Why Apple's Critics Are Right This Time
09 January 2017 - 6:00AM
Dow Jones News
By Christopher Mims
Almost since the birth of Apple Inc., critics have declared it
was headed in the wrong direction.
In 1997, when the company was 90 days from bankruptcy and Steve
Jobs returned to save it, that criticism was correct. While things
aren't remotely as bad today, Apple's critics are correct
again.
The most pressing example is Apple's seeming struggle to execute
on its vision for artificial intelligence -- specifically
voice-based interfaces. AI isn't just a curiosity for the company;
it is the technology most likely to disrupt Apple as thoroughly as
Apple disrupted the smartphone industry.
AI-powered voice assistants can directly replace interactions
with mobile devices. It isn't that screens will go away completely,
but screens unattached to objects that can listen, talk back and
operate with autonomy will rapidly become obsolete.
Computers we talk to can be anywhere. To work best, they have to
be everywhere -- at home and in the office, in our cars, on the go.
Amazon.com Inc. had a surprise hit with the voice-based assistant
Alexa and its embodiment, the connected speaker Echo. Alphabet
Inc.'s Google is close behind. Partners with both companies spent
several days at the CES tech show in Las Vegas last week
introducing a deluge of devices powered by these competing
technologies.
Apple is clearly aware. It is reported to be working on its own
Alexa-like smart-home device. The history of Apple is rarely about
being first -- think of the iPod -- but becoming dominant through
superior design and execution.
But the conspicuous absence of such a device or comparable
functionality makes it hard to believe Apple isn't falling behind,
despite being one of the first to the starting line when it
introduced Siri more than five years ago.
Apple didn't respond to requests for comment for this
article.
Apple has a potential solution. Consider which is better:
Putting a microphone in every room of your home or office, or
putting a single one in your ear. Imagine Joaquin Phoenix spending
the entirety of the movie "Her" trapped in his apartment, shouting
instructions to the wireless speaker in which the artificial
intelligence Samantha was trapped, instead of walking around
sharing his life with her as she rode in his smartphone and
earpiece.
Apple's wireless earbuds, called AirPods, are really tiny
computers that let you access Siri with just a tap on the side of
your head. The problem, though, is Siri is so poorly implemented
with the earbuds, it is easier to just use your iPhone. That could
be fixed easily enough.
A larger, much more intractable issue is Siri still doesn't
measure up to rival services from Google, Microsoft Corp. and
Amazon.
The easy rejoinder is since Apple has the market share and
hardware to give us seamless access to AI, it is simply a matter of
putting more of its resources into Siri and its always-on access
points, the iPhone, AirPods and the Apple Watch.
But that ignores criticism that Apple, despite essentially
limitless quantities of money, is failing to live up to its own
standards of quality. Apple watchers have kept up a drumbeat of
complaints: neglect of the Mac line of computers, unremarkable
cloud services, missed ship dates, a creep of product bugs, and so
on. Apple's top brass had their compensation cut after the company
missed its revenue and profit goals for 2016.
One explanation is Apple's "unitary" management structure, where
divisions are responsible for tasks such as marketing or
engineering rather than individual products. Apple's head of
software engineering is ultimately the head engineer for every
single Apple product. This means Apple is great at creating unified
experiences, but if the company makes too many products, it is
impossible for management to keep up. Contrast that with Amazon,
where every business gets its own leadership and profit and loss
statement.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook repeatedly has said one of his
core beliefs is you can only do a few things well. Barring a new
management structure, the solution to Apple's troubles in keeping
up with all the things it makes, much less AI, is the same as it
was when Mr. Jobs returned in 1997: focus. Mr. Jobs famously
reduced the company's sprawling lineup of devices to just four
computers.
Apple's leaders must devote their attention to disrupting their
own company. That doesn't mean releasing bigger iPads, but
exploring how Apple's core products can be central to the
always-on, voice-activated, artificially intelligent computing
interfaces here now.
Like all giants at the apex of their power, it isn't clear Apple
is sufficiently paranoid about what might come next.
Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 08, 2017 13:45 ET (18:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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