COLUMN: iHave had enough

I’ve been a happy sheep of the flock of Apple for the last 9 years. I’ve owned Macbooks, 4 generations of iPods, an iMac at one time, and was raised on Apple PC’s, in fact I’m writing this on one right now.

To say the least you could cut me and I’d bleed Starbucks coffee.

But with the recently iPhone 5 announcement event and the patent lawsuit (for a lack of a better word) trolling, I’m cutting myself off and switching sides.

For those of who aren’t keeping up with all things Apple, Tuesday they rolled out their new generation of iProducts. A new generation of iPod Nanos was announced, a sleeked up Frankenstein-ed version of the Microsoft Zune and a Samsung smart-phone.

A new iOS was introduced as well, iOS 6, and the iPhone 3GS was dropped as a supported device for the new update.

For a grand finale, Tim Cook rolled out the red carpet for the new iPhone 5, by all means a powerhouse of a phone. Packed inside the new phone is a new A6 processor, Wireless N, and a slightly better camera and screen.

Icing on the cake for the new iPhone is the ditching of the old standard 30 pin connector and the switch to a new dock connector, essentially making the previous 5 generations of iPhone and several generations iPod accessories worthless.

Don’t get me wrong it’s great to see improvement, but introducing a new generation of slightly better products that many people confuse as the previous generation (for proof just look up Jimmy Kimmel’s show from the same night), isn’t Apple, and it isn’t innovation.

In addition to iPhones and iPods, Apple proceeded to “introduce” other “new” items like Passbook, an Apple clone of Google Wallet, and the cleverly named Apple Maps.

Where did the Apple of yesteryear go? Where has the innovation gone? They went from reinventing MP3 players and smart phones to suing Samsung over the right to use round corners in their smart phone designs, and attacking Polish grocery stores because A.pl is too close to Apple.

Maybe this just happens when the well of new ideas runs dry in a company. I might be leaving the cult of Apple, but I can’t say I wont reminisce.