I own one Apple product, a second generation iPod touch. I would be the first to admit that I love it and am proud to call it mine.

When I see someone with a new Apple product however, I don’t feel jealousy or envy.

That person likely bought that product because it was their understanding it was the best of the best.

For a time this was true, but the exorbitant cost now outweighs the history that surrounds Apple.

When you spend a lot of money on a product, there is a reasonable expectation that it will be fast, reliable and durable.

At a price point above a few thousand dollars, that product should not only posses those qualities but also be innovative and top of the line.

In the late 1990s, Apple didn’t only meet these goals but did so while being miles ahead of its competitors.

As a leader in design at the time, Apple was directly responsible for many of the features and technologies we take for granted today.

With faster and better quality products, both families and businesses decided to invest in Macintosh computers for any and every need.

This was the status quo for many years until the turn of the century.

While the company did in fact stir up the phone market with the release of the iPhone, many of their other products were being left in the dust.

With a move to outsourced processors, Apple started to lose its reputation for quality and performance.

Fast forward to today and we find a design department which is stagnant and hasn’t released anything noteworthy or original in the last decade.

Every product is an iteration of the last with laughably minor improvements.

This brings up the bigger issue here of cost.

Students and regular consumers alike are buying these products because Apple has made them believe that they can’t get better elsewhere.

Would they spend the money if they knew they were getting outdated processors and graphics cards?

A computer that costs over $2,000 should not have a graphics card that is two generations old and on par with the one in my 7-year-old computer.

My current personal desktop computer can trounce just about any Apple computer and yet it cost only half the price of a new iMac.

It feels to me like most of that money is going toward the apple on the boring aluminum shell.

It really bothers me that so many people buy into the current design philosophy of restriction to their brand.

If you buy an Apple product, you have to buy the others too in order to ensure compatibility.

Locking users into this environment is merely forcing them to buy more of these unimpressive products if they want to stay loyal to Apple.

For their sake, I hope Apple gets back on the innovation train.