Apple's Latest Products Get Rare Mixed-Bag Reviews, Muted Reception (bloomberg.com)

Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg: Despite the strength of its brand, Apple occasionally releases a product to mediocre reviews -- remember the original Apple TV or Apple Watch? But reviewers have rarely been as grumpy as this month, when Apple unveiled its collection of new gadgets for the holidays. "I can't think of a single compelling reason to upgrade [to iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus] from an iPhone 7 [which was launched last year]," wrote Nilay Patel of The Verge. Another potential sign of trouble: the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during pre-orders, another rare occurrence for Apple phones. [...] Reviewing the new Apple Watch Series 3 model, The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern wrote "On the AT&T-connected models, the cellular connection dropped, calls were often choppy and Siri sometimes failed to connect. On the one that ran on T-Mobile, I experienced several dropped connections." The Verge's Lauren Goode noticed a serious connection issue as well, saying the device "would appear to pick up a single bar of some random Wi-Fi signal, and hang on that, rather than switching to LTE." [...] Reviewing the Apple TV 4K, The Verge's Patel noted the device's high price, a lack of 4K support in major apps including YouTube, and a lack of support for the Dolby Atmos audio standard. Reuters reported on Friday: Hundreds of people usually gather at Apple's Sydney city store with queues winding down the town's main street, George Street, when there is a new product release. But there were fewer than 30 people lining up before the store opened on Friday, according to a Reuters witness. While the number of people queuing up outside Apple stores have dropped over the years with many opting for online purchases, the weak turnout for the latest iPhone has partly been due to poor reviews. Over at Financial Times, Tim Bradshaw reports: "I think demand is down from last year, for no other reason than you have another flagship phone," said Neil Cybart, an Apple analyst at Above Avalon. "A portion of the iPhone launch demand is not materialising quite yet." That could leave this weekend's initial sales lower than at any point since the iPhone 6 first launched in 2014, Mr Cybart added. Apple's decision to increase prices for the iPhone 8 compared with last year's model and a less aggressive launch push by mobile carriers could also affect demand.

Comments

Tim, I usually sell good advice

[Opportunist]

This one is free.

I know, you're a Bauhaus enthusiast. And you know, I usually agree: Remove everything that's superfluous and what remains will be perfect. No frills, no fluff, no bells, no whistles. Bare bone, form follows functions approach. Absolutely agree.

You overdid it. And to make matters worse, you then went astray.

You removed features people actually didn't see as superfluous. And added some that actually are. Reverse this and you'll see people return to your product.

Re:"the iPhone 8 models didn't sell out during..."

[torkus]

Depending on which precision model it is...most likely 56. (assuming you bring a crate full of adapters) Now tell me how many ports you DON'T NEED adapters for on the MBP? Oh right ... one.

Hint: TB/USB-C aren't exclusive to apple.

I have a new MBP (thanks work) and it sucks. The keyboard is outright horrific - quite literally the worst keyboard I've used in a decade despite regularly testing new products. The touch bar is a waste of space/life and seems to cause more problems than it fixes. It's certainly not a PRO machine (i.e. high end, high spec, meant for heavy use) and I half the things I want to do require a dongle, dock, or some add-on that makes life even more annoying.