Just what you needed, another comment on Apple’s phone launch! But it does look like another sign that Apple is losing it.
The low-end phone launch isn’t the issue. It was a necessary move (although it makes clear that Apple has saturated its core market). The problem (for Apple investors), was the higher end product launch.
- When they came out with a low-end product, they should have launched highly differentiated high-end product. Something visibly different/special. That would give status conscious users a way to stay ahead of the masses – much less the untouchables and their plastic iPhones (eeeew!).
- They had/have a no-brainer route to that sort of differentiation. A bigger screen. They could have kept the same physical dimensions, but extended the screen to the edges (like the Moto X, for example). Voila! A visibly different, cooler, and “better” high-end product. Happy fan-boys and a “real” upgrade cycle.
I am assuming that plans for a larger screen are in the works. iPhones are starting to look a little old-fashioned in that regard and the marketing types there must know that. So why didn’t they launch a larger screen now?
- Arrogance?: Apple takes pride in its ability to drip-feed innovations in order to keep that upgrade treadmill going. You can imagine the head of marketing sitting, fingers tented, with a smirk saying that a fingerprint sensor and colors should be “enough” for this go-round. Seen from the outside, it looks pretty niggardly.
- Greed?: Alternatively, the finance department made the call. Maybe they need a high-margin refresh based on the same physical device to balance out margin on the low-end phone launch? Maybe they need a bigger upgrade cycle next year to smooth revenues? Regardless, Finance shouldn’t be making these calls.
- Stupidity? Have they convinced themselves that their smaller screen with a big bezel is somehow “better” as is?
I have no idea why they didn’t launch of a physically different and “better” device, but that non-event speaks more loudly than today’s hoopla. Apple is losing it.
