Since its creation, Apple has always worked to be and stay leader of in the tech industry. We can attribute this success to its founder Steve Jobs and his vision that always met customers’ expectations. Thus, Apple always works in strategical way to make its consumers to adapt and adopt new technologies.
As a matter of fact, they introduced their customers to the iPod which was a revolution for the music and tech industry.
first iPhone on the right (April 10 et al.)
First iPod released by iPhoneThen Apple released the first iPod Touch and the first iPhone followed quicky, the later was made fun of by Microsoft’s ex-CEO Steve Ballmer.
First iPod on the left (“IPod Touch 1st Gen Repairs – Repair Sharks”)
First iPhone on the right (April 10 et al.)
First iPod on the left (“IPod Touch 1st Gen Repairs – Repair Sharks”) and First iPhone on the right (April 10 et al.).
It kept going until iPhone removed the central button of the iPhone 8, then Apple made the whole screen tactile. With the aim to always make customers used to more refined and futuristic technology. In 2023, Apple launched the Apple Vision Pros. A headset based on mixed-reality, not fully virtual but not fully augmented reality either. Apple developed for it a special operation system called visionOS (“Apple Vision Pro”). The operation system includes many features that can (and probably will) be used for Augmented Reality glasses, such as an eye-tracking, speech recognition, and hand gesture recognition system (Peters). On Monday 15th of September 2025, Apple released its latest iOS update: iOS26 Liquid Glass. A lot of people have complained about this update which makes the user interface really complicated to use due to the transparence of nearly every item. Notifications are complicated to read, there are too many animations and distract easily, etc…
iOS 26 Liquid Glass (Alecrim)
However, Apple received negative complaints and was made fun of the one of the most influential CEO in the tech industry when releasing its first iPhone. Change was never always appreciated, but with time every update came into more strategical view. My personal idea is that Apple is trying to adapt us to AR glasses. Us, consumers, must get used to receiving transparent notifications while in the streets walking, or talking to someone. Am I a fan of having technology invade our lives? No, but AR glasses will revolutionize the world, making knowledge, productivity, and entertainment more accessible, for the better and the worst.
Would you buy Apple AR glasses if they get release?
References
Alecrim, Emerson. “IOS 26: Apple Corrige O Principal Problema Do Liquid Glass • Tecnoblog.” Tecnoblog, 24 June 2025, tecnoblog.net/noticias/ios-26-apple-corrige-o-principal-problema-do-liquid-glass/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.
“Apple Vision Pro.” Wikipedia, 26 June 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Vision_Pro.
April 10, Noah Hunter Posted, et al. “Every IPhone Generation: A Full History of Release Dates.” IGN Southeast Asia, 10 Apr. 2024, sea.ign.com/iphone-13/214306/lists/every-iphone-generation-a-full-history-of-release-dates.
“IPod Touch 1st Gen Repairs – Repair Sharks.” Repair Sharks, 4 Oct. 2024, www.repairsharks.com/order/repair/ipod-repair-services/ipod-touch-1st-gen-repair. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.
Peters, Jay. “Apple Announces VisionOS, the Operating System for Its Vision pro Headset.” The Verge, 5 June 2023, www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23733874/apple-vision-pro-visionos-augmented-reality-os-specs-wwdc-2023.
Hi, great input!
I personally think that Apple lately has been trying too hard to innovate their current products by releasing too often new hardware.
I feel like the hype of people constantly updating their apple products to the latest has diminished since the changes are minor. I still think that Apple is able to create some of the best general system software updates and is able to really get into the mind of the people to make their life easier with a few simple clicks.
Apple VR glasses could for sure become an ideal target for the company to reach a new audience. However, I have the feeling that due to the price tag and their use not being as recurrent on a daily basis unlike a phone, they could be targeting only niche markets. I think offering this highly innovative and technological products to companies operating in specific businesses could be much more profitable and effective.
Extremely interesting topic to discuss. I believe it is something that could be discussed to happen in the future. We don’t know how fast can technology advance, but what we surely can now is Apple is preparing for the next era of content consumption (the integration of AR technologies). My opinion is whether this happens or not depends on how seamless this technology will be and whether we see technological companies shift to this type of personal technological products
Your blog gave me a good overview of Apple’s innovations over time. A big difference I see between the early innovations you mention and the most recent innovations, is that the early innovations are disruptors. More recently, people are not seeing iPhones as a disruptor because they just update the software. Therefore, to build back its reputation I agree with you that they might have to do something a bit crazy like slowly discontinuing the iPhone and instead completely disrupting communication. I definitely see how AR glasses become a disruptor for communication. However, it would be interesting to explore how the company weighs the risk of testing a new technology at the cost of losing their brand of reliability and consistency. So either they decide to piggyback on another company taking the risks with certain technology or they go through a complete brand redesign.