I guess it all depends on one's definition of "innovation"! Every one, and I mean every single one, of your bulletpoints refers to stuff that Apple has copied/licensed/perfected from others.

My piece never doubted that Apple offers an extremely good user experience or even the best product in many a category. I use many of those products myself every single day. I love my iPhones and iPads and AppleTVs (yes-plural for all) and have used various laptop and desktop Macs for many years. But this does not mean I am oblivious to the fact that almost every new feature they offer first appeared somewhere else. As a tech journalists I cannot afford to, sure, but many others feel the same way.

It does not mean that this is a bad thing. Not at all. At the end of the day perfecting something flawed or making it work in a simpler, more effective way is most welcome. But we do need an Apple that tries its hand on more completely new stuff. That takes a few risks. This is the very definition of an "innovator".

What we get instead is a very "safe" approach that's good for Apple's investors and Apple executives' bonuses, but not good at all for the tech industry as a whole. Nobody's asking Apple to "go crazy" all of a sudden and abandon what prints money for them. But we CAN ask for some actual innovation from time to time. I truly believe that.