We are in the bleak period of smartphone development: although Apple’s latest phones have some impressive features and performance upgrades, they are unlikely to change anyone’s life.
Editor’s note: This article is from “Tencent Technology”, review: 皎 Hey. Authorized to reprint.
According to foreign media reports, Apple equipment has less and less disruptive innovation in the hardware field, and instead focuses on expanding the service business. However, without these major news, is there any need for Apple to hold a major event like a press conference?
In the past few years, Apple has been showing the public the fact that it is trying to transform from a hardware company to a service company. As sales in the entire smartphone market slow down, Apple is gaining more market share through subscription services such as music and news. So far, Apple has achieved a lot of results: the company’s service revenue has grown steadily, with a recent 13% increase to $11.46 billion, compared to $10.17 billion in the same period last year. Apple’s fall conference last week highlighted this trend. At the opening of the conference, it revealed details about two new services: the price of the streaming video service Apple TV+ and the mobile game subscription service Apple Arcade and the launch time. Practically speaking, the disruptiveness of these two new services in their respective industries is much stronger than the new iPhone launched by Apple in the same conference. The iPhone 11 series smartphones have a good performance upgrade, but it is not a revolution. Sexual, but iterative.
From a business perspective, it makes more sense for Apple to switch to a service card: providing a compelling subscription service can create an “ecological lock-in” effect, leaving users in the Apple device family. But this move also raises another question: If Apple is more transitioning to a service company, does it still make sense to continue to hold a popular sensational conference like it has been for years? After all, software is rarely as exciting as getting new devices in your hands.
Adam Lashinsky, executive editor of Fortune, and Apple Insider: How America’s Most Enviable and Confidential Companies Work, said: “I think, with their art form. Continuous improvement, and now it has become somewhat outdated.” “This girl is a bit old-fashioned.”
For tech journalists and company fans, whether Apple should continue to hold multiple press conferences a year is more than just a debate. Relying on eye-catching press events to promote small-scale updates may make people feel like the company is too hard and wants to stay ahead. In addition, if the company regards each event as a global event, and the news released at the same time is difficult to cause shock and awe,It may lead to public disappointment. To make matters worse, the brilliance of each event may encourage consumers to think more critically about what they actually get: they may compare the new iPhone’s multi-camera, enhanced processing power and better display. Competition will also focus on how to measure missing mobile phone functions such as under-the-screen fingerprint recognition and 5G network services.
Of course, Apple is not the only company that promotes its latest achievements by hosting large events. Google, Samsung, Microsoft and many other companies have similar activities. They also face the same problem: in general, smartphones don’t have revolutionary updates every year, or even subversive every other year. Ken Segall, Apple’s former advertising director, said: “Every kind of product is exciting at first, then it becomes a bunch of incremental improvements. How long will it take us to buy one? Taiwan’s new laptop?” In fact, Apple’s only major new hardware recently introduced is the Apple headset AirPods, but it does not really bring revolutionary subversion.
Werner Goetz, an analyst at market research firm Gartner, said the entire technology industry is re-examining its views on major industry events held by big technology companies like Apple. Gots said: “I think we need to abandon the expectation that every supplier’s activities will bring breakthrough and disruptive hardware.” One exception he pointed out is Samsung’s foldable smartphone Galaxy. Fold. “But this hardware-based disruption will become less and less,” he added.
Apple’s former employee Guy Kawasaki said that Apple itself created a problem for itself, because it is Apple that makes flashy technology activities famous. Now Apple fans, investors and the media want to hold at least one grand event that shocks the world at least once a year. But its recently launched products are not as effective as the first generation iMac or iPhone. Kawasaki, founder and chief sermon of online graphic design company Canva, said: “This creates an impossible behavior.” Kawasaki and Apple cooperated in the development of Macintosh computers to convince developers The platform develops software. He also agrees that we are in the bleak period of smartphone development: although Apple’s latest phones have some impressive features and performance upgrades, they are unlikely to change anyone’s life. Kawasaki said: “For most products of Samsung or Apple, it is in a boring middle age.”
Part of Apple’s large-scale event is that this is a great way to conduct major marketing campaigns. But in recent months, the company has become more and more willing to release at least smaller products through press releases, just as it was when the new MacBook laptop was released in July. appleThere is no shortage of bloggers and streaming anchors, and their work helps to promote the company’s products. At the same time, Columbia Business School professor Olivier Toubia said that even without major events, Apple’s brand image is strong enough. “I think that part of Apple’s perception of Apple is driven by brand stories and the way Apple has created and nurtured brands over the years,” he said. “First, Steve Jobs, now Tim Cook, a powerful story behind the brand, has also influenced people’s evaluation of actual products. “However, when Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage, All eyes of the scientific community are focused on Cupertino. With such influence, Apple is unlikely to give up these activities in the short term.