Apple Keynote September 2018: Between Fashion and Frivolity

No one can deny the amazing technological advances introduced today, but the question is, are they relevant for real daily life?

iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone Xr

Let’s begin with the iPhone. Anyone can live without the new camera, the new display, the new microprocessors, I mean, there is nothing that you really need.

We are far away from where these presentations revealed to us the possibility to be in contact with anyone thru email, messages, or even video conferencing. The possibility to carry a digital notebook, voice notes, photo an video camera, music player, in our hand has passed away, and now it’s a reality.

So the surprises are a little frivolous: better lenses in the camera, better face ID, better security, better speaker… you name it.

There was a day when you can notice if your interlocutor on the other side of the internet was using a decent smartphone or not because of his capacity to receive emails or messages immediately or take and send you a photo or video.

But today, if you are using a new iPhone the only difference when you contact an old smartphone user (iPhone or Android), is their incapability to send you custom animated emojis. The rest is the same, basically.

The augmented reality and artificial intelligence are great and may be amazing, but for now, are not a reason to buy a new iPhone for the majority of people.

Apple Watch

The situation is almost the same as the Watch. The last great advance, I think, was when they made it completely autonomous. The advances introduced in this keynote were quantitative, not qualitative.

Except, maybe in the Health area with the integration of a new electrocardiogram device. But even those advances are so specialized that, I don’t know, they looked far away from the mass market.

Anyone with a heart decease or with a risk of a heart decease and enough money can buy a specialized device for that purpose.

The rest is noise: HomePod, Apple TV

Nothing new here also, just incremental improvements, elemental functions added, and integrations to the general media and content strategy of Apple.

Conclusion

Ok, the design is awesome in almost all the products and their characteristics, the technology itself is in the front line, the camera, uff,! the best, but I think we are stuck in the aesthetical and vanguard side of Apple, and perhaps is a similar situation for all the companies in the market.

We may be on the plateau of the innovation line. I don’t know. What do you think?