Apple has a lot of challenges these days. Would Steve Jobs really be handling these problems better than current leaders?The problems, some are long-term, others short-term, include (but are not confined to):Chinese consumersturning to domestic brandsin response to the US trade war.US customers feeling the impact of tariffs andanticipated increase in product prices.Regulators in every nation seemingly intent onchipping awayat the services empire Apple built from thin air.Apples recently-disclosedfailure to launchwith Apple Intelligence.Supply chainproblems, partly in response to trade wars and partly exposed during Covid, when single-source supply chains collapsed overnight.Decliningconsumer trustin technology.These challenges are in addition to the tasks Apple has always had to manage maintaining hardware and software quality, developing new products and services that surprise and delight customers, building consumer engagement, and inventing the best hardware in the world. A look at therecently introduced Mac Studio and M4 MacBook Air show the company still has the ability to do that. Both are the best computers in the world in their class.Challenges everywhereBut the central problem Apple has is mirrored in its own actions.You see, reports claim the companys marketing teams insisted on promoting Apple Intelligence and its much-vaunted contextual understanding of users, even though the feature wasnt ready. They not only insisted on it, but they also went large on pushing it, helping build just the right environment to create a crisis of belief when it was revealed the company would be unable to make the grade. (Subsequent reports suggest the feature is already working, but just not consistently enough; perhaps Apple should introduce it as a public beta to show how far its come.)What problem does this mirror?Just as Apples own teams focused on a service that wasnt ready, the rest of us out here continue to seek solace in impossible dreams. We live in a world of confusion in which populists, snake oil salesmen, and fake thought leaders thrive. Lack of belief, combined with a search for easy answers, means we choose the answers that seem easy. Thats what happened with Apple Intelligence so great was the need to seem to occupy space in AI, the company chose to market a feature it hadnt got working yet.It took an easy road, rather than a hard one, and in doing so reflected the muddy waters of our times.Thats not how things were when Jobs introduced the iMac, iPod, or iPhone. Back then, we thought tech would help us, social media hadnt yet been weaponized against wider public good, and many still wanted to believe global governments would meet the goals ofAgenda 21, rather than using1984as aninstruction manual. Conflict hadnt yet exposed the deep rifts underlying thefragile global consensus, and Apple under Jobsspoke a language of hope and optimismthatreflected a more optimistic zeitgeist.Apple today cant cling to that past.A new language for a new timeThat aspect of the brand no longer seems to match the existence so many of its customers experience. And its arguable whether senior management, ensconced in the Silicon Valley bubble, is exposed enough to identify a product design and marketing language that resonates in our new, highly complex, polarized, conflicted reality. While Apple has done extraordinarily well as the ultimate aspirational brand and enthusiasm for its products will remain among those who can reasonably afford them. But declining sales means declining profits, and in a world set up to mirror Wall Streets irrational belief that perpetual growth is possible on a finite planet, decline is unacceptable.Thats true even for the most successful company in human history.Thats a lot of pressure for Apples top brass to handle. Plus, of course, in every case, the answers they have available to them appear to be least-worse responses, rather than good ones. Adding additional complexity, the challenges are themselves intertwined as societies everywhere undergo significant structural change, as political forces of various hues attempt to hold things together with false narratives of a history that never really happened.Just how can the future look better tomorrow when its based on a past that never existed?The journeyAll the same, the more complex things become, the harder we work just to stand still. And with myriad connected challenges, its not at all certain even Steve Jobs would be able to visualize an easy way through. The simple answer is to keep hope alive, but the uncomfortable truth is that, just as it did with the iMac, Apples biggest challenge now is to find a consumer product truly emblematic of its time, something that speaks to us of who are we, what we need, and where we are going.In that light, perhaps the failure of the launch of Apple Intelligence really reflects the time were in.We can see the mountain but cant yet make it to the top.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.