Dear Tim Cook: Please surprise us
Dear Tim Cook:
I write this as a longtime Apple fan and tech enthusiast with a very simple request. Please wow me again on Wednesday, Sept. 7. You know, like Apple used to do.
Apple, as you know, is staging another one of its mega media events in San Francisco next week to tout new products.
According to the analysts I’ve spoken to, this year, we’re not going to get any breakthroughs, any radical redesigns, anything groundbreaking or jaw-dropping from the company that for many years had been considered among the most innovative in Silicon Valley.
Instead, we’re supposed to see updates to product lines, highlighted by a minor update to the iPhone — which has a faster processor and better camera. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before.
You’re the CEO; please say it ain’t so.
Tell me you’ve been holding everything close to the vest, away from all those folks who usually know what is going to happen before it happens — the chatty supply-side folks, the analysts, the wired-in fan boys.
The folks who cover Apple, the bloggers, the fan boys, they insist Apple has decided to wait for 2017 — the 10th anniversary of the iPhone — for a major redesign of the device, which Apple has historically done every two years, most recently with the iPhone 6 in 2014.
I understand the thinking. But as Google, Facebook and Amazon clean your clock with innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality and augmented reality this year — areas where Apple has yet to be heard from in a big way — how long are we supposed to wait for Apple to catch up
Most of your events since you took over as CEO in 2011 have — except for that one new product under your administration, the Apple Watch — just offered upgrades to products: a bigger iPad, a more powerful iPhone, a smaller MacBook laptop.
Who can even remember any of the updates from last year? You know, for the phone, of which Apple said, “The only thing that’s changed is everything.” OK, I remember. There was 3D Touch, a shortcut key I used once and forgot about.
Live photos offered a video snippet with your photo. It was cool, the first time around but hard to share.
Finally, 4K video recording was added to the iPhone camera. That one I like, but the files are too big.
Look what Samsung did with the recent upgrade to its Galaxy Note smartphone, the 7. Waterproof design. You can unlock the phone with your eyes. Wireless charging. Now that’s forward-thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I love last year’s iPhone 6S; it’s arguably Apple’s finest iPhone to date. The extra power and the beauty of the improved iPhone camera are amazing.
But for the buying public, a new camera for the iPhone clearly wasn’t enough, as two successive down quarters on Wall Street prove.
For the first time, a new iPhone didn’t outsell the old iPhone, because consumers weren’t given a good enough reason to buy.
The old phones are so good most folks were happy to hold onto them.
I don’t know how many extra devices got sold from the showmanship of your old boss, the late Steve Jobs, but it was sure fun to sit in the audience then. We loved those “One more thing ” moments, when he would surprise us with one ultra-cool announcement.
It was the “One more thing ” that showed us FaceTime for video calls on the iPhone, iMacs in color and that little iPod Shuffle. Remember those?
Looking back, none of these sticks out as rather innovative, but they sure seemed cool and cutting edge at the time.
Yes, I know, you’ve done “One more thing,” too. But just once, in 2014, easily your best event to date, when you showed us a preview of the Apple Watch after sneak-peeking the iPhone 6 and the Apple Pay mobile payment system.
Your OMT moments have been rare but welcome.
So one more thing: I challenge you, Tim Cook. Trump the analysts this year. Exceed expectations. Go bigger and better. Wow us again, like Apple used to. Please. Sincerely yours, Jefferson Graham USA TODAY