Is Apple reaching the limits on technical innovation
Apple’s September event this year was a little underwhelming when it comes to big innovations that blow me away. Normally, Apple put at least one thing on my Christmas wish list each September, but this year I watched the event and left feeling underwhelmed with no most have new gadget.
Yes, what they showed off was impressive the new cinematic video with rack focusing is really cool and shows off the remarkable power of the new A15 chip powering the iPhone 13. But it doesn’t make me want to trade in my 12 Pro and upgrade.
The new iPad 9th generation is an outstanding tablet for £329 and packs serious power even with the older A13 chipset. This will still be the tablet I recommend to friends and family. But again nothing to blow me away and think I have to get the upgrade for my kid’s older iPad 7th generation.
Finally, the watch. A bigger screen and faster charging, both nice to have features, but I won’t be swapping my series 5 anytime soon. I would be interested to know if the series 5 and 6 would benefit from the faster USB-C charging if you purchased the new charger separately?
This is the second year I wasn’t blown away with the September event from Apple. It’s not that Apple can’t innovate, we have seen that with the raw power and features they packed into the new M1 iMac only earlier this year. I just wonder if the pace of innovation in mobile has finally reached its peak and we are now looking at long stretches of refinement and tweaks that we have seen in macs for years until the switch to Apple Silicon.
This does make me a little sad. As a geek and a gadget lover, I am always wanting the next big thing, the next showcase piece. I do hold optimism, for other product areas that Apple have long been the underdog in, for example TV and smart home tech.
Apple has played in the smart home and TV markets for some time, but never had that hit product and always seems to be playing catch up to Amazon in this area. Now is the time for Apple to pull something out of the bag and take a dominant place at the front of the home automation market. And they could do just that early next year when Matter becomes a thing for actual devices and not just a working collaboration between big tech companies producing nothing but paper specs and ideas.
I do think next year could be the year we see some improvements to Apple Watch. We have seen many rumours about new sensors and a case designs that didn’t turn out to be true. It wouldn’t be the first time the rumours just pointed to the wrong year. Apple doesn’t plan next year’s release only 10 months beforehand. They have a plan that runs 2 or 3 versions in front of what we see on stage. Apple already knows what the series 8 Watch is going to be before Tim Cooke even steps on stage to show us the 7th.
