Respect your views, despite disagreement on some. This is the kind of response we look for in a community - constructive and respectful, without compromise.
There was nothing in my post to suggest innovation was limited to Apple. Innovation is happening everywhere, Apple again being no exception. How I look at it is this:
Apple made the most successful product (in many sense) - the iPhone which revolutionized the concept of a smartphone. Everything else we see today followed that. Bearing in mind that the company is a "for profit" company, and the fact that the iPhone has consistently been the best selling phone model (at least in the top 3 every year since launch), they didn't want to do anything different that would hamper it's success in any way.
Yes, much of what we see is a spec upgrade over preceding years, but given that it still continues to top the charts, and being primary source of profit for the company, they aren't doing much to change anything. But we shouldn't write them off on the innovation front. Again, Steve Jobs was the man behind the idea, but we can't be disrespectful to all the others who have contributed to the success of the product. It would not be incorrect to say that the marketing team probably did the best job in the company.
Where you say - "so do others" - there was nothing in my post that suggested only Apple did a good job. Again as before, if I say X is good, people should read just that. But what is happening is people read my comment as X is better than Y. Not my problem.
One of the reasons why Apple doesn't want to allow homescreen customization is the fact that they want to stick with a certain design language. It is true when we see the home screen of an iPhone, we know it is the iPhone. Even Android, with it's material design guidelines, made white icons on status bar mandatory. Each company has the right to make decisions for their products, and if the product is successful, that too one as successful as the iPhone, it is a tough decision to try and change something.
Apple is a MNC. It is not serving one market, even though it is headquartered in one country. The primary objective of any company is to reward it's owners (shareholders) and take decisions with that being the primary end objective. Making products are a means to that end. Saving tax in a legally allowed manner is perfectly acceptable. That doesn't take away their social responsibility. They aren't socially responsible for the US alone.
Again, we don't have to necessarily agree with each other.
Last edited: May 26, 2017