The iPhone 5 Suggests That Without Steve Jobs, Apple Is Becoming A Normal Tech Company - Forbes
I don?t think it?s a coincidence that the iPhone 5, the first iPhone to be largely developed after Steve Jobs?s passing, seems to lack a comparable sales pitch. Jobs instinctively understood that most customers don?t care about technical specs, they care about what you can do with a device?s raw hardware. Sometimes, if a new product had a particularly impressive technical improvement?as with the Retina Display?he?d come up with a whimsical brand name for the new feature and make that the focus of the presentation. But more often, his presentations would focus on small number of applications or characteristics, like Siri, that weren?t directly tied to any specific hardware upgrade but made the product dramatically more useful for ordinary consumers.
In contrast, Tim Cook is an operations guy. He?s reportedly very good at packing ever-more-powerful hardware into Apple?s products at ever-lower prices, and that capability was on full display in today?s announcement. But as far as I can see, he doesn?t have any larger story to tell about why the iPhone 5 is dramatically better than an iPhone 4S, or why you should buy an iPhone 5 rather than the latest feature-packed phone from Samsung or Motorola.
Apple has a lot of smart engineers, so I?m sure the iPhone 5 will prove to be a solid product and will be snapped up by the millions by Apple?s existing base of devoted customers. But today?s announcement suggests that Apple is gradually becoming an ordinary technology company. It will continue pumping out faster, smaller, cheaper hardware. But without a product visionary at the top of the Apple hierarchy, the firm is unlikely to continue setting the agenda for the industry the way it did over the last decade.
Your thoughts?
Look at the poll results -> http://forums.imore.com/iphone-5-forum/239605-what-do-you-think-new-iphone-unveiled-today.html
A large percentage of us recognized it as Meh~
If Steve Jobs was here. I'll bet 100% that he will zoom into one distinguishing feature from all the other smartphones in the market. Even though it may not be extraordinary. It's all about telling a story and highlighting what's so awesome about it. Right now. Everyone is like. Meh, not great.
But my guess would be Steve Job's zooming into Panorama or the flyover.
See what I mean? Now we don't know what's SO GOOD about iPhone5.
I don?t think it?s a coincidence that the iPhone 5, the first iPhone to be largely developed after Steve Jobs?s passing, seems to lack a comparable sales pitch. Jobs instinctively understood that most customers don?t care about technical specs, they care about what you can do with a device?s raw hardware. Sometimes, if a new product had a particularly impressive technical improvement?as with the Retina Display?he?d come up with a whimsical brand name for the new feature and make that the focus of the presentation. But more often, his presentations would focus on small number of applications or characteristics, like Siri, that weren?t directly tied to any specific hardware upgrade but made the product dramatically more useful for ordinary consumers.
In contrast, Tim Cook is an operations guy. He?s reportedly very good at packing ever-more-powerful hardware into Apple?s products at ever-lower prices, and that capability was on full display in today?s announcement. But as far as I can see, he doesn?t have any larger story to tell about why the iPhone 5 is dramatically better than an iPhone 4S, or why you should buy an iPhone 5 rather than the latest feature-packed phone from Samsung or Motorola.
Apple has a lot of smart engineers, so I?m sure the iPhone 5 will prove to be a solid product and will be snapped up by the millions by Apple?s existing base of devoted customers. But today?s announcement suggests that Apple is gradually becoming an ordinary technology company. It will continue pumping out faster, smaller, cheaper hardware. But without a product visionary at the top of the Apple hierarchy, the firm is unlikely to continue setting the agenda for the industry the way it did over the last decade.
Your thoughts?
Look at the poll results -> http://forums.imore.com/iphone-5-forum/239605-what-do-you-think-new-iphone-unveiled-today.html
A large percentage of us recognized it as Meh~
If Steve Jobs was here. I'll bet 100% that he will zoom into one distinguishing feature from all the other smartphones in the market. Even though it may not be extraordinary. It's all about telling a story and highlighting what's so awesome about it. Right now. Everyone is like. Meh, not great.
But my guess would be Steve Job's zooming into Panorama or the flyover.
See what I mean? Now we don't know what's SO GOOD about iPhone5.