The Apple event yesterday unveiled the iPhone 6, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch, which might be the biggest Apple announcement since the iPad. This event was big for me, however, because it was the first iPhone event after getting one myself, which finally gave me the experience of, “I gotta get me one of those.”
The previous 7 iPhone announcements were less meaningful to me since I had no basis of comparison. They looked cool, but all of them were well-beyond my flip phone. Looking at the new features and specs of the iPhone 6, however, I could feel how these improvements would change my life, despite my light usage of my current phone. It’s thinner. It has better battery life. The camera is fancier and stabilized in ways I don’t understand. It uses technology to make phone calls better, apparently. What’s not to love?
This has led me to the same crisis as every other iPhone user has experienced for many years before me of how to reconcile my desire for something new and shiny with the reality of an existing contract and the fact that I still have it pretty good with a 1 year old phone. It still feels new to me.
So I turn towards sour grapes to resolve the dissonance. Well, my current phone is better anyways. The new form factor is too big. My phone is already bigger than it probably needs to be, and the bigger screen would just frustrate my pockets. And I would be so worried about breaking the new phone that I couldn’t really use it to its full capacity. Things are totally better this way.
But if the apple fairy came into my house at night and swapped my iPhone 5S for an iPhone 6, would I be okay with that? Heck yes.
The Apple Pay thing was cool, but I think the real target of the event was the Apple Watch. After having talked to various people over the past day, it seems like opinions are spread, but the median is negative. It’s too expensive. It’s probably limited by phone tethering. It looks too big. It looks too small. It’s too rectangular.
I myself am more positive on it than not. With the caveat that I am incapable of dressing myself (Julie does that for me) and don’t have any sense for fashion, this watch looks like something that people would want to wear. It offers customizability in something that one presents as part of their image constantly, and I think people care about that sort of thing.
I’m also not worried about the price point: Apple is snobby, and those unwilling to pay will have to wait for the price to drop, which I believe it will. For a completely new product, however, Apple has priced it high enough to detract people from using it just to give it a hard time. Only the rich and Apple fanboys will buy it, and that will give it snob appeal and positive user reviews regardless of the true experience. Apple seems to do a good job refining products, and I think the next iteration will improve while keeping the brand intact.
Of course, I’m not planning on getting one, but I’m excited to see how it goes. Detractors mentioned how derivative this product is and how other, cheaper products provide better, targeted experiences. I have to admit that I myself was hoping for something more exotic. Maybe it could have been something implanted in one’s chest like Tony Stark’s reactor, or something similarly mind-blowing. But it’s just a watch, and I think people will be more than happy with that anyways.