You are not likely to find many that will not agree that Apple’s reinvention of the smartphone, tablet, media player and many other items helped to shape the consumer electronics world they have not exactly been on the forefront of technology or innovation. Their products have become a stream of minor updates and refreshes that keep falling behind what the rest of the market is doing. Even the latest iPhone with the 64-bit A7 is not that big of a leap in technology and the market showed this with a significant drop in stock prices.

Apple’s release of the iPhone 5C, which was built up as a low cost alternative to the iPhone 5s, has not gotten much attention or traction. The price that Apple is asking for the plastic knock off of the iPhone is still more than many other models and does not have the same feature set that you can get with other, and less expensive, phones. This puts Apple in a very unusual place as they can no longer make claims they cannot backup. The days when Apple can try to push out devices that are missing common and expected features is long gone. The market is much more informed and jaded than they were in the days that the original iPhone was pushed out.

Others may still argue that Apple is innovating at the same pace and point to the fingerprint scanner, improved camera and 64-bit SoC in the iPhone 5s. The problem is that these are still minor upgrades to the same device while Tim Cook’s comments that market ups and downs do not concern him do not translate well to most consumers. This is bad because it is the consumer that they need to respond to and keep eager for new products.

Right now the big talk is that iOS 7 looks and feels like Windows 8 in many ways. It was a move that surprised many simply because it looks like Apple copied Microsoft instead of developing a new UI for the OS. This consumer opinion combined with the impression that the iPhone 5s is not a major improvement over the iPhone 5 or other phones available on the network (again a consumer opinion) do not bode well for Apple. Remember, it is the consumer that decides what is new and fresh in the end. A company can say their product is new and innovative, but if consumers do not feel the same way then they will not buy your product. This is something that Apple and Tim Cook need to remember. If they do not then Cook’s comment could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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