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That iPhone 5 up there isn’t an iPhone 5. It’s a flawless computer image we had months before we ever saw the real thing, made possible by the fact that we knew exactly what it was going to look like. Exactly. Everyone did.
We used to look forward to iPhone day like Christmas morning, or some sort of decadent electric Bat Mitzvah party. It was shrouded in secrecy. Apple secrets. “One more thing.” Now, we get it all from China months in advance. Are Apple’s exciting days over?
Let’s get one thing clear: Apple still makes exciting things. The iPhone 5 is an incredible phone, and one that’s genuinely exciting to own. There’s nothing boring about the phone itself. But we knew what it was going to look like in May. May! We had photos of the iPhone 5 a quarter of a year in advance of it even being announced. So when it was announced, there was nothing to reveal—anyone who really cared had already seen it.
And for Apple, even back when people cared about the iPod in large groups, the reveal was huge. Steve Jobs wasn’t just a brilliant computer tyrant—he was the greatest corporate showman of our time. He made consumer electronics something people clapped loudly about, and watched local news reports on, and stood in line for. He could drum up hype and sweaty anticipation like none other, in part because the things Apple sells are terrific, but largely because they are super-cool looking, and us human apes love being shown cool-looking things that we weren’t expecting. Fireworks. The Oscars. The new iPhone. We love being surprised, and we love a company that can consistently surprise us. Apple had a monopoly on this kind of super-hype, because it kept projects locked down tighter than secret Santa at the Pentagon. The place was a vortex of mystery—until Steve trotted it out on stage and we squealed.
A video still of a leaked iPhone 5 case obtained months in advance, via China.
Now China does it. Whoever the person or people behind these consistently perfect leaks might be, they’re on their A-game, like some sort of Shenzhen Robin Hood. Instead of the big show, we get the steady flow of grainy, watermarked Apple things from bad angles, in harsh lighting, and covered in plastic wrap. It’s the difference between seeing a movie and buying a bootleg DVD from some guy behind a CVS, but the effect is profound: Apple can’t surprise us anymore, and its stellar products yield an “Oh, cool, here it is” response instead of an orgiastic communal jaw-drop. It happened with the iPhone 5.
That picture? A CG render we posted in June, a perfect fake long before anyone saw the real thing.
And now it’s happening with the iPad Mini—Apple’s other megahype-spurring thing. When those two gadgets wind up on our screens before Apple makes it official, the company loses power over us.
And frankly, good. We’ve been fetishising iThings for almost a decade now, far beyond the attention they command as top-tier devices. Apple deserves admiration and money because it makes wonderful things. But it doesn’t deserve to hold people in such thrall over what are still just products. We should be better than drooling at Apple’s feet as it waves a shrouded steak over us. It might also bring our expectations down from their stratospheric orbit, whereby anything less than an iPhone 6 made of crystal and sporting omnidirectional laser breasts will satisfy and impress.
When we start treating things like things, we can appreciate them as things, rather than messianic revelations. Apple might lose its hush-hush-kaboom cult of secrecy, but losing the power to shock and awe might be good for everyone. Besides, we’re going to buy the damn phone anyway.
None of Apple's Computers Are Environmentally Friendly Anymore
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So long as the products are good it’s not an issue.. .
But that’s the trouble, the products of late have been good.
but not fantastic
and as much as I can’t stand Apple as a company, I am writing this as if i don’t hold that opinion.
I would like to see them get back to wowing us again, I am not sure they can get back to it though, yes they will always sell no matter how good or bad their products are, but they are starting to rest on their laurels, which is a shame for Apple, and Android fans alike, because if Apple doesn’t really try, then the other companies may follow suit.
“Bat Mitzvah”
Oy vey…
Isn’t Bat Matzvah just the girl version?
Certainly tis.
Oh, and it’s nice to see Mr Drivel finally work out what lots of people have been saying for the past couple of years.
Apple have surprised me with how they can’t keep a secret, and they also surprised me with how mid-range and buggy the iPhone 5 is. They are full of surprises of late.
I have a theory that the second Steve passed away, it was decided to allow the current flow of pre-planned products to reach market. IE, iPhone 4S & 5 and iPad ’3′ etc. However, like Motorola, who are currently being purged of the old way (both from a staff and product angle), the old way at Apple was:
1) No stylus
2) No 7″ iPad
3) No touch screen iMac or netbook.
4) Propriatory connectivity and/or lack of confidence to follow through with things like Thunderbolt across all devices. (Cost and power requirements are valid excuses to be fair.)
Whilst the arguements made by Steve against the first three of these were valid, that implied lack of imagination in how to solve the problems that made these concepts impractical.
Evidence of this:
1) Popularity of Samsung Galaxy Note (I’m a user BTW) whose stylus execution was spot on – and the Note 2 is even better.
2) Popularity of Google/Asus Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire
3) Popularity of well designed touch screen netbooks from Toshiba, Fujitsu and more recently, the Microsoft Surface Tablets, of which the former two were and are very popular with designers, architects and data collection professionals. (The latter yet to reach the market, but very well received by everyone – even Apple fans.)
Whilst the popularity of their hardware has been incredible and deserved, Apple took the easy route.
a) They specified top notch components to create some products that are aesthetically incredible and a pleasure to operate (I recall first using an iPod Touch – prior to the availability of the iPhone 2G in the UK – and being totally BLOWN AWAY by the multitouch interface), but beyond the MagSafe connector on the MacBooks, most of the technology was acquired (lovely LG or Samsung LCD panels, Synaptics touchpads etc), and there is very little innovation. Compare to the Amazon Kindle. Incredibly compact, superb battery life, eInk display and best of all, the free to use WhisperSync connectivity. You don’t read about Amazon hardware because it’s so goddam reliable and seamless. Like a toaster!
b) Apple are simply slightly improving each product year by year and reaping the financial rewards, but that’s little different to what auto manufacturers do each and every year.
If they want to break away from the status quo, Apple have got to (re) appeal to the creative professionals that helped grow the company when their desktop GUI (despite being lifted from Xerox Parc) inspired a generation of publishers and designers.
So, in conclusion, to create ‘surprises’:
a) A (precision!) stylus driven tablet
b) An ultra thin lean back touch screen iMac/Monitor for CAD & other design work (or a 17″ dockable stylus driven iPad?)
c) A full merging of iOS and OS X with a rock solid flexible manner in which to manage apps and data.
d) DESTROY iTUNES!
I’m tired, cannot write any more.
Night night.
Oops, tiredness kills good writing, I omitted to finish the first paragraph! Let’s try again shall we?
“I have a theory that the second Steve passed away, it was decided to allow the current flow of pre-planned products to reach market. IE, iPhone 4S & 5 and iPad ’3′ etc and then modify their product strategy. This is similar to Motorola, who since the Google acquisition are currently being purged of the old way (both from a staff and product angle) and over the next few months and years will introduce some radical new products – the first being the European market friendly RAZI i. In my view, ‘the old way’ at Apple was:”
The thing is, Apple’s strength isn’t with iteration, it’s coming along every few years and giving a certain tech market a kick in the ass with something new, that hasn’t been done in the same way or half as well.
Apple either need to re-reinvent the phone/tablet/laptop/computer, or explode onto an emerging/stagnant market.
What apple has to do is appeal to the masses, and they do that. You will always get some people who require that little bit more than what’s on offer, usually people on a blog like this, myself included as I like to customise through jailbreaking…
Still think apple have done allot for this industry.
Do I recall a gyroscope in another phone prior to the iPhone 4? No
Is it now mainstream? Yes
We’re touch screen phones at the high end of the market prior to the iPhone? No, not that I recall, it was mainly the Nokia N series!
Did apple re-invent the tablet? Yes
Are tablets now selling the world over? Yes
Will apple pull something new out of the bag??? I think yes! And others will follow, but we just need to wait and see, the worlds biggest company isn’t just going to sit around, they will innovate!
The first Android phone had the accelerometer and compass which did the same job, so you had the Google Sky thing showing you augmented reality star maps.
I recall owning a high-end touch screen phone years before the iPhone. Yet in 1994 and the IBM Simon cost you $1099 off contract: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Simon.
And the iPad was a great step forwards, but not a reinvention but a redesign. Yet it was just the way the market was going and Apple brought that technology together first; laptops(minus keys), Arm processors, Solid-state memory, touch screen phones technology. If Apple didn’t exist I believe we’d have very similar design solutions already – as the design of the iPad was just a mobile version of the original Microsoft Surface. And the new Surface appears to be going beyond this Apple redesign with the Windows 8 Surface tablet. The Apple version would need to be an iBook Air’s workings in an iPad running OSX! So I say, a tablet running a real OS on real hardware is a true advancement – not just smartphone workings rehashed.
I think Apple have it in them to go on and design some great things. But that is all they are now, they do product and software design – and do it well.
Yet a company like Google surprises us a few times a year with those crazy experiments.
The Sony Ericsson P series phones were high end touchscreen phones.
What Apple have done for the industry is irrelevant in regards to their future success. They can’t say “Hey, we awesomely transformed phones back in 2007, so buy our 2015 iPhone 7!”. They need to blow minds with things people have never seen before and can’t get from anyone else.
It’s entirely possible they’ll pull some new innovation out their sleeves, but I think people are questioning it because Apple’s starting to look like and act like all the other companies. They need to keep creating rather than falling into an iterative rut.
Only time will tell what apple will pull outta the bag next…
This time next year it could be a great big touch screen Apple TV which integrates seamlessly with all other iDevices enhancing the user experience further…
Video games, I think I would like to see apple do something here, although it would be most likely more of what we already have.
Yeah,they should relaunch the pippin
The key to any gaming device is good solid hardware and developers to back it.. I think Apple are now in a different place to the days of old and would now succeed.
The reason Apple can’t surprise anyone anymore is because websites like Gizmodo tell everyone what they are going to do before they officially do it!
It is by no means a problem unique to Apple, the rumours and leaks that appear online long before anything is officially announced mean that very few high profile companies can make surprise announcements any more. Steve Jobs however managed to turn product announcement into theatre, and it was a beautiful thing to watch, he made you believe that what you were seeing was something truly unique, original and special, and often it was, when he took to the stage to announce something the anticipation was exciting, it was the spectacle as much as the actual product being announced that got people interested and excited about what he was saying.
“The reason Apple can’t surprise anyone anymore is because websites like Gizmodo tell everyone what they are going to do before they officially do it!” and the reason sites do so is because people want to read about it. If people didn’t care or refused to read any rumours websites would look elsewhere for stories to attract an audience
It is not just Gizmodo, (although perhaps Gizmodo got the most notorious/famous apple leak) and I’m not saying they should stop. People (myself included) enjoy reading rumours about future products. It does however mean that we are unlikely to see products launched with the same anticipation again, and the reason for this lies not with apples inability to produce products that could surprise, but with our appetite for knowing about them before they are announced.
It’s kind of like watching the end of a film before you go and see it, and then blaming the director when the outcome of the film fails to surprise you.
I have never read anything more true coming from you Mr Jones!
Many people complain about the number of Apple articles, but why would Giz not feature a topic which will increase revenue, as individuals we have a choice, nobody forces anyone to read anything.
In the same sense, apple charge what they know they get for a device, nothing wrong with that either, as consumers we have a choice, yet people will complain, maybe I should write to Ferrari and complain that I can’t afford one and to lower the price or else I’m gonna end up buying a Porsche!