peterb
Smartphones are pretty much a mature product - Im not sure where there is much room for innovation. If anything, the revenue stream is more likely to come from applications and services - but even that is limited because raising the cost of either will risk driving sales to the competion - not that there is much - really just Google and Apple now.
There is plenty of room for improvement,and the tech is there,its just bean counters are more worried about sitting on piles of cash than using it.
As I said years ago,Chinese companies will eat away at the lower end more and more and its shown in the actual figures now,and as they start building up their own names,they will start attacking higher end markets and since they wlll probably accept lower margins,probably will start to out innovate the incumbants.
Even when it comes to Chinese SOC development,it was thought of as a joke,but some of them are starting to become serious competition now,especially with the Chinese government trying to push more home grown developments. The thing is companies like Apple and Samsung need to look at history. Kodak,Blackberry and Nokia looked untouchable. They were incredibly trusted by their customers and nobody ever thought anyone could take away business from them. But we have seen this in the technology markets,allegiances customers have are much more fickle than we think.
In fact Apple should know that - look at the 1980s PC market,Apple were running high,until they came crashing to the ground. They really need to stop these bean counter inspired releases and start spending their money and pushing truely revolutionary improvements,otherwise their competitors will catch up and exceed them as they want their sales.
In some ways whatever people thought of Steve Jobs,he was not only a persuasive salesmen,but he was willing to take risks when compared to the competition.