What Apple didn’t talk about
Company didn’t mention 5G, Apple TV.
Apple told us this week all about new iPhones, a new Apple Watch, an iPad update and launch dates for two new subscription services.
The company packed a lot into its 90-minute plus presentation. Here are nine areas it neglected to talk about:
❚ 5G: The next step in wireless is with so-called 5G networks, promising way faster speed. The four major carriers now offer some version of 5G, and competitors including Samsung and Motorola already have 5G-capable phones on sale.
Analysts believe Apple is waiting until 2020 to release a 5G phone.
Apple offered only minor updates to the new iPhone lineup because “it’s waiting to go all in, with 5G, for 2020” with a major redesigned phone, says Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.
❚ To binge or not? Apple announced a debut date and pricing structure for its new TV+ entertainment service: Nov. 1 and $4.99. But beyond outlining the nine shows that will be available for viewing on launch day , it didn’t say whether we would be able to binge-watch or if we’d have to tune in each week for new episodes.
Speaking of missing in action, Apple trotted out mega-director Steven Spielberg at its preview event for TV+ in the spring. But in the release for TV+ posted this week, his reboot of “Amazing Stories” wasn’t mentioned among the first nine shows, or even the five “coming soon” shows noted.
On the small number of shows, Gene Munster, an analyst and investor with Loup Ventures, said it was “classic Apple. They have fewer things, presumably, and higher quality.”
❚ AirPods: The Bluetooth earbuds are a huge hit for Apple, worth 3% of revenues, according to Ives. But on a day when Apple updated the phones, watch and iPad, the AirPods didn’t get their day in the sun. “That was a surprise,” says Ives.
❚ USB-C: One of the rumors going into the event was that Apple would be replacing the Lightning charge connector from the iPhone with USB-C, which it uses to power up MacBook laptops and some iPads. Alas, nothing’s changed. It’s still Lightning.
❚ Sleep tracking: This was another big rumor, that Apple would update the Apple Watch with sleep-tracking software. That didn’t happen. Instead, Apple said the Watch would now have an “always-on” feature. “That will eat at the battery,” Munster says. “Which is probably why they didn’t do it.”
❚ HomePod: The connected speaker, Apple’s answer to Alexa and the Google Assistant, first went on sale in February 2018 and has yet to be updated.
❚ Macintosh computers: No new computers were announced at the Apple event.
❚ Apple Tags: This is another product that’s been given lots of attention on Apple enthusiast sites. It’s a competitor to Tile, a Bluetooth tracking device. Macrumors.com says Tags are expected to outperform Tile due to “ultra-wideband support” in new iPhone models, which makes it more accurate than Bluetooth for indoor positioning.
❚ Apple TV: Finally, even though Apple has a new entertainment service called Apple TV+ that will be viewable on the Apple TV set-top streaming box, Apple didn’t take the opportunity to offer any upgrade or update to the unit. The streaming player was last updated in 2017.