There’s only one important question to ask about Apple’s future

All of this has led to a pretty vigorous (and fair) debate about whether Apple is still a design-led company, or whether its massive scale demands an operational focus that simply dictates design operates in a different way from the iMac and iPod eras. The view from inside Apple, for what it's worth, is that design is still central to everything the company does, and the operations vs. design conflict is a media creation. But I think that debate misses the point in a serious way. There is but one important question for Apple to answer as it enters its next phase, one that will reveal everything about the company's priorities and how it designs its products. Here it is: Will Apple compromise the user experience of the iPhone to sell services? "the answer is yes. Very much yes. It has already started.