It’s that time of year, mid September marks the time for a new iPhone presentation. Usually its full of excitement and “hype” for the latest and greatest in technology advancements get put into a phone. 2018 marked the end of that and really it shouldnt be surprising.
Leaked information
The first let down came when Apple leaked an image of the new iPhones mere days out from the keynote presentation. Apple is renowned for tight security and a leak is rare, this one came from simply leaving the image addresses in the website source code. Ouch.
You could say they deliberately let something slip to create build up, but given the new iPhone lineup that was revealed i doubt it. The new lineup is stale.
The iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr are the latest iPhones. The naming for a start isn’t flash, xs is synonymous for extra small and using max doesn’t suit Apple. Plus or + suits fine but that comes onto the next part, the tiered phone specifications.
No tiered specifications
In the past the larger iPhone meant slight better specifications. From the more ram, battery (size) life and a better camera in the 7, 7 plus and 8, 8 plus lineup. This year the iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the same (except the obvious size and battery size). It’s this strange move that will make consumers simply only buy the bigger phone for the size. Maybe Apple is questioning if larger phones are just a fad?
The iPhone Xr is the new SE. A simpler more compact phone that is slightly cheaper. Sprucing the words “liquid retina” you can’t gloss over the fact its a 720p screen. No special marketing words will save it. Aside from the less stylish design, poor(er) screen and less waterproof the Xr has the same insides.
Full faced OLED screen was deployed in the previous iPhone X (2017) which this years iPhone lineup copies design wise largely. The only aspect worth getting excited about is the “better” CPU chip and the hour or so more battery you will get.
Apple have seemingly just rolled out a new iPhone lineup with bare minimal improvements, it’s this going through the motions that is frustrating. Consumers will still buy because its Apple but from a solid business sense it doesn’t stand up.
In the past year or so Apple has done bizarre things and also fallen down on its reputation, maybe just maybe they didn’t want to risk an iPhone disaster like they have the Mac book problems.
Pricing
The media always raves on about the prices but honestly its the norm now days to see a $1000 phone. Apple has strategically put the iPhone Xs at $999 USD for its base line 64GB phone. The 64GB Xs Max comes in at $1099, that’s decent. The ever budget Xr starts at $749 for 64GB.
This pricing is actually mirrored from the 2017 iPhone X launch at $999. I would have thought Apple could have pushed that given their status. It is rather baffling that people are still surprised at the pricing of new phones. Consumers will pay therefor set the price accordingly.
2018 iPhone keynote was a bore fest, from the leaks to nothing exciting being pushed out into the world. What an odd predicament 2018 and Apple hasn’t been innovative.