Innovations from Apple used to change the course of the world. Not so much anymore.
Consider the waifish iPhone Air, which I’d consider the coolest new product from Cupertino in years. But its sales have disappointed, and Apple plans to delay releasing next year’s version, my colleagues Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu revealed a couple days ago.
Their report came around the same time Apple tried to make much hay from the debut of another product: the iPhone Pocket, a slingy thing made in partnership with Issey Miyake, the esteemable Japanese fashion house, that nonetheless possesses all the glamour and grace of Borat’s onesie.
In a press release, Apple described the item as “beautiful” and includes a quote from Molly Anderson, the company’s vice president of industrial design,” praising the object’s “craftsmanship, simplicity, and design.” That’s quite a lot of misty-eyed solemnity for a product that’s a cross between a slingshot and a jockstrap.
By teaming with Miyake, Apple is trying to tell us Steve Jobs would’ve dug an iPhone Pocket: Miyake, after all, is the company that made Jobs’ trademark black turtleneck. Somehow, though, I doubt Jobs would’ve been a big iPhone Pocket guy—at least not as modern-day Apple unveiled it.
Sure, Jobs did in 2004 release the iPod Sock, a woven cloth case for the MP3 player, but he did so with tongue pressed firmly into cheek—as you can see in his initial presentation of it. He knew it was ridiculous and didn’t try to insist otherwise. And since Jobs had recently recemented his reputation as a product genius, he had the credibility to do a jokey product—without Apple’s design sensibility getting turned into a punchline by elbow biters such as myself. Apple in 2025 isn’t in the same position.
Look, there’s a real reason why Apple shares have only managed to slightly outpace the Nasdaq’s 19% gain this year—and why the company is struggling to get any growth out of the iPhone, its flagship product. Lately, it just hasn’t displayed the ability to develop any new good ideas. As Apple makes plainly apparent on a regular basis, it instead continues to subsist on the ample amount of brand power it amassed in the Jobs era.
To be clear, though, Jobs assembled such a stockpile by knowing full well that most people don’t think their gadgets need knitted condoms, which are, obviously, a poor idea in any circumstance.