When you’re on top of the world, there’s few places to go. “It’s all downhill from here,” says former Apple engineering manager Dan Crow. “I think Apple has peaked and the story of the next few years will be one of a slow but real decline.”
That’s not to say Apple is going anywhere anytime soon. It’s still the largest company in the world and in spite of supply issues — it’s not easy making iPhones — Apple is about to have the biggest quarter in U.S. history: a record breaking $52 billion in revenue on the back of crazy demand for their 5th generation smartphone and revamped lineup of laptops, desktops and tablets. But even the freshest apples start to go bad.
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Crow, however, is worried about the direction of the company in the wake of its recent Maps fiasco. The Apple of Jobs, the one that we knew and loved, didn’t seem to sacrifice design for profits. But, writes Crow, “Replacing Google Maps with an obviously inferior experience shows how much Apple has changed. Apple’s success had been all about offering users the best possible experience; suddenly it is willing to give users a clearly worse experience to further its corporate interests – in this case its long-running dispute with Google. We might expect this sort of behaviour from Microsoft, but we don’t expect it from Apple.”
