Is Apple Innovative? Why Aren’t They On This List?

Apple prides itself on being an innovative company; first in PCs, graphic interface, etc.

Is Apple truly innovative or just very good at packaging features invented by others?

Why isn’t Apple on the list of 20 Most Innovative Products by PC World? There’s not a Mac or iPod in sight.

Two things jumped out at me right away as I dashed through PC World’s list of 20 innovative products.

First, there’s not a single product by Apple on the list. So much for innovation in 2006. Let’s hope for something innovative in 2007.

Second, Microsoft is number one with Microsoft Office 2007. That’s the #1 most innovative product for the year. So says PC World.

Why? Well, Office 2007 has this cute little “Ribbon” and a Live Preview feature. Not bad for $679, huh?

There are a couple of products in the Top 5 which are available for Mac users. Intel rides in at #2 with the Intel Core 2 Duo featured on the biggest bunch of Macs in 2006.

Need to run Windows on a new Mac? Parallels Desktop for Mac comes in at #3.

Even Apple’s own Boot Camp doesn’t make the cut.

At #4 is Nintendo’s hot Wii, which is the holiday season darling with an innovative new way to play games. Fun. Costs. Less. Take that Xbox.

The rest of the Innovative Gang of 20 doesn’t contain many surprises. Unless having a Dell at #8 is a surprise. It was to me.

There’s cell phones, hard drives, a Blu-Ray RW drive, a digital SLR camera, a Sony PlayStation, some earphones, and a Blackberry. But not an Apple on the tree.

What’s the deal? Has Apple forgotten how to innovate, or is my original concern truly valid? Does Apple just repackage innovation from others?

Wireless? Apple wasn’t first but made it easy. Bluetooth? Faster in wide adoption than Windows XP, but hardly an innovative item, right?

USB? No floppy drive? Apple didn’t invent USB but commited to it first. PCs still come with floppy drives.

Portable music player? Apple did it right but the only acknowledged innovation is the cool click wheel. Even the iPod menu is a ripoff from Creative.

How about the MagSafe connector on new MacBook Pro models? Isn’t that innovative? Not according to PC World. But Dell is.

Mac OS X Leopard will have lots of innovation, right? There’s the Time Machine backup feature. And virtual screens with Spaces. Innovative, right?

Maybe 2006 wasn’t such a good year for innovation at Apple Computer. After all, the company was very busy revamping the entire hardware line. New Intel Macs. New iPods. Universal Binary software to run on both Intel and PPC Macs.

But not much in the way of innovation from the company that prides itself on being the leader of innovation.

What’s your view of Apple as an innovative company? Is it hype or reality? Share your perspective with other Mac360 readers in the Comments section below.