Wow, what a disappointing presentation: Apple’s Media Event on Sept 10th was the biggest disappointment I had with regards to Apple.
I don’t mean to say that I expect Apple to innovate ahead of everybody else every year and introduce ground-breaking technologies year after year. That was not what I was expecting.
What disappointed me were two items:
First it was the total absence of any iPad or AppleTV related announcement. I’m waiting for a new iPad for quite some time now and I don’t really want to buy one of the current ones. Not that I need more power or so or higher resolution. It’s just a matter-of-fact that, knowing that Apple will at some point this year announce the next iPad, I don’t want to waste any money on last year’s model (yes, I know, that’s just being stingy or whatever).
Also, I was really expecting that Apple would finally announce the opening up of the AppleTV platform for developers, like iPad and iPhone. But, alas, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing, nada, zilch! One reason why I hoped for a change there was that I believe a new AppleTV (preferably with a A7 chip) would allow Apple to finally completely conquer the living room, especially with regards to games.
Of course, you’d still need a controller but you could either use your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad as controller.
But my main reason for hoping for opening up the AppleTV as a platform is Plex! I have a vast collection of (legal) movies and TV Shows (I bought the DVDs and converted them to MKV or so myself) and would love to be able to use Plex on an AppleTV connected to my TV. My videos are in our apartment in Germany (with a very fast internet connection); I am currently living in the US. I can either carry the hard disks with me or access them over the internet using Plex. I prefer the latter one Currently, I can watch these only on my iPad or iPhone. On big screen with a comfortable UI would be great.
But the second topic is more severe: iPhone 5c! What the h***? Yes, it is a great phone and yes, Apple finally understood that people (consumers) would want to have their phones in different colors (like iPods). But the pricing??? Come on! Someone in the Apple financial department probably thought that pricing these devices slightly under the higher-priced iPhone 5S would actually drive more customers to iPhone 5S rather than the lower-margin 5C?
And no, I don’t believe that the 5C has a lower margin. In fact, because the technology in the 5C is mostly from last year, I believe Apple’s margin on the 5C is higher than on the 5S due to economies of scale.
But… who does Apple think they want to attract with such an outrageous price? Didn’t we tell Apple that an iPhone at around 399$ or even 299$ (without contract) would finally help them enter the huge Indian and Chinese market? And not to forget other emerging markets?
It seems as though that Steve Jobs left a bigger hole than most people anticipated. At Apple, at least in my world-view now, the financial guys have taken over wrt pricing. Expect Apple to start declining over the next five years – unless, yes unless, they change their mind and introduce an iPhone 5C for around USD 299 (without contract) within the next six months.
And hey, I’m not Apple-basher, neither am I an Android fanboi. I’m an Apple fan. I’m using Apple-products for nearly 25 years now. I use a MacBookAir 11″ (best laptop ever), iPhone 5, iPad Mini, have an iMac at home and so on.
But, I must say, enough is enough. Now that Steve is gone, it is probably time for me to go as well – the question is: to where? (Laptop-wise I’ll stay; Android is not an option for tablet or phone – so, maybe, Windows Phone?? *sigh*)