Five myths about Apple

2. Apple’s innovation days are numbered.

This is related to the first myth, but with a slight difference: It deals with the perception that Apple will have trouble creating anything truly surprising. At first glance, there seems to be some validity to this misconception. But declaring that Apple has reached its innovation peak ignores the larger picture of what it’s trying to accomplish with its desktop and mobile product lines.

Apple’s latest operating system for mobile devices (iOS6) includes Passbook, a wallet application that’s incredibly useful (it is now my default payment method at Starbucks, for instance), and plants the seeds for Apple to become a massive mobile-payment provider. Not as sexy as the iPad, but from a business standpoint, it might represent a huge leap forward. And the much-criticized maps app, while not necessarily a move for the better in its first incarnation, nonetheless could lead to significant innovation down the road.