Apple, a lack of enthusiasm and the next ‘iPhone Moment’

Apple apathy
Image credit: Art_Photo | shutterstock.com

All Apple seemed to achieve with its latest set of iPhones is a general lack of enthusiasm. As we reported last week, sentiment across Asia was luke warm, other manufacturers have handsets with all that ‘functionality’ already. In fact, sentiment across the board was luke warm, except for people who suffer from trypophia. They are scared of holes and are actually frightened of the new design.

And just when you were beginning to wonder why Apple keeps up their annual routine of what is becoming self harm, Business Insider ran a survey asking people why they were not upgrading their phones.

The answers:

  • Their current phone satisfies their needs. 
  • The new iPhones lack outstanding features that our respondents like. 
  • The price points are too high.

This does not mean that people are not being loyal to Apple, it means that they are happy with what they have.

The question is: have smartphone consumers consumed? Are they now happy with the range of games, apps and gizmos.

Or is there going to be another moment like the one when the first iPhone was launched?

There is some quite sensible money on the fact that there will be another ‘iPhone Moment’ but it will not be anytime soon.

In the meantime, there is a sense of companies (especially Apple) flailing about. There are reports that Apple has some AR/VR offering up its sleeve but nothing on the near horizon. And, of course, 5G was not a factor in the new range of iPhones. Instead they concentrated on ‘services’ – not exactly sexy, however useful they might be.

Then, just when you are getting a bit jumpy and wondering whether Douglas Adams was right when he said that computers are designed like typewriters with screens on top because otherwise our brains would melt, you think ‘OK, but that was at least 20 years ago’.

And just when your brain is feeling a little saturated by 5G launches and statistics about take up and all that, you come across a paper (apparently the first of its kind) on – yes, of course – 6G.

The paper comes from the University of Oulu in Finland, home of the first emergence of mobile phones (when phones were phones and looked like bricks with buttons).

It envisages a world of ubiquitous coverage and connectivity, a world where smartphones are obsolete and basically everything is a connected, intelligent device. It will be pivotal to the United Nations Sustainable Goals. It will connect us all and save the planet.

And it will with us in 2030, just over 10 years from now.

Maybe, just maybe, closer to then than now, the next ‘iPhone moment’ will happen and we will throw away our actual iPhones and plug in [insert preferred device or clothing or both].

The only problem we have with this vision – apart from the timescale – is that while you can backpack through the forests and jungles of Cambodia without ever losing 4G, come to the UK and you lose 4G (in fact any G) driving down a motorway or travelling on a train.

Ubiquitous telepresence is some way away but it will not prevent the next ‘iPhone Moment’.

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