For the last decade, Apple has set the gold standard for product launches, and credit has always rested unequivocally on the shoulders of Steve Jobs. The company always knew how to woo loyalists, but when Jobs returned, he found a way to speak to the rest of us when presenting products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Wednesday’s iPhone 5 launch saw Apple return to preaching to the converted. While I have little doubt that Apple users everywhere will applaud the iPhone 5, I doubt whether it will continue to reel in customers from other platforms like Android.
The reason actually lies more in the presentation than in the product. Steve didn’t focus on the technology, he focused on the magical experience. Tim Cook can’t quite seem to capture that, and it’s going to hurt Apple.
A page from the darker eras of Apple history
Before Jobs returned to Apple, the struggling company was stuck in a monotonous cycle of products that made good upgrades to existing lines, but seemed to ignore what was going on with competitors. As loyal Apple users eventually gave up, the company’s strong business started to erode, until its engineer CEOs didn’t have a clue how to turn this around. Jobs came back and brought forth the idea of creating products that competed on impression, not “speeds and feeds.” Apple reached amazing new highs on this formula.
Now look at the iPhone 5 launch. If you watched it live, you heard about bigger screens, faster radios, better-performing camera software, and improved case manufacturing. You heard about the wonders of LTE, a very fast but still lightly deployed cellular technology. You even heard about the unique tools used to build the case. Engineers had plenty of specs and numbers to chew on, but mainstream consumers didn’t hear anything magical enough to pull them from another current-generation phone.
Show me the magic
Competing based on sheer specs has never been a strength for Apple, because other companies have always been able to adopt new technologies faster. This made Steve Jobs’ approach a much better fit for Apple’s carefully thought-out designs.
Watch the iPhone 5 launch with a critical eye, and you’ll see a device that has a smaller less-brilliant screen than competitors. It has a slower CPU and graphics processor. It’s more fragile. The vastly improved antennas may be Apple’s only technical edge – a necessary one considering the Antennagate woes of the iPhone 4.
The iPhone 5 still makes a strong upgrade from the iPhone 4 it replaces, so loyalists dedicated to buying Apple products should still love it. But former customers who have defected to Android will likely not move back, and people who actually chase technology will probably take their business elsewhere.
This doesn’t foretell a decline for Apple, but it likely will mean slowing growth next year as we start to look someplace else for magic.
Like Amazon.
Amazon has figured it out
What really struck me about the Amazon Kindle launch last week was how Apple-like it was. Jeff Bezos spent little time on the technology in the new tablets, preferring to focus on the magic of the device. The launch even ended with a classic “one more thing” moment when Amazon announced 4G data service for $50 a year.
Amazon’s new Kindles hit hard on three vectors that buyers care: value, experience, and services, or, in other words, magic. You don’t care what technology is in the box, you care that you will get a great experience without having to learn any new strange technology.
If Apple wants to continue pitching its products in the light that suits them best, it should study – well, Apple. Amazon clearly has been.
The Spirit of Steve
The issue with the iPhone 5 isn’t that it isn’t a technology leader, it’s that we’re missing the shiny veneer that used to cover up that fact. We should only care whether the iPhone 5 provides a great experience, but Wednesday’s product launch seemed to lose track of that all-important factor.
Luckily for consumers, Amazon is selling amazing experiences, so Steve Jobs’ legacy lives on. Sadly, it just seems to live on with another company.
Guest contributor Rob Enderle is the founder and principal analyst for the Enderle Group, and one of the most frequently quoted tech pundits in the world. Opinion pieces denote the opinions of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of Digital Trends.
Spot on Rob… Unlike previous product launches under Steve Job, there was not a single “WOW” moment for me watching the live presentation of the iPhone 5 launch. The sense of occasion, excitement and anticipation expertly created by Job for pass launches were definitely not there. The iPhone 5 launch was a bit under cooked (excuse the pun) and feel more like a white good or car launch where specifications like lighter, bigger and faster were frequently mentioned. You are 100% correct by stating that other devices already have better specifications… If Apple really want to complete on these, then they will lose the war.
Thanks John!
I carry an iPhone4S and a Samsung S2. I hate Android. Everything about the phone is sloppy and disjointed: uninteresting feature sprawl with buttons randomly placed at opposite ends of the screen exaggerating the fact that it’s annoying to use with one hand (I’m a 6’0″ man). It’s a perfect phone for hobbyists that are willing to spend hours of their precious life tweaking and customizing it. I’m sure your proud of your phone hax0r skills; some of us prefer to save our pride for actual achievements.
With that said, it’s a phone and you all need to get over yourselves. People have a right to buy the phone they like, regardless of whether you agree with them. The only people acting indefensibly are the ones here that bash people who don’t agree with them, or seemingly justify their own opinions by belittling the opinions of others. Yeah, I realize I did the same, but I don’t actually care what phone you buy … I’m just sick of all you trolls. Go buy the newest PoS; or masturbate; or tweak your majic card deck… just go DO something.
For the guy dancing on Jobs grave – you’re as classless as you are delusional.
Enderle – go achieve something. Or say something relevant. It’s hard to take you seriously. I’m not talking about the iPhone5 review specifically, I’m talking about your articles over the past five years in general.
You are so right about Enderle’s ramble article here.
So in other words, “whine, whine, bitch, moan, belittle, criticize boohoo, with that said, all you Android users should stop whining, bitching, moaning, belittling, criticizing and boohooing. I know I just did exactly that, but I’m a special snow flake because I don’t care what you think.”
Apparently it hasn’t dawned on you that the very people you belittle don’t care what you think either, making them special snow flakes and, according to you, justified in their whining, bitching, moaning, belittling, criticizing and boohooing… just like you.
As for your “review” of Android, I would agree with you to an extent. It is less visually refined than iOS, but it’s far more capable. That those capabilities aren’t important to you is fine, but don’t be so arrogant to suggest that those for whom those capabilities are important are all “hax0rs” as you so eloquently put it. For some people, form follows function, for others, function follows form. Neither is wrong and there’s a place for both.
We have a perfect phone for you grandpa, its called startec flip phone from 2000′s, If you are lucky you will be able to find one. I hope you know how to trun on the power, very easy to use. I agree with you grandpa , these youngsters are too smart for us. I might go back to rotary phone. I don’t need to think much.
tim cook is as boring as paint, and the fat guy who made what was suppose to be a presentation was noy only fat, but sloppy and more boring than cook.
My Samsung Galaxy S III is the most Awesome device out there bar none. I have always said Samsung is just one of the reasons that dead guy jobs dies, Samsung scared him to death :)
jobs is where he belongs 6 feet under and from the looks of things the iToys are getting very tired and boring so I hope jobs hole in the ground is big enough for the iCrappy iToys….
Your comment is more boring than than Cook, “the fat guy”, C-Span and the Richie Cunninghams’ hair style combined. I concede you are am expert on what is boring. Capitalizing the A in Aweosme was cool back in first grade; the scared to death joke died after the first clown said it.
I was thinking the other day that maybe the reason Steve Jobs choose Tim Cook to replace him as the CEO was that he knew that Cook could not do the job. Maybe he was thinking no one after him would run Apple.
Steve Jobs was a unique person. It’s unfair to expect the same from Tim or anyone else. The only person who could present like Steve Jobs was Steve Jobs. Maybe one day someone may surface who may be able to make people see a product in a different way like Steve once did, as it were magic; but that takes a unique kind of person. Tim is doing a great job in his own way. I miss Steve, too; but Steve left the company in more than capable leadership. The products are still awesome which is what really keeps the customers coming. Just like any other time, you will likely see Apple stores with ridiculously long lines with people awaiting the launch of the latest and greatest product, just like before; and there will still be obvious excitement in the air from the customers and employees alike. I’ve never seen anything like it from any other company.
Fairily ridiculous article. This will end up being one of Apples most successful product launches to date. Let’s state the obvious: Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs, but he’s an excellent CEO. I’m not an Apple purist, but I fail to see any magic with the kindle fire other than the price point. In fact I see no magic anywhere as tablets and mobile have become ubiquitous. All anyone in the industry is doing is changing the specs.
Not sure exactly what the author was expecting to see.
“Watch the iPhone 5 launch with a critical eye, and you’ll see a device that has a smaller less-brilliant screen than competitors. It has a slower CPU and graphics processor. It’s more fragile.”
Rob, you must have been watching a different launch than the one everyone else saw.
1) The display is larger (not smaller) than before… although it isn’t “phablet” sized, which is too large for most people.
2) The display is more brilliant and more color gamut correct than those of competitors.
3) It’s CPU is twice as fast as the 4S. A game demo showed real-time 3D rendering that no other smartphone can compete with.
3) Not only is it LESS fragile than the 4S, but also the aluminum unibody makes it less fragile than any of the competitors’ plastic toys.
How is it possible that you see the opposite. Were you watching the launch of another Android phone instead of the iPhone 5 launch???
You missed Rob’s point, even while quoting it. He said the new iPhone is smaller, less brilliant, slower, more fragile compared to COMPETITORS, not previous versions of the iPhone.
That said…what are we, cavemen? Me hate numbers! Show magic fire again!
Yes, you caveman. ;-)
You obviously didn’t read my comment but just jumped to the conclusion that I wasn’t comparing the iPhone 5 to competitors’ phones. It was, try reading it this time.
The new iPhone outdoes all other phones in more than the ways I listed. The primary one being the best smartphone user experience there is.
The one thing that you seem to be stuck on is display size in inches… maybe that says something about your insecurities ;-)
Yes, Android has phones that are bigger and heavier, and won’t fit in my pocket. But 5.5″ displays are still too small for a phone, don’t you think? Let’s wait for 6″! No, 7″! No, 8″…
Android phone makers think that the larger and heavier they make their phones, the more you will want to carry it around with you all day.
Here’s a little trick that iPhone users know, but that Android users don’t know. If you hold the iPhone 5′s 4″ display just a little closer to you, it looks just as large as a 5″ display. It works like magic! ;-)
I can remember a time when Apple fans could put up better arguments. Seriously “you hold the screen up closer to you face and it looks bigger just like magic”?!? OMG
lol Rob, yeah it doesn’t take much to be magical to the iPhail crowd… and to viewroyal…Hold it closer? You mean go blind faster? I guess you can do that if you feel like it’s necessary. Good way to justify low quality hardware though. If you want to watch true HD videos, ask your friend to use his Galaxy S3. Apple is in hot water with LTE, so I wouldn’t expect it to stay around much longer. HTC and Samsung already has legal ground. I’d quote the source but all you have to do is google it
OK the video below was funny. Was that you?
No I found it on Google+ :D
That’s funny? Now I know why I don’t find you interesting anymore.