Apple, for decades, stood as the modern paragon of disruptive innovation—the company that made us feel the future before it arrived. But lately, it seems Apple is trading in its greatest asset: creative momentum.

There’s a haunting symmetry between Apple’s current trajectory and the slow declines of once-mighty giants like Kodak and RIM. They too were titans. And like Apple today, they too began to prioritize maintaining temporary employee happiness over cultivating meaningful, creative urgency.

You’ve no doubt built a powerful ecosystem, but Apple has not invented anything explosively new since the Mac and the iPhone. The wearables, services, and accessories that followed are refinements—excellent, profitable, elegant—but not the kind of future-defining leaps Apple once made us believe in. The company that redefined “what’s next” has settled into “what’s slightly better.”

Creativity at its best comes from the hunger to solve problems, to make something essential. But when too much internal focus is spent on keeping people comfortable instead of inspired, you get happiness without invention. It’s a fog of satisfaction, not a fire.

As a user, observer, and former admirer of Apple’s creative heartbeat, I urge you to reconsider the direction. Look at what Jony Ive and OpenAI are poised to build—perhaps unintentionally—but they’re circling an idea Bill Joy once envisioned: an optimized OS seamlessly built into every device from toasters to cars— OS optimum for that specific device , all using a unified telemetry. One only needs to look at the ecoDESIGN of coral or sponges— all made up of individual units that communicate as one— the device itself. That is where things are heading. Apple could lead there. Or be led.

You now stand at a junction. You can switch tracks and rocket forward—rekindle invention not by coddling comfort but by stoking challenge—or you can pull off into the yard, satisfied with polishing the rails while faster trains slip by.

The legacy of Steve Jobs wasn’t just about products; it was about possibility. What future is Apple building today that will astonish the world in 2030?

Respectfully,

A Creative Who Still Believes in Wonder