By most accounts, Apple’s fall from the mountaintop of innovation began with the appointment of Tim Cook as CEO and the eventual passing of visionary Steve Jobs. While it has continued as arguably the most influential tech company on the planet, Apple’s critics have offered that the ship has lost its North Star, and no longer “challenges the status quo”. I may have a slightly different take…
As deeply emotional as it was, I believe that Steve Job’s medical journey was a galvanizing event for Apple. I believe, in fact, that 100 years from now, Apple’s greatest gift to society (and by extension its greatest business success) will have been its contributions to health and wellness. Whether spoken or implied, my feeling is that there is a deep commitment to honoring Jobs’ life by helping us all become healthier, and this in fact may now be Apple’s true overarching North Star.
Just read these words of Tim Cook as he speaks of the Apple Watch: “I love the watch. One day, this is my prediction, we will look back and we will wonder: how can I ever have gone without the Watch? Because the holy grail of the watch is being able to monitor more and more of what’s going on in the body. It’s not technologically possible to do it today to the extent that we can imagine, but it will be…”.
I may be wrong, of course, and history may indeed show that recent slightly-underwhelming product launches were indeed the telltale signs of “the fall”. Consider this, though: could not the strongest brand loyalty be reserved for a company that helped extend or save the life of someone you love?
Time to go complete my Activity Rings for the day…
Thoughts from the surface... 