[czr80]

I'm not sure how you can simultaneously say: "I mean hell even I did as they usually stepped up the game" and also "They're losing the marketing battle as that's all they had".

If they "stepped up the game" then surely there is (or was) something more happening than simply "hype"?

Who knows what will happen next - maybe others have or soon will catch up and Apple will crash and burn. We'll see. Still, to dismiss a pretty remarkable run over the last decade as "just marketing" is really to miss a lot, not to mention implicitly reducing everyone else in the industry to idiots who for some bizarre reason couldn't hire a good ad agency.

[eckyptang]

Sorry I should be more clear: "stepping up the game" is their marketing innovation of delivering something then announcing it rather than the industry norm of doing it the other way round and people being bored by the time it is released.

Unfortunately they have nothing to throw out now - it's all minor improvements on something they've already sold.

None of their most "innovative products" are remarkable - it's all hype.

[czr80]

Hmmm... how do you reconcile your theory with the fact that the original iPhone was announced 6 months before it launched?

[rustynails77]

Not sure what you mean here, but I agree largely with the grand-parent poster. Apple are struggling to innovate and others are catching up (not just Android). So rather than try to innovate, they are litigating. In some ways it's a good sign, in other ways it's bad. The market is maturing, but Apple is struggling to keep in the driving seat - and they are being overtaken by others.

In the end, I want what's best for us all. Healthy competition.

[gurkendoktor]

> So rather than try to innovate, they are litigating.

Apple's legal team haven't ever been nice guys, since way before the iPhone (maybe even before Jobs' return, I don't know).

This is a false dichotomy, Apple is not suddenly forcing its engineers to study law.