While Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is usually accompanied by a deluge of speculation and conjecture centred around the unprecedented cone of silence that descends upon all of Apple’s new products, this year’s WWDC had remarkably little of the usual suspense and the announcement trumpeted as the future of mobile tech turned out to be rather anticlimactic. Thanks a lot Gizmodo!
If you haven’t heard, over a month ago a prototype iPhone 4 was found in a local bar, later sold to popular tech site Gizmodo, disassembled and revealed for the entire world to see. While Apple CEO Steve Jobs certainly didn’t shy away from the fact that the cone of silence had been broken, stating, “Now, some of you have already seen this,” he then quipped, “believe me, you ain’t seen it.”
But with the usual CIA level of secrecy around the iPhone 4 already shattered into thousands of pieces, was there anything revealed at yesterday’s WWDC that the tech world didn’t already know, guess, or assume was going to be available on Apple’s newest device? The answer is most assuredly “no,” and sorry Mr. Jobs, we have seen this phone before; it’s called every other smartphone on the market.
While the announcement at the conference on Monday officially revealed the iPhone 4 to the world, it was a bit of a letdown for those wanting to see Apple really push the technological envelope again. I suppose had Gizmodo not spoiled the surprise early with its unveiling of the phone last month the announcement yesterday may have been more impressive, but I’ll be honest, even if it hadn’t been leaked, I would still not really be impressed.
It was revealed yesterday that Apple has slimmed down the overall design of the phone, making it 24% slimmer, and, as reports indicate, added more than 100 new features. But before you get all excited that Apple has revolutionized the mobile market once again, they use the term ‘new’ very loosely.
You see, almost the entire gamut of upgrades and changes made to the iPhone 4 are incremental in nature, meaning that Apple has improved many of the features of the iPhone 3Gs or simply added many of the features it had developed for the iPad. While features like iBook and iAd are new to the iPhone 4, they’re certainly not new in the sense that we haven’t seen them before.
Although the new iPhone 4 will also include a HD video recorder and an upgraded 5 megapixel camera, neither of these stand out in the overall mobile market, and in fact, fall considerably behind some of iPhone 3Gs’ main rivals.
Out of all the features that Jobs rattled off in his hour presentation, only two really struck me as innovative and interesting. First, Apple has developed its new IPS technology-based screen for the iPhone 4, dubbed the Retina Display. Why are they calling it that? Simply because the at 326 pixels per inch it contains more pixels than the human eye can actually see, which will make the phone’s display incredibly vibrant for, say… eagles and other animals with advanced visual acuity. Talk about overkill.
Second, Apple unveiled the addition of FaceTime, a new video chat feature now integrated into the iPhone, although in the current wireless market this feature will only work with a Wi-Fi connection. What was noticeably absent from the presentation however, was any mention of the possibility of additional carriers for the phone when it hits stores on June 24th, but I guess dissolving its exclusivity agreement with AT&T may have been asking a little too much from Apple.
In the end though, with the tech world at large already getting a look at the leaked iPhone 4, with the earlier unveiling of Apple’s new OS 4, now renamed the iOS 4, and the fact that most of the upgrades to the iPhone 4 just now achieve hardware parity with its closest mobile rivals, there’s really nothing here we haven’t seen before; and this fact has got me thinking, without the over-hyped sense of secrecy and mystique, is Apple really the innovative and advanced tech company that we all think it is?
Perhaps all the company’s recent successes have stemmed from the fact that they are, in essence, just really good at marketing their products; masters of developing hype. Whatever the case may be, Apple’s marketing team will need to work overtime to convince the public that the iPhone 4 is really the phone they’ve been waiting for.
(Click here for more details of the iPhone 4)
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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca >. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com > by: RSS >, Twitter >, Identi.ca >, or Friendfeed >
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Apple could essentially develop the same product over and over again, slap a lowercase “i” on it, ship the schematics over to China to be put together by eight-year-olds, and market it to the masses and turn massive profits in quarter after quarter. Their hold on their demographic is ferocious and frightening, as we’re seeing clear evidence of brand association in action with their “fans.”
Companies like Apple made clear efforts to simply associate their brand names with people. Products became secondary and that’s what we’re seeing here. How good or how innovative the iPhone 4 is remains almost entirely irrelevant except for journalists and tech geeks. What really matters is the marketing, as you point out, and the association of a desperate, drooling group of “fans” with the Apple brand.
These days we have “fans” of corporations and brand logos. Whatever happened to being a fan of a sports team or an artist?
“These days we have “fans” of corporations and brand logos. Whatever happened to being a fan of a sports team or an artist?”
I never quite thought about it those terms, but yikes, that’s a scary thought. But haven’t you heard? Steve Jobs is an artist…:p