Apple Wants to Move Past Hardware But Isn’t Ready to Commit

Apple built its success on devices. Devices are what it does, and what it’s done forever. Everything the company makes is expensive, immaculately designed, and completely finished inside and out. That is by design. You don’t buy an Apple product to tinker with it, you use it until Apple releases something better. This strategy has made Apple the most valuable company in the world.

But even Apple must change, a point CEO Tim Cook made during the Worldwide Developers Conference this week. Apple increasingly realizes that it can’t limit itself to selling gadgets. Even the all-conquering iPhone is expected to see decreasing sales. Yet the company has fallen behind Amazon, Google, and Facebook in creating digital services people want.