Time for Apple to Abandon the iPhone

[Arthur Hanson]

It's time for Apple to come out strong and abandon the iPhone and reinvent it as a world interface to an Apple ecosystem that includes everything from credit cards, car, house and other keys, all types of IDs including passports, photo album, health monitoring and control device, shopping service, entertainment streaming for home, cars and mobile, secure data storage locker (Crossbar, 3dXpoint), transport portal and payment and more in a seamless, education, work device, translation, intuitive and integrates ecosystem. Apple has the start of an ecosystem, muscle, money, talent and reach to do this and the penalty if they don't is to die like whole host of other tech companies that while on top for a while have been delegated to the dust bin of history. It's no longer a phone, but a single device that should be able to do almost everything, making our lives less cluttered, less frustrating and more enjoyable, all in one carefully crafted, intuitive ecosystem. Apple has to extend its "Think Different" philosophy forward both to its customer base and backwards through its supply chain using both its strengths at the same time it changes itself. Apple has no time to waste, the speed of rise and decline are increasing at a geometric rate as Silicon Valley repeatedly demonstrates. iView, iWorld or some fresh moniker should be used to designate the must do transition.

 

[lilo777]

I do not think Apple, as constituted currently, can do it. They refuse to cooperate with other companies. The change as you described would require a lot of cooperation.

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Apple has been in partnership with Kaiser, the largest medical group, on the use of Apple for a few years. Kaiser has gone a fully digital platform on which to build the future of medical. This presents numerous opportunities for both to be leaders in the integration and formation of leading edge tech in all medical from administration to care. Apple has continuity, stability and security Android doesn't have.

 

[JeffreyHF]

Apple isn't alone in "integration and formation of leading edge tech in all medical from administration to care". I encourage you to explore the QualcommLife ecosystem, for one striking example. Apple's walled garden is both a huge revenue generator, and their Achilles heel.

 

[Syrran]

Very interesting post. Got me thinking. It confirms to me that Tim Cook should no longer be CEO. He has a lot of ability, but he has exhausted what he can do for the company in the CEO role. When he was on Cramer recently, he should have been talking about the vision, and the sales and stock price would have followed. Instead he talked like a bean counter.

 

[Arthur Hanson]

The bottom line is it's time for Apple to state the obvious, when you buy their products, you aren't buying the product as much as you are buying the ecosystem. This it true of many companies and one that has mastered this is Amazon. It's simple, the company with the best ecosystem wins.
Companies that are winning must constantly evolve their ecosystem and those that don't have one, must ally themselves with one, build their own or die.

 

[Staf_Verhaegen]

Very interesting post. Got me thinking. It confirms to me that Tim Cook should no longer be CEO. He has a lot of ability, but he has exhausted what he can do for the company in the CEO role.

I guess the time is approaching Steven Jobs will need to return...