Leapfrog ⇥ kensegall.com

Ken Segall:

Now we know there was a ton of work going on at Apple during The Period Of Great Whining. Possibly more than at any time in Apple’s history. Now we have new iPhones, Apple Pay and Apple Watch.

Plus a complete rework of iOS and a refresh of OS X.

Segall:

To me, this just says that Apple is doing a very good job of being Apple. Its mission is to create products that people can fall in love with. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a timetable for such things.

Apple’s success is defined by patience. The Watch is already an incredible product and it’s just a 1.0, with plenty of low-hanging fruit ready for picking. Apple Pay is way better than any of its competitors, primarily because Apple waited until they locked down major banks and credit card providers and had a brilliant interaction model.

When there is pressure for Apple to be impatient — both internally and externally — is when things go awry. Take the aforementioned OS X and iOS, both of which were announced with grand vision and arrived a little early, by expected quality standards. Neither is unusable (though OS X sometimes comes close) but both feel rushed and rough around the edges. They’re getting better, and there’s plenty of fruit left, but we need to be patient. And the market just doesn’t like that.