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One of the Apple executives between Jobs and Jobs: "Apple haven't invented anything"

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Original Article
As Apple (AAPL) prepares to launch what by all accounts will be the most successful device it has ever built — and just a few weeks after the company was awarded more than $1 billion in damages when Samsung (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 Guardian last 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.

Likening late Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs to a chef, Gassee argues that Apple’s true talent lies in taking existing products and concepts, and transforming them — not in inventing new products.

“The basic ingredients are the same,” Gassee writes while discussing the iPAQ as a predecessor to the iPad, “Software is all zeroes and ones, after all. The quantity and order may vary, but that’s about it. Hardware is just protons, neutrons, electrons and photons buzzing around, nothing original. Apple didn’t ‘invent’ anything, the iPad is simply their variation, their interpretation of the well-known tablet recipe.”

Gassee says that this line of thinking is myopic but technically accurate, and concludes that Jobs’s ability to take the same list of ingredients that was used to create a device and rework them to create unique new products was uncanny — regardless of whether or not Apple’s products are labeled as “inventions.”

http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/11/apple-criticism-ipad-iphone-gassee/

From his Guardian piece:

So, yes, if we stick to the basic ingredients list, Apple didn't invent anything...not the Apple, nor the Macintosh, not the iPod, the iPhone, or the iPad ... to say nothing of Apple Stores and App Stores. We'd seen them all before, in one fashion or another.

And yet, we can't escape a key fact: The same chef was involved in all these creations. He didn't write the code or design the hardware, but he was there in the kitchen – the "executive chef" in trade parlance – with a unique gift for picking ingredients and whipping up unique products.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Anyone that thinks they have is either in denial or doesn't know much about technology. They just take existing ideas and make the useable and desireable for the mass market.
 
They've really just got a universal UI that caught on and is easy to use. They could slap the iOS on a toaster and the toasted bread industry would be revolutionized.
 
Monday Note is one of my favorite Blogs, I love his candor and I love his analogy.

i will monitor this thread for people that didn't read the article and say no shit apple didn't invent anything. I will increase my ignore list
 

Jeff-DSA

Member
they design their own shit. you need adequate hardware partners that can mass manufacture good tech, but you have to design it first.

A lot of those designs are collaborative efforts with other companies. I'm not downplaying what Apple does with their engineering, because obviously they produce good hardware.
 
A lot of those designs are collaborative efforts with other companies. I'm not downplaying what Apple does with their engineering, because obviously they produce good hardware.
Hm, I haven't been satisfied with the battery life or durability of their hardware, but when/while it works it usually works well.
 

Munin

Member
Wait, people still think Apple is about "innovation"?

Innovation is worth fuck all. Execution is everything, and that's where Apple excels.

Though suing the fuck out of their competitors in that regard is kind of ironic.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
"Hardware is just protons, neutrons, electrons and photons buzzing around, nothing original. Apple didn’t ‘invent’ anything, the iPad is simply their variation, their interpretation of the well-known tablet recipe.”

It's about time they invent their own damn particles. Neutrons are fine and all but they're getting old fast. It's 2012 ffs.
 

giga

Member
If you read the original article, Gassee is actually complimenting Apple here.

Did IBM invent the PC? Did HP invent the pocket calculators or desktop computers that once put them at the top of the high tech world? Did Henry Ford invent the automobile.

So, yes, if we stick to the basic ingredients list, Apple didn’t invent anything…not the Apple ][, nor the Macintosh, not the iPod, the iPhone, or the iPad…to say nothing of Apple Stores and App Stores. We’d seen them all before, in one fashion or another.

And yet, we can’t escape a key fact: The same chef was involved in all these creations. He didn’t write the code or design the hardware, but he was there in the kitchen — the “executive chef” in trade parlance — with a unique gift for picking ingredients and whipping up unique products.
 

SUPREME1

Banned
Apple patented the use of the sentence "Apple didn't invent anything." and will sue your ass if you use it.


BEWARE.
 

Mudkips

Banned
“The basic ingredients are the same,” Gassee writes while discussing the iPAQ as a predecessor to the iPad, “Software is all zeroes and ones, after all. The quantity and order may vary, but that’s about it. Hardware is just protons, neutrons, electrons and photons buzzing around, nothing original. Apple didn’t ‘invent’ anything, the iPad is simply their variation, their interpretation of the well-known tablet recipe.”
If you wish to make an Apple iPad from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
 

Sajjaja

Member
iPhone 5 is still the best and most technologically advanced smart phone out there.

You can't tell me otherwise, you're not my real dad.
 
Apple patented the use of the sentence "Apple didn't invent anything." and will sue your ass if you use it.


BEWARE.

watch
excuse to post this
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Invention and innovation are two different things, and both of them are incredibly important. There is far far more innovation from every technology company these days than invention.

Wait, people still think Apple is about "innovation"?

Innovation is worth fuck all. Execution is everything, and that's where Apple excels.

Though suing the fuck out of their competitors in that regard is kind of ironic.
Apple innovates quite heavily in their execution. But they don't really invent anything.
 
I don't know who makes more Apple threads: People who love or hate the company.

Either way I wish we could just have official Apple Hate and Apple Love threads.
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
They invented some peripheral and i/o connection standards.

What are they doing with all their money though?
 

bjb

Banned
I'm surprised the usual zealots aren't going off the deep end in here.

Seems reality may finally be settling in.
 
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