There was a time when an Apple event signaled another technological paradigm shift, replete with fancy new gadgets on the bleeding edge of what was possible.
That image is clearly not indicative of the current reality.
Last week, Forbes reported Apple revealed the much-anticipated next generation of iPhones, along with updates to the Apple Watch and the Apple TV. Most of the updates were expected and incremental, like improved central processing units and graphics specs in the new iPhones and 4K capability for the Apple TV. All of these improvements are laudable to some extent, but they are a far cry from what Apple keynote events once looked like.
Jonah Baker | Argonaut
Now, more than ever, Apple is catching up with the bleeding edge of technology, rather than acting as the razor itself. After more than a decade of providing the world with the newest and greatest technologies, the optics suggest the Apple really has fallen back into the pack.
One of the bigger advancements touted in Apple’s new generation of iPhones was the introduction of wireless charging for the iPhone X, which is a technology that was available to smartphone manufacturers as early as 2009. Samsung, Apple’s chief rival in the smartphone arena, has employed wireless charging for its Galaxy phones since 2013.
Apple was also one of the last TV vendors to add 4K capabilities to their device. Amazon, Roku and Google have all been implementing the resolution for almost a full year prior to Apple’s announcement.
Beyond these improvements, Apple did not offer much of a new paradigm-shifting technology during their presentation. The new iPhones offered incremental adjustments to current technologies and the Apple TV and Watch did little to move the creative needle.
All of these shortcomings are not to say Apple is no longer an important and successful tech company. Logic would dictate, however, that less innovative products would carry with them less painful price tags.
This is the one area where Apple still deviates from the pack.
Despite the less-than-spectacular improvement in technology, Apple had no qualms in setting the price points for these new products firmly in the premium range. The iPhone X starts at a hefty $999 and tops out at $1,149, while the lowest memory iPhone 8 model is $699 and the highest memory iPhone 8 Plus is around $949. All price points are at least $50 more expensive than comparable Samsung models.
So how does Apple justify charging more for less innovative products?
The simple answer is that Apple has a nearly insurmountable cult following. A CNBC report in May found Apple’s share of smartphone profits slid five percent from the last quarter of 2016 through the first quarter of 2017, and that Samsung had converted some Apple users. However, Apple still dominates the smartphone market with a whopping 83 percent of the market share.
While a five percent drop is not as significant when taken in context, it is a good indicator of how the mindset at Apple has shifted. It has been a long time since the company has put out a truly revolutionary product, and that lull has allowed other companies to catch up and even surpass Apple’s technology.
The tech giant may not be in trouble yet, but it is absolutely in their best interests to find exciting new directions before the company loses more of its edge over the competition.
Apple has definitively lost a step. They are no longer the boundary-pushing, unbeatable titan of industry that they revolutionized every tech arena they laid hands on. Challengers are gaining ground on Apple’s stranglehold of the smartphone market and their forays into TV and wearable technology quite simply don’t do enough to separate from the pack. Unless the company makes concerted strides to regain their innovative edge, the company will continue to regress toward the pack.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker