- The introductory animated video was fun. I liked that it was just that, an intro video, without trying to drive home some grandiose stance. As time goes by, though, every time I watch the videos Apple makes for these keynotes, I’m constantly left with the feeling that they’re 20–30 seconds longer than they should.
- There’s something Jon Prosser (of Front Page Tech) has been saying repeatedly in recent times: The market does not need innovation right now; it needs compromise. And I absolutely agree with this. Compromise means acknowledging that you can’t play the innovation card over and over, especially in times when there’s clearly more iteration than groundbreaking new technologies and devices. Like Prosser, I too think that Apple has finally got the memo about this, and it showed during the event.
- In fact, in my opinion, the true highlight of the whole event were the prices of most of the offerings. Quite a lot of bang for a relatively little buck. (‘Relatively’ because it’s always Apple we’re talking about). I’m not interested in subscribing to Apple Arcade or Apple TV+, but pricing each subscription at $5/month is a very good deal. Offering one year free for purchasing a new Apple product is another good deal. The new 7th-generation iPad, the regular entry-level model, features very nice improvements and it retains its great $329 price tag. The new Apple Watch Series 5 again starts at $399, but the killer move is to keep selling the still very good Series 3 at the reduced price of $199. That is another great deal.
- Similarly, the positioning of the new iPhones has finally struck the right tone. In 2017, the ‘cool new innovative’ iPhone was the iPhone X, and it came with a $1,000 premium price tag. But hey, you could have the regular, ‘boring’ iPhone design by getting the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus at more affordable prices. In 2018, the premium XS and XS Max were the iPhones to get, while the XR was positioned as the fun colourful cheap alternative ‘for the rest of us’, the ‘poor man’s iPhone’. Finally Apple has switched positions: the evolution of the XR is now the standard iPhone 11, a very capable, all-round iPhone. You start from there, and if you want to go deluxe, you can choose the more expensive and feature-packed iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. It’s subtle, but it sounds right this time.
- During the event, I didn’t tweet as much as I usually do, and the usual snark I’ve been reserving for Tim Cook’s Apple in recent years was reduced as well. It’s not that I’ve changed my mind — Apple still deserves criticism and still deserves absolutely no slack cutting — but the thing is, I liked a lot of what they introduced the other day. Plain and simple.
- What I didn’t like was how the event was organised and how products and services were presented. The pace was terrible. Each presenter talked about how excited they were, but this excitement was just words — it didn’t show at all. And all this passing the baton around… I understand that Apple wants to communicate they’re serious about diversity, etc., but that’s starting to look a bit too much on-the-nose. In any case: do you want to fragment the event by putting a dozen people on stage? More power to you, but at least have them prepare and rehearse thoroughly to avoid sleep-inducing technical explanations that distract people and make them lose interest. It feels amateurish.
- (On stage, Steve Jobs embodied that famous intersection of technology and the liberal arts. He could get into technical details while never forgetting the theatrical part of a keynote. He communicated intent, his excitement could be very contagious and it very often felt genuine. These keynotes feel designed by committee; Cook communicates via platitudes and slogan-sounding phrases. I have no doubt that he’s excited as he says, but he sounds contrived nonetheless.)
- The software side is getting increasingly messy. As usual, you’ll find the relevant links and contributions on Michael Tsai’s blog (Apple’s Fall Release Schedule). If Steve Jobs were still alive™, I imagine he would be incredibly pissed about all this. And sorry for sounding yet again like a broken record, but I still think Apple should hire more talent for their Software division, so that they can actually deliver on what they promise; or at least they should reconsider this self-imposition of a yearly schedule they clearly can’t cope with anymore. I know exactly zero people who would be bothered if Apple hypothetically decided to ship iOS 13 or Mac OS Catalina next spring; especially if the delay meant better, less rushed software. This obsession with ‘keeping the pace’ seems particularly absurd when the next major OS updates introduce drastic changes at a fundamental level, like in the case of Mac OS Catalina. You can’t plan and design an effectively disruptive new OS version, and have it in such beta stage this late in the schedule — In the schedule you arbitrarily made up (because tech has to move fast or because market or because investors or because what-have-you.)
- Today, innovation in smartphones is 95% focused on their camera technology. And every iPhone introduction has increasingly been about its camera(s). I understand and appreciate all the research, development, and innovation Apple has built inside such a tiny space over the years; but I keep thinking these incredible devices are so much more than point-and-shoot cameras and selfie-takers. Even if computational photography is bringing us to a point where, with a smartphone, we basically achieve WYSIWYG photography, I feel these devices end up being under-utilised, especially by regular people. More and more people upgrade their phone at a slower pace and hold on to previous models not only because they’re more and more budget-conscious, but also because smartphones are getting so saturated with regard to features and capabilities, that people don’t really notice a significant performance gap or capability gap when they go to a store and try out the new phones.
- And speaking of cameras… these new camera arrays on the back of the new iPhone 11 and 11 Pro do look ungainly from an industrial design standpoint. If one wants to be pragmatic, sure, look at what these camera systems can do — who cares about the back of the phone? Well, lately I’ve been looking at a lot of Android phones with multiple cameras on the back, and let’s say that Apple’s doesn’t strike me as the best design out there. Samsung’s S10 and Note10 lines have better-designed backs. The Nokia 9 Pureview has five cameras, but they’re arranged in a more pleasing way and, most importantly, they don’t protrude. The new iPhones have camera arrays that look as if they have been hastily bolted on the chassis of last year’s iPhones.
- One More Thing — .
- (I might be adding new observations in the next days; if I do, I’ll inform you of any updates via Twitter.)