We’ve seen this
Apple did this once before. It released a somewhat modest upgrade from the first iPhone model called the iPhone 3G. But you see, Apple called the new phone an iPhone 3G instead of an iPhone 1S. And its shape was a bit different, so that must mean it’s new! Later, Apple upgraded the relatively slow iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS. Everyone that’s had both knows one is painful, and the other is a fantastically usable phone. The spec sheet certainly wouldn’t be telling; but the reality of using the 3GS was that it was an order of magnitude better despite it physically appearing identical to the older iPhone 3G. The market bore out that Apple knew better and the iPhone 3GS was a fantastic success; it’s still selling after 2+ years on the market!
Now they’re at it again. The same tech analysts and press are saying how “disappointing” the iPhone 4S event was. And how awful a job Apple did. This is some of the most stellarly jaundiced and/or inane analysis by the tech press in a long time.
This same tech press said the iPod would fail, the iPhone would fail, the Apple Stores would fail, the iPad was a big iPod touch and would fail. The same press that goes to pains to find anything to laud about what are comparatively crappy alternatives (namely Android), that if viewed under the same filter as they use for Apple, would rightly be considered pure dung.
For example, if Apple is lame for making the iPad a “big iPod touch” how heinously awful a view should the tech press and analysts have of Android tablets? These Android tablets are not even the equivalent of a “big Android phone”? Yet, by and large, the tech press finds a way to avoid applying equal filters, and offers damning praise to the iPad and hopeful recommendations of Android tablets.
So here’s how the tech press got this all wrong
First, the iPhone 4S is a major upgrade to the iPhone 4 that equals or exceeds the differences between the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 3G, and remember, the iPhone 3GS was a spectacular success that’s still selling. Second, Apple is providing FREE-to-acquire and $99 sale point options for the first time with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. Third, Apple is launching the iPhone 4S in a zillion countries almost simultaneously (a feather in in Tim Cook’s cap).
Fourth, and most importantly, we have Siri, which unlike all the stupid Car Dial Number/Android Play Song/Take Crap Dictation features that the industry has been “satisfied” with, takes voice technology to where only SciFi depictions have gone heretofore. The damn thing understands context and previous states and objects in a conversation.
Assuming it works as advertised (and early reports are that it does), that alone, with nothing more, is a thermonuclear holy grail that somehow gets passed by. This is the stuff of movies. It’s Steve Jobs’ shepherding in one last revolution, and the collective press and analysts are acting like Apple merely added “hello kitty” wallpaper to the phone. They’re not analyzing it as the potential game changer that it is.
Lastly, the tech press is somehow putting the blame on Apple for not managing the press’ unrealistic expectations. Look, the iPod came out in 2001 and we didn’t get the iPhone until 2007. We didn’t get the iPad until 2010. Yet, after watching Apple for decades, knowing full well that most of the time they are making incremental, yet substantial, changes, the press still wants every Apple event to be a revolution. Steve “only” had 16 revolutions during his 35+ year career; expecting 2-3 technological revolutions per year (i.e., with each Apple event) is moronic. It’s crazy to blame Apple for not accounting for the press’s morbid stupidity and not to blame the tech pundits and analysts for fomenting that unrealistic expectation.
Ultimately the tech press is bunch of cowardly posers that lick their collective fingers to see where the public breeze is blowing and end up jabbing it directly up into the technorati hipsters’ collective posterior as a gauge of merit.