Apple Press Conference Analysis By: Bryan Quevedo
It
is that beautiful time of year where Pappa Apple comes running through your
door to announce his latest and greatest innovation pieces of tech you just
have to buy. Cue the lights, prepare the
tech and begin the conference because like every other Apple event, no one will
ever leave disappointed… or so they thought this year. This conference, unlike most other years, had
much to reveal but little to make audiences of all likes to get excited
for. With the reveal of the IPhone 6S,
there also came news of a new Apple TV, styles for the Apple Watch, a newer
bigger laptop killing IPad and a bunch of other specs people would never
understand unless you break it down in simple English. As the title claims, it felt lackluster and
almost pointless but nevertheless there were quite a few interesting announcements
that made this conference worth listening.
For this reason, I will list the positives and negative highlights of
the conference to avoid any confusion on what was good and what was dull.
Positives: People will
always come into these conferences awaiting what sort of new features Apple
will come up next. For years Apple has
been the face of innovation and I would be lying if I said it still isn’t. Beginning with the IPhone 6S and 6S Plus, we
do see some new features being shown through the phones new 3D Touch. This allows users to apply different
pressures to the screen to quickly access their media. Want a quick look at your messages? Simply add slight pressure over the icon and
you will see your most recent messages.
It is a great new feature that the phone needed alongside its
multitasking program thanks to the new 64-bit A9 chip found in the phone. This allows for a 70% faster CPU (in simplest
this is the brain of the computer that allows for faster processing of
programs) and a 90% faster GPU (the part of the phone that allows for rapid
mathematical calculations that help render images faster) meaning graphic
intense apps will now render smoothly, or so they say. You do of course get faster Wi-Fi and LTE
network, which has been standard for every upgrade for a while, but more
importantly and fascinating is the addition of a 12- megapixel “iSight” rear
camera. Photos are said to come out
clearer than ever before and allows for videos to be shot in 4K, a resolution
that is 4 times greater than 1080p. No
other phone has ever matched IPhones phone technology and now thanks to Apple,
people will be able to carry around a portable 4K video camera. Alongside the IPhone, we also got smaller
announcements of interest such as Apple’s new payment plan, allowing consumers
to pay monthly for their devices through Apple.
This is a program very similar to Verizon’s Edge program or Sprint’s
program. Not new, but a great addition
allowing new users to come in and not feel completely intimidated about Apple’s
prices. The new IPad Pro and Apple
Pencil made strong appearance, showing off that the laptop/tablet market was
never off the table for Apple. The IPad
Pro will come in at almost a 13 in diagonal screen running with an A9X mobile
processor claiming it to be 80% faster than most other portable PCs. It’s CPU performance will supposedly run
faster than the IPad Air 2 and have a greater resolution than a MacBook Pro
with Retina display. Its companion, the
Apple Pencil, could potentially be the digital artist new friend. This new device caters to the artist by
allowing smooth and practically flawless editing to be done by letting users
alter or create an image by just one pixel.
Besides the humorous attempts and reactions to Apple’s failed attempt to
photoshop a smile onto a woman, this was essentially it for the positives of
Apple’s conference.
Negatives: Paying more than
you should for something that hasn’t really changed much is never a good
thing. It makes people uncomfortable and
Apple is better off asking people to pay for their things with kidney’s and
livers than an arm or a leg. The biggest
turn off of this year’s conferences, as well as the others beforehand are the
prices of their hardware. Apple has made
it “easier” to pay for their IPhones with the monthly payment plans that start
at $32 but the starting prices of the IPad Pro and new Apple Watch styles are a
letdown for any hard middle class Apple user.
Starting at a base price of $800, the IPad Pro offers itself at 32GB.
64GB and a staggering 128GB with 4G LTE that is priced at $1080 that wouldn’t
be a problem if its accessories weren’t all sold separately. In total, many people are reporting that a
top of the line experience with an Apple IPad Pro, someone would have to spend
around $1400 or more depending on the warranty plans offered. Apple is known for innovation but this
conference felt very much like a copy paste of others. As interesting as Apple TV sounds, it is a
piece of tech that has existed elsewhere. With a newly integrated iOS software
which now includes Siri, this felt more like an advancement for current Apple
TV users than someone new. The addition
of gaming seems like an excellent idea (especially if users get to see Infinity
Blade on the big screen) but it is something that has been attempted by several
others and if the trend follows, it won’t be the big feature as Apple claims it
to be.
The conference felt lackluster and it was mainly due to the fact that nothing besides the new payment plan was aimed to attract new users. The phone reveals always seem to be the highlight and yet truly changed from its predecessor. If this conference has shown us anything, it is that Apple can sell audiences anything they want, simply by adding "Apple" to anything they create. (Apple Pencil...really?)
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