The latest Apple event was not a transformative product launch although all the elements of the constant updating of technology were there in the new iPhones — better cameras, faster chips, new colours and a force-sensitive 3D touch. The announcements of a bigger iPad and a new Apple TV box should normally have made this an inspirational launch, in the Steve Jobs tradition, but the market’s ardour may have cooled given the economic overtones as well as there being much of a muchness about these things nowadays.
While the Twitterati were making fun of the stylus on offer with the iPad Pro since such add-ons to tablets were derided in the past by the late Jobs, charismatic leader of the largest company in the world in terms of its $641-billion value, there is no knowing if the refinements in the new iPad will help Apple break into traditional desktop markets dominated more by competitors to the Mac series. The difference between Apple and the others is that it has marketed these as devices that make for a distinctive lifestyle more than the strictest utility terms, and the premiums it commands are a unique phenomenon.
The technical point being made against Apple is that its basic iPhone offerings come with standard 16 GB storage, thought inadequate for the kind of apps — general and gaming — and filming plus storage of music files that add to the user experience and dominate usage patterns. To offer double the storage on one of the world’s top selling smartphones would cost Apple not even $7 per instrument. Isn’t it time the world leader put rich user experience above profit?
