Tech Brief: Everything Apple Announced at its "By innovation only" Event
It's officially raining Apple hardware season. As is the customary tradition, the tech giant unveiled a number of products at the Steve Jobs Theater on its Apple Park campus earlier today. The new iPhones don't reinvent the iPhone as we know it, but that was to be expected. The biggest surprise at Apple's keynote was not a new feature, device, or service, but an aggressive pricing strategy that's a departure for the company.
But then again, it's not entirely surprising as iPhone sales have hit a ceiling. There's little by way of new when it comes to smartphones, so much so that you'd struggle to discern the key differences. When the most exciting feature on the iPhone front is on the iPhone back — the rear cameras, that is — you know it's peak tech stasis. No wonder, then, an average smartphone user now holds on to the same smartphone for an average of nearly three years.
What's more, if you're already own an iPhone XS or XS Max — or any working phone for that matter — there's nothing that justifies the upgrade unless the phone you're currently using is absolutely non-functional and unusable. Do you change your TV sets every year? Or the refrigerator? Microwave ovens? Then why alone phones? At the end of the day, the improved specs mean nothing. You either need a new phone or you don't. And if you don't need a new phone, then there's no reason to buy this one.
The new screens have more pixels, the benchmarks are faster, the cameras shoot better in the dark, the battery life is a little better... and that's about it? But if the 2019 models are merely an evolutionary, incremental upgrade, it's because Apple is already setting its sights on September 2020 with an all-new design for the iPhone and support for in-display fingerprint scanning tech.
This isn't to brush aside the real innovation that's happening under the hood. Apple's A13 Bionic chip offers enhanced power efficiency — despite housing a record 8.5 billion transistors inside — and a class-leading machine learning performance via an eight-core neural engine that's capable of performing 1 trillion operations per second. Smartphone screens are another area, as are battery optimisations and a host of other advancements across Android and iOS. What we're not seeing is dramatic paradigm shifts, like the way it used to be in the early 2010s.
So, here's a wrap-up of everything Apple announced at its annual keynote -
But then again, it's not entirely surprising as iPhone sales have hit a ceiling. There's little by way of new when it comes to smartphones, so much so that you'd struggle to discern the key differences. When the most exciting feature on the iPhone front is on the iPhone back — the rear cameras, that is — you know it's peak tech stasis. No wonder, then, an average smartphone user now holds on to the same smartphone for an average of nearly three years.
What's more, if you're already own an iPhone XS or XS Max — or any working phone for that matter — there's nothing that justifies the upgrade unless the phone you're currently using is absolutely non-functional and unusable. Do you change your TV sets every year? Or the refrigerator? Microwave ovens? Then why alone phones? At the end of the day, the improved specs mean nothing. You either need a new phone or you don't. And if you don't need a new phone, then there's no reason to buy this one.
The new screens have more pixels, the benchmarks are faster, the cameras shoot better in the dark, the battery life is a little better... and that's about it? But if the 2019 models are merely an evolutionary, incremental upgrade, it's because Apple is already setting its sights on September 2020 with an all-new design for the iPhone and support for in-display fingerprint scanning tech.
This isn't to brush aside the real innovation that's happening under the hood. Apple's A13 Bionic chip offers enhanced power efficiency — despite housing a record 8.5 billion transistors inside — and a class-leading machine learning performance via an eight-core neural engine that's capable of performing 1 trillion operations per second. Smartphone screens are another area, as are battery optimisations and a host of other advancements across Android and iOS. What we're not seeing is dramatic paradigm shifts, like the way it used to be in the early 2010s.
So, here's a wrap-up of everything Apple announced at its annual keynote -
- Apple Arcade comes September 19 in over 150 countries for $4.99/month.
- Apple TV+ gets a soft-launch with select shows available to stream (including on the web) on November 1 for $4.99/month undercutting all streaming rivals.
- A seventh generation 10.2-inch iPad with A10 Fusion chip and 8MP camera for $329, and Apple Watch Series 5 with always-on display, built-in compass, and safety services.
- iPhone 11 with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos support, support for wide and ultra wide camera shots and improved low-light photography, A13 Bionic processor, and slow-motion selfies (aka slofies) starting at $699.
- iPhone 11 Pro/ Pro Max with a triple camera system (wide, ultra wide and telephoto camera) that positions the "pro" model as a media creation machine, a 5.8 inch/ 6.5 inch Super Retina XDR display, and A13 Bionic processor starting at $999/$1099
- iPhone 7, iPhone Xs and Xs Max models to be phased out.
- iOS 13 will hit iPhones and watchOS 6 will reach Apple Watches on September 19 (iOS 13.1 update will arrive later on September 30).
- iPadOS will ship a few days later on September 30.
- macOS Catalina is still due at an as-yet unspecified date in October.
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