The just ended Apple presentation, which showed the new iPhone 11, 5th generation Apple watches and (suddenly) iPad
In general, if we abstract from all theseholivars around Android and iOS, then Apple is doing everything as correctly as possible in this situation. The future of billion-dollar companies tomorrow is not in products, but in subscription services. And everyone is trying in one way or another to hook their customers into a paid subscription. This is what all companies do (or dream of). Don't believe me? Think about Samsung and Huawei's own app stores. About paid cloud services (even HTC tried to sell clouds, not to mention, for example, ASUS and LG). I’m generally silent about Google - they are doing so well with this that even in Ukraine, where consumers are not used to paying for digital services, Google launched a subscription to Google Music (and this was at the height of the 2014 crisis). And then, 4 years later, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
Apple Music, whose revenues are growing amiddecrease 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 income 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 right from all sides to expand the growing segment (namely services). And now we are already seeing the launch of the Apple Arcade gaming subscription (the same $4.99 per month) and the Apple TV+ streaming video service with its own amusement park and Jason Momoa. In video services, Apple is not alone at all - in the wake of the success of Netflix, everyone who is not too lazy (and who has money) is now 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 producing its own films and TV series - when everyone revokes their licenses, viewers will have to show something. Therefore, we have to film our own Game of Thrones, Altered Carbons.
All is well with Apple in the smartwatch segment.No, I'm not sure Jobs would approve of them - they 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 has not been solved, but competitors have it even worse, so you can live with it). An interesting fact - sales of watches (although in strict accordance with the principle of a “creative approach to accounting” sales of accessories and speakers are mixed in with them, which can make unexpected adjustments) are also growing and are already ahead of iPad sales in terms of money (5.5 billion versus 5, another year ago the picture was 3.7 versus 4.4). And now we already see the beautiful 5th generation Apple watches - they have a compass, a noise pollution level sensor, a female cycle calendar and (oops! - I liked this most of all) an Always On display. Great smartwatches have become unattainably good for competitors and even more desirable for all iPhone users. And then the price for the 3rd generation watch has been reduced to $200, and this is generally the level of, for example, the not the most expensive, but smart Huawei Watch GT. Again, we made a titanium version for those who love/want to show off and have the extra money to do so.
Unexpected announcement of the 7th generation iPad with screen 10.2 inches also fits well into Apple's success story. The industry's gold standard, the world's most popular tablet is turning into a laptop replacement. While Microsoft is rushing around like a crazy bag with its crazy idea of laptops with touch screens, which are supposedly the only ones designed for real work (and is agitating all manufacturers to release this insanely expensive junk with the schizophrenic Windows operating system, which has not yet been decided - it is for tablets or computers), Apple has long turned its miracle of economical and (now) equally powerful ARM processors into full-fledged work computers. Here's to a bigger display and multitasking. And connecting a keyboard, and even a stylus, if you are a creative person and know how to draw something superior to “scribbles” and “stick-stick-cucumber”.
And even the new iPhone 11 looks like the firstlook, quite worthy. Fast 18-watt charging, wireless charging support, Dolby Atmos. Moisture protection according to IP68 class with a separate mention of tea, coffee, cola (we often fill our phones with non-mineral water, right?) But then there is sadness mixed with joyful moments. If the design of the iPhone 11 can still be tolerated, despite the protruding platform, then this crazy triple module in the iPhone 11 Pro looks like a complete mockery of the legacy of the great Jobs. Jobs, I believe, would have unceremoniously fired the designer who so abused the style icon, turning the god-like smartphone into a stuffed animal with three burners.
Further more.It's clear that Apple could no longer tolerate falling behind the market technologically and had to add a third camera and a night mode (because it works! Customers love both). Just as she stepped on the throat of her own song, written by the Great, and went to the inevitable increase in the diagonal of the iPhone, which was once stuck at 4 inches (in 2019 this looks funny, but 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 anything more is inconvenient to operate with one hand). Now it’s convenient, thank Cook. But with the third camera and night mode, something had to be done. Well, they did it. True, technologically it all looks like a lag - a 2x zoom, with a slight movement of a marketing hand, turns into 4x (damn, was that possible?) if the countdown is from an ultra-wide lens. Huawei P30 Pro users quietly giggle into their fists at these efforts, and the triumphant joy at Huawei headquarters is drowned out only by the bitterness of preparations for new stages of the trade war and the inevitable launch of its Harmony operating system, which the market does not really need, but there is simply no other way out , plan B is what it is. No, the night mode of the iPhone 11 may well be decent, but practice shows that the iPhone scores not with the best shooting quality, but with the best average result. In full accordance with the canons of the company, which has made ease of use its religion. The user cannot do it perfectly in all conditions. But it’s quite possible to ensure that the result is equally good in any case. Which, in fact, the iPhone cameras have always demonstrated consistently. As Kodak once said (remark for millennials: there was such a company in the pre-digital era of film cameras): you press the button, we will do the rest. But miracles in the form of night photography of the Moon do not shine even for users of the iPhone 11 Pro Max (Lord, 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 having the opportunity to be first intechnologies (it would seem - what does 5G have to do with it?), Apple intelligently acts within its capabilities. We can’t reduce prices (by the way, Samsung is also going down this road, fighting off Chinese competitors with flagship prices in the stratosphere), but we can launch a trade-in (in our stores, don’t think too much) and sell new items at a discount in exchange for an iPhone 8. The design wasn't done well, but here's a triple camera - don't feel inferior compared to Samsung users. To be fair, I will say that there is one small detail that Apple did so brilliantly that you can’t help but wonder why no one thought of this before? I'm talking about pressing and holding the shutter button to start recording video. I’m sure that in a year video recording will work this way for all manufacturers of Android smartphones (well, maybe Samsung won’t want to, out of principle, even in spite of convenience, the Chinese won’t disdain everything). But the idea of slofie (selfie in slow-motion, such a neologism) is unlikely to catch on. Although this opportunity is simply ideal for advertising videos - it’s easy to show, competitors don’t have this, and the fact that there’s no special meaning, to 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.