I don't think so, Apple is as good as they always were - which is they are one of the top technology companies. They had a wonder hit with iPhone - that product truly changed the industry. Apart from that, they are just another technology company, and have their ups and downs. You can't expect every company to produce a revolutionary product every time. I'm sorry to point this out, but this whole "life enhancement company" is just overblown hyperbole the master marketer that was Steve Jobs would have you believe. Sure, their marketing isn't as good anymore - and that's made all the difference for perception. Same applies for AirPods - it's not the first wireless earphone, and still isn't the best. In fact, competitors have had the same capability for months/years but offer far superior sound quality.
Let's also give credit where it's due - Samsung's continuously incredible technological innovation. What was it - 75% components from the original iPhone was manufactured by Samsung's various divisions? Today, Samsung makes the best displays, has the best semiconductor fabrication facilities, the best NAND, etc. etc. LG is a close second. ARM deserves a lot of credit also.
Today, I see Apple having a pretty good product stack. iPhone 7 Plus is one of the best smartphones on the market, the iPads are arguably the best casual-use tablets.
If there's one area Apple has fallen behind, it's in the PC market. The new Macbook Pro is still good but there's just fierce competition and some pretty stunning products today to which Apple has no response. Stuff like the HP Spectre 13, Spectre 360, Dell XPS 13/15, Thinkpad X1 Yoga, Surface Studio, Surface Pro, Razer Blade etc. are all innovative products that make Macbooks and iMacs look utterly antiquated. The Mac Pro is pretty much the butt of all jokes at this point - hasn't been updated in 5 years. Granted, they still work and get the job done very well, and macOS is still very attractive to the developer community, many of whom are here. To me, however, the competition offers much more efficient products that tangibly increase productivity on a daily basis.
There's another area Apple has no answer to is AR (Microsoft HoloLens) or VR (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows 10 Holographic which will soon bring headsets from Dell, HP etc). This is a tough one, macOS is still poor for artists, engineering and gaming - there's still no Vulkan support and might never be. It would have to be iOS where they can leverage a broad marketshare to get developers to adopt Metal. However, the iOS GPUs are nowhere as powerful as what's required for VR today, so it'll be some years off.
There's talk of self-driving cars and the like in the future. Let's see where that goes.
Great answers!
I don't thing we are in disagreement on this. I think it is the perception that has changed and that is due to a shift in emphasis.
Possibly but I think they are missing out by not trying to at least replicate some of the things he used to do. The way the Airpods were marketed is a great example of where they are going wrong.
Definitely and also the Pro apps. They killed Aperture for example.
I suspect they are waiting for the technology to mature right now.
Yes that will be interesting. There's also the persistent rumour that they are going to go in to movie and tv production (like Netflix).