Apple's just-concluded presentation featuring the new iPhone 11, Apple's 5th generation watch and (suddenly) iPad
Generally, if we ignore all theseholivarov around Android and iOS, then Apple does everything as correctly as possible in this situation. The future of billions of companies tomorrow is not in products, but in subscription services. And everyone is trying to somehow hook their customers on a paid subscription hook. All companies are engaged in this (or dream). Do not believe? Think of Samsung and Huawei’s own app stores. About paid cloud services (even HTC tried to sell the clouds, not to mention, for example, ASUS and LG). I am generally silent about Google - they are so good at it that even in Ukraine, where consumers are not used to paying for digital services, Google launched a subscription to Google Music (and this is in the midst of the 2014 crisis). And then, after 4 years, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
Apple Music, revenue from which is growing in the backgrounddecrease in income from the iPhone (if you are a normal person and you are too lazy to poke around in financial documents in English, then we are talking about an increase in revenue from the sale of services from 10.1 to 11.4 billion per quarter compared to the previous year and a decrease from 29.4 to 25.9 billion from iPhone sales). Therefore, it would be appropriate to expand the growing segment (namely, services) from all sides. And now - we already see the launch of the Apple Arcade game subscription (the same 4.99 dollars per month) and streaming video service Apple TV + with its lunapark and Jason Momoa. Apple’s video services aren’t alone at all - in the wake of the success of Netflix, everyone who is not too lazy (and who has money) is opening their own video services - from Disney to Hollywood studios and television networks. By the way, this is why Netflix spends billions of dollars a year on the production of its own films and series - when everyone withdraws their licenses, viewers will have to show something. Therefore, you have to shoot your own “Game of Thrones” “Modified Carbons”.
Everything is good at Apple and in the smartwatch segment. No, I'm not sure that Jobs would approve of them - they also need to be charged every single day. But the device is popular, and every year it becomes more and more interesting (although the main problem is that autonomy is not solved, but the competition is still worse, so you can live). An interesting fact is that watch sales (admittedly, in strict accordance with the principle of “creative approach to accounting”, sales of accessories and speakers are mixed with them, which can make unexpected adjustments) are also growing and are already overtaking iPad sales in money (5.5 billion against 5, another year back the picture was 3.7 against 4.4). And now we already see the wonderful Apple watch of the 5th generation - they have a compass, a sound pollution level sensor, a calendar of women's cycles and (well! I liked it the most) Always On display. Beautiful smart watches have become unattainably good for competitors and even more desirable for all iPhone users. And here also the price for a watch of 3 generations is reduced to $ 200, and this is generally the level of, for example, not the most expensive but sensible Huawei Watch GT. Again - they made a version of titanium for those who love / want to show off and have extra money for this.
Unexpected announcement of the iPad 7 generation with a screen of 10.2 inches also fits well with Apple's success story. The industry's gold standard - the world's most popular tablet is turning into a laptop replacement. So far, Microsoft is rushing about, like with a written bag, with its crazy idea of laptops with touch displays, which are supposedly the only ones designed for real ™ work (and agitate all manufacturers to release this insanely expensive junk with the schizophrenic Windows operating system that has never been determined - it is for tablets or computers), Apple has long turned its miracle on economical and (now) not inferior in performance ARM-processors in full-fledged computers to work. So much for the display and multitasking. And connecting a keyboard, and even a stylus, if you are a creative person and able to draw something superior to “kalyaki-malyaki” and “stick-stick-cucumber”.
And even the new iPhone 11s look, at firstlook quite worthy. Fast 18-watt charging, support for wireless charging, Dolby Atmos. Moisture protection according to IP68 class with a separate mention of tea-coffee-cola (we often fill in phones with mineral water, right?) But then sadness is mixed up with joyful moments. If the design of the iPhone 11 can still be endured, despite the protruding platform, then this crazy triple module in the iPhone 11 Pro looks like a mockery of the legends of the great Jobs. Jobs, I believe, without ceremony would have fired a designer who had abused the style icon so much that turned a god-like smartphone into a scarecrow with three rings.
Further more. It is clear that Apple could no longer tolerate the technological lag behind the market and had to add a third camera and night mode (because it works! Customers like both). In the same way, she stepped on the throat of her own song, written by the Great One, and went to the inevitable increase in the diagonal of the iPhone, which was once stuck in 4 inches (in 2019, this looks ridiculous, but about 5 years ago a lot of people believed that that 640 kilobytes of memory is enough for any task, a 4-inch display is enough, and all that is more is inconvenient to control with one hand). Now it’s convenient, glory to Cook. But with the third camera and night mode, there was something to be done. Well, they did. True, technologically, this all looks like a lag — a 2x zoom, with a slight movement of the marketing hand, turning into a 4x zoom (damn, how could that be?), If the countdown is from an ultra-wide lens. Huawei P30 Pro users giggle quietly at the fist from these attempts, and the triumphal joy at Huawei headquarters is drowned out only by the bitterness of preparing for new stages of the trade war and the inevitable launch of their Harmony operating system, which the market does not really need, but there is simply no other way out Plan B - he is like that. No, the night mode of the iPhone 11 may well be worthy, but practice shows that the iPhone takes not the best shooting quality, but the best average result. In full accordance with the canons of a company that has made usability its religion. The user cannot do perfectly in any conditions. But it is quite possible to make the result be equally good in any. What, in fact, the iPhone cameras are always stable and demonstrated. As Kodak once said (a remark for millennials: there was such a company in the digital era of film cameras): you press the button, we will do the rest. But miracles in the form of night shooting of the moon do not shine even for users of the iPhone 11 Pro Max (God, what a crazy naming, eh? Better, of course, than Xr / Xs, in which the devil will break his leg, but not according to the canon for sure).
That is, not being able to be the first intechnology (it would seem - where does 5G?), Apple competently operates within its capabilities. We can’t lower prices (Samsung, by the way, is also taking this road, firing off Chinese competitors with the flagship prices in the stratosphere), but we can launch trade-in (in our stores, don’t think anything too much) and sell new items at a discount in exchange for iPhone 8. They didn’t manage the design, but here’s a triple camera - don’t feel flawed compared to Samsung users. In fairness, I’ll say that there is one small detail that Apple has done so ingeniously that one wonders involuntarily - why has no one thought of this before? I'm talking about pressing and holding the shutter button that starts video recording. I am sure that in a year video recording will work for all manufacturers of Android smartphones this way (well, maybe Samsung will not want it, from the principle, even contrary to convenience, the Chinese will not disdain everything). But the idea of slofie (selfie in slow-motion, such a neologism) is unlikely to take root. Although this opportunity is just perfect for commercials - it’s easy to show, the competitors don’t have this, but the fact that there isn’t much sense is the hell with it.
Instead of a resume: Apple did everything it could (and possibly even more). She introduced updated versions of excellent products - the iPad tablet and her watches, which became even better (although they did not defeat the main problem with autonomy, the battery problem in the industry is acute - from smartphones to electric cars, and it will be solved for decades). It’s good that they left the incomprehensible Xr-s naming for a simple version of the iPhone 11 (although it would be more logical to just make an iPhone, but it might come back to this someday). It’s good that we returned to the classics - a steel case without excess easily soiled and breaking glass. Hotplate Design - Fu. Technologies have pulled a little closer to the common market denominator, but they cannot be called advanced in any way. About 5G, again, not a word. Otherwise, life goes on, and we still have a lot of interesting things ahead.
More from the site
Chinese banned from making their most powerful GPU in Taiwan
Stress at the birth of younger brothers went to people from monkeys: what scientists have learned
Scientists have discovered the mythical particle of Odderon
Xiaomi 12S Ultra will boast a huge 1″ IMX989 sensor without a catch
Xiaomi 13 (14) will become significantly more expensive, but the reason is not in the filling
Black Shark 4 is the only gaming smartphone of this year that does not bend or break
A giant carcass of a "kraken" with huge eyes washed up on the coast of South Africa
James Webb finds six massive galaxies in the early universe