There was a time when Apple’s keynote addresses were a significant event. Built on the back of Steve Jobs’ ability as a master presenter. Jobs’ skill was a bona fide star who was excited by the products he revealed. When he passed away, Apple was not just left with a job vacancy for CEO – a position that has been expertly filled by Tim Cook – but a gaping hole for its most powerful advocate.
The announcement of the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4 was expertly executed. Slick videos, well scripted and performed presentations – all the pieces are there. But they lack showmanship. As someone that has been watching and reporting on Apple product releases for almost 20 years, I remember the hype that followed an Apple product release. Queues at stores, filled with people who slept out overnight to be at the front of the line when the store opened, were common.
This morning, the Australian news barely mentioned the new products. There was a time when these would be covered in every major news program from breakfast through to the evening news. Today, an overnight government announcement about regulating the age people can access social media has bumped Apple completely out of the news cycle.
Is that news a big deal? Absolutely. But for Apple to barely rate a mention is astounding.
The problem with the keynotes
No-one ever expected Tim Cook to be another Steve Jobs. He is a completely different style of leader. And his success at the helm of Apple may have been built on what Steve Jobs created but it has far exceeded Jobs’ in many ways. There have been new products, massive revenues, huge profits and a company valuation that sits in the top three, and sometimes at the top, of all comp names in history.
But that growth has come at a cost. Apple is predictable. New product features are announced months before they reach market, usually at WWDC. The release cycle for many new products are predictable – particularly the iPhone which, like it or not, is a barometer of Apple’s innovative DNA.
It also means Apple needs to overhype relatively minor features. For example, the way Apple Watch Ultra 2 – a product that received no hardware upgrades – was hyped for coming in a new colour. While a satin black watch looks great, it’s not a massive feature.
With Apple’s products now at a high level of maturity, they are at a stage where, unless they release something all-new like the Vision Pro, updates are incremental. What we see are features from premium products, like the Apple Watch Ultra, move into lower-grade products. For example, the water depth and temperature sensors that were in Apple Watch Ultra are now part of Apple Watch Series 10.
The new AirPods get a speaker for Find My, a feature that’s part of the AirPods Pro, and wireless charging.
Falling into speeds and feeds
One of the biggest differences between Apple and other tech companies has been that Apple has focussed on what you can do and why its products make your life better. But the focus has shifted. We hear about chips, speeds and features. There’s a lot of ‘what’ but not a lot of ‘why’.
Simon Sinek once summed up the difference between Apple and other computer companies like this.
Can we say the same of Apple today?
The marketers have taken control
Many years ago, when I applied for a sales job, I was told that once I could fake sincerity I’d become a great sales person. I never had a career in sales. When I listen to various speakers and presenters, I really feel the fake sincerity coming through. The hyperbolic use of adjectives, the continued re-use of the term ‘aerospace’ to variously describe the aluminium and titanium casings used to make different products and focus on new colours.
Tim Cook has recognised that he is not able to replicate the magic of a Steve Jobs keynote. And that’s a good thing. Rather than try and imitate that style and be compared to his predecessor, Cook has taken a markedly different approach with scripted presentations and showcasing different people from across his team. This is a very clever move.
But I get the feeling that everyone is amping up the fake sincerity. It feels like Apple has hired a team of actors to play the roles of product evangelists. While that’s not the case, it all feels staged and controlled. Once of the great things about the live demonstrations that were a feature of the Jobs’ era was the chance that something could go wrong. The art of the reveal has been lost.
Who can forget the introduction of the first iPhone.
“Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device. So, three things. A widescreen iPod with touch controls. A revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an internet communications communicator. An iPod, a phone…, are you getting it?”
Or the moment Jobs slipped the first MacBook Air out of an office memo envelope?
Everything is so professionally produced and presented that there is no chance for any real excitement.
Apple Intelligence and a missed opportunity
I can’t help but wonder how Jobs would have handled the introduction of AI into Apple’s product portfolio. I’m sure it would not start with a discussion on Apple’s CPU/GPU performance. Nor would it talk about making Slack messages ore professional or proof-reading book reviews on Good Reads.
He would have humanised it and focused on features that impact our quality of life. And while that was covered in Craig Federighi’s bit of the iPhone 16 release, it was a secondary feature – not the lead. He does the same with Visual Intelligence and the new camera features. They were presented as a laundry list and not in a human-centric way.
It was a slick presentation of features but imagine something with a linking narrative that had someone employing the new features Apple Intelligence brings as they move through a day. Everything from crafting an email to their boss, to use Visual Intelligence to look at the many for a local restaurant while big devisions about lunch to updating their calendar when a friend texts them an invitation to a concert.
While Apple has moved ahead and achieved a level of success Jobs and Wozniak might scarcely have imagined, the company’s reputation as a leader and innovator is being scraped away. Sanitised demonstrations, slick production and obviously scripted presentations are making Apple boring.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.