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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.
Well yeah, people are waiting for the iPhone X. Or...gasp, the smartphone market is becoming saturated.
Maybe Apple will start giving their computers some love again. Or take their money and get into a whole new business to diversify a bit. At the moment they're all in on the phones and phone accessories, which is not a great plan long term.
The iPhone 8, other than a faster processo, slightly better camera and wireless charging is the exact same as the 7, which is very similar to the 6. The X has the same internals as the 8 and is much more expensive. Apple has really quit trying to be a innovative leader.
People who want the latest and greatest Iphone will go for Iphone X. Cant see any compelling reason to move from Iphone 7 to Iphone 8.
It is also the first time Apple has released its new phones with the premium model being delayed a few months, I know if I intend to upgrade there is little reason to get the 8 over the X.
I like how the Bloomberg article attributes the mediocre reviews of Apple products to "grumpy reviewers". Because of course, it's not possible that Apple's offerings could ever actually be mediocre.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It's a telephone. The first year that the Bell phone hung on the wall everyone I'm sure was excited. Now a days there's a box in my parent's basement full old crap phones...you want one? all are free!!! This is where we are with the iPhone. It's a phone. The most exciting feature of the X is an animated emoji - I hear the movie sucked ! The phone is still a rectangle. You have any idea how long it took AT&T to change the shape of the phone - wasn't until after it was deregulated.
I do need a new phone - have a discontinued iPhone 5 (no S, no C, no Plus.... plain old original stock). However, the X is too rich and thinking about the whole material things won't love me issue...I'll go for the 8. But my wife has the 7 --- and I don't see a difference.
Obviously I hold onto things until they expire. Do I save a buck and get the 7 or at least get the most current model 8?! or maybe the SE because it is smaller - and I have the watch too.
But why do I need a smartphone again?! Oh, so I can swipe through FB twice a day while pretending to care about the content !? That experience can be had for far less than a $1,000 X.
And damit -- why are the storage sizes 64 or 256. Why couldn't it have been a useful 128 vs 256? Oh - 'cause nobody would pay the premium for a 256. I guess I will be parted from my money.
Oh woes me.
.. isn't hardware. It's software. More specifically, Apple offers a complete platform where hardware, software (OS and built-in apps), web services (iCloud, App Store, iTunes music and video) and content are all fully and seamlessly integrated. Users get a consistent experience across devices, and app developers can count on relatively consistent capabilities on end-user devices (as opposed to the fairly disparate device software and hardware configurations and capabilities on Android and Windows platforms). All the attention at an Apple product launch is paid to the shiny new hardware. Relatively little attention is paid to the fundamental improvements in the platform, like the adoption of HEVC and HEIF (2x better photo and video compression), or the introduction of Augmented Reality and Machine Learning (ARkit and Core ML), multitasking, drag and drop. Why do you think Microsoft is now in the hardware business, and Google is building a hardware business? They can't compete with Apple if they can't offer a seamless experience.
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.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Why should there be some kind of surprise that the market for iPhones eventually becomes saturated? The iPhone 6s was the same as iPhone 6 with better specs, and the 7 was a 6s with better specs but without the headphone jack. The 8 is basically an improved 8, and they all look the same. They all run an identical OS. I don't want to blame Apple for the lack of innovation. The technology has now matured and Apple has found a formula that works for them, and they're sticking with it.
However, this incredible bubble has to eventually pop. When more and more people realize that their three year old iPhone looks and works the same as the new one, less and less of them will be willing to spend 700-1000USD for a new one each cycle. I can imagine upgrading from the 6, because it has only 1GB of RAM, but 6S is where I would stop upgrading iPhone because the 6s still can use wired headphones.
Yes, I would say it is indeed factually accurate to say that, with a few exceptions*, it is rare for Apple products to receive substantial numbers of lukewarm or hostile reviews from august publications.
*exceptions include Fisher-Price iMac, Desk Lamp iMac, Aluminum iMac, iPod the First, iPod the Touch, iPhone Ha Ha No Keyboard Good Luck With That, iPhone Ick You Used Plastic, iPhone Duh You Used Glass, iPhone Hurr Durr Way Too Many Pixels, iPhone Just Keep Saying AntennaGate, iPhone Horrendous Disfiguring Camera Bump Of The End Times, iPad, little iPad, big iPad, Apple Pencil for god's sake, Toilet Seat MacBook, Won't You Always Be Knocking Your Power Cord Out MacBook Pro, Why Did You Get Rid Of The Magnetic Power Cord Macbook Pro, Give Me Function Keys Or Give Me Death Macbook Pro, Pretty Much Every Other MacBook Pro Except The Original 12" Aluminum MacBook Pro But Also That One Too, Mac Pro, The Other Mac Pro, Pretty Sure There's One More Mac Pro In The Mix Here, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A Floppy Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without An Optical Drive Mac, Good Luck Doing Anything Without A PS/2 Port Mac, The Heck Even Is A FireWire Though Mac, Oh Wait I Forgot About The Stupid Cheese Grater Mac Pro Hah Because Of All The Holes, MacBook Air, G4 Cube, Apple Watch, Magic Mouse, Apple TV, OS X, iOS, and overwhelming majority of future products yet to be created
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
It's a telephone.
No it is not a telephone. It's a handheld computer that happens to be able to make calls. HUGE difference.
Great post, grandpa! Any stories for us about how a bowl of soup used to cost just a nickle?
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Apple's secret to success isn't hardware. It's software.
Steve Jobs said almost verbatim that "Apple is a software company" and he was right. Apple designs nice hardware but it's not really terribly different from their competition and they don't actually make much of it themselves. I could put Windows 10 on a Mac and if you didn't see the badge on the front of the box you'd have no idea you were using an Apple product. You could put Android on the iPhone hardware and you'd never know it was an Apple product. What makes Apple distinct and what enables them to charge the margins they do is the software. Apple is a software company first and foremost. They just sell their software in a pretty box with some nice hardware.
Think about what parts of the business Apple has kept. Software and design. They don't actually make any hardware themselves so they cannot be a hardware company. They have some services but really they are just to support Apple software. Apple is at their core a software company and the rest of it is just tactics to make that work.
lack of support for the Dolby Atmos audio standard
I doubt there's a single consumer thinking that Dolby Atmos is a compelling reason to buy a phone.
In theaters, Dolby Atmos is a 128-channel audio coding standard with spatial metadata and auditoriums can use dozens of pairs of speakers, including overhead for accurate spatial simulation.
On a phone, it's at best a dual-stereo speaker setup, but maybe the upper stereo speakers are pointed upward. Using the same name for both is a gimmick, and honestly Atmos only offers a little bit of precision over a standard 5.1 setup.
I don't know why there's this narrative that the Apple market is 'saturated'. They're still growing, just more slowly.
But even if that were the case, Apple is well known for allowing its own products to cannibalize sales of its other products. There's going to be a lot of demand for the X, and so that's suppressing iPhone 8 sales. Hardly a revelation.
There are plenty of people on long update cycles now; the most common one is 'when my phone breaks'. Assuming you're actually fairly careful with your phone, you'll get iOS updates for phones as old as the iPhone 5S, which was released in 2013. iOS 11 runs well on my iPhone 6, and I plan my upgrades to be on a 4 year cycle, because that's where I think the value is. A huge number of people bought the iPhone 6, and so how many of them really feel like they need an upgrade is a bit of an open question.
There's this story that Apple fans aren't just loyal, we're fanatical to the point of nonsense, and we buy things for no reason, all the time, and that's not true. We spend our money where we think it's warranted, and we like Apple products because they're well engineered and built to last if you put in a little effort. We don't buy things that are new for the sake of buying new things. I understand this narrative is important for some people because it makes them feel like the only reason that Apple is successful is because they're good at marketing and its customers don't understand what they're doing, but I'm afraid you're just going to have to accept that there are plenty of good reasons to buy Apple's stuff on its own merits.
The iPhone 8 looks like a great phone. If this were my upgrade year, I might consider one—though I would probably also go for the X, since that feels like it has longer legs for the future. I'm sure a lot of other people are making this decision and that's probably the one Apple was expecting. Relax.
Apple work on the assumption that people upgrade every other year driven, in part, by the standard 2 year contracts that network operators tend to have.
The fact that last years phone isn't a big enough improvement over this years has been consistent for well over 10 years now. Admitidally skipping the S moniker has confused things - but Apple's target for the iPhone 8 are the people currently using an iPhone 6S (or earlier). In which case, the move from those devices to the 8 is a big jump.
I'm surprised that this well-worn strategy still takes reviewers (and posters on internet forums) by surprise.
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Great, carry around another dongle and 54 peripherals. Elegance!