The portion of the article regarding The Innovators Dilemma is very important. It's easy to get so focused on the enthusiastic users that you forget about everyone else. Balancing between those two concerns is hard, and it's even harder to have to tell your enthusiastic users that you're not giving them what they want immediately.
This is why companies that can properly classify their user base and serve compartmentalized/customized products to those specific niches flourish.
If you are making a product for everyone, you'll eventually dissolve. This is what I see Apple's problem as being right now. They're shifting their entire OS towards the lowest common denominator which are casual users. Meanwhile their OS is becoming more and more like the new Windows.
> They're shifting their entire OS towards the lowest common denominator which are casual users.
Has this not been Apple's schtick since the beginning? Computers for everyone, easy, accessible, friendly, fully 'appliance-ized'? They did aim a bit more towards making their users feel 'sophisticated' during the early OSX years but they were selling social sophistication, not technical (ie. 'you're a high end artist, an innovator, a visionary', not 'you're a computer expert'.) And even then, their bottom line was 'it just works.'
Apple has always been focused on usability and simplicity at the expense of power. Remember the one button mouse or first desktop without any external media options?
But also, do you really think causal users care about Thunderbolt 3.1? Or previously, Firewire 800? And want a $3000 laptop that can drive two 5K screens?
I realise you talked about the OS, but it's the same deal. Apple OS'es were always dumbed-down compared to Windows - just compare the control panels and application "installation" features. Have you seen Group Policies?
