on apple.com (not the keynote) and you will see Jony Ive speak about his personal artistic vision for the iPhone 5c (The 'c' stands for colour). The video says it all; Apple is now operating in a self hypnotic state and actually believes that its job is to create objets d'art – which is awesome, unless you are looking to buy a smartphone, in which case, you're looking at two year old, obsolete technology. So what do we make of all this? Here's my take: • Apple's PR machine is as leaky as the Titanic. There were some tiny details to fill in, but the broad strokes were all entirely known ahead of time. • We seem to be past the time of major, ground shaking innovation. Apple, under Tim Cook, is all about tight, carefully crafted products over creating things the world has never seen before. Many headlining features of iOS 7 were tested out first in Android and, for better or worse, Apple seems OK with that. • A focus on mobile productivity is on the horizon. Apple touted its 'desktop class' mobile architecture and made the iWork suite free on all new devices. If we want to know what the future holds, these are the tealeaves to be read. • A 'flat' GUI is being balanced by bolder hardware design. Colours, texture, customisability; we haven't seen these things pushed in a real way in a long time. Say goodbye to flat black. • User experience has returned to the forefront. This used to really be Apple's thing – and while it hasn't exactly disappeared, it has emphasised that somewhat less ever since it found it could make a whole bunch of kickass devices the world had never seen before. The original iPod seemed impossible, as did the iPhone. But today's hardware is fast and dense enough – the 5s is 50 times faster than the original iPhone according to the presentation – to handle basically any task you throw at it. So now we're seeing a return to making those bits and pieces work as seamlessly and invisibly as possible. Apple could have included NFC in the device, but didn't. It could have thrown in a bigger display, but it didn't. It could have included all sorts of bells and whistles, but decided instead on simplicity, consistency and ease of use. iOS 7 will highlight this. iOS 7 plus iPhone 5s will really highlight this. And that, my friends, is Apple under Tim Cook. Author: Shelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group and comments on technology issues on the US FOX tv network. This is an edited version of a blog published by Shelly Palmer. For the full version, follow the link to the website given below.