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Here in Cupertino for Apple's big launch event, there was a very real risk that technology would be upstaged by architecture. This is the first time anybody from outside Apple has been let into its new Apple Park campus. This is the Steve Jobs named after Apple's co-founder. And behind us is the Spaceship Ship headquarters, where thousands of Apple employees will be moving into in the next few months.
For the last few years, it's been all too easy to criticise Apple's new iPhones for incremental innovations and me-too features that were already available on other people's smartphones. This year for its 10th anniversary, Apple really does seem to have pulled out the stops. I had a hands-on test on the new iPhone 10, which has a radically different screen and while it's charging, as well as the new augmented reality camera to see just how much of an upgrade this really is.
The user interface of the iPhone 10 has to be completely different, because there's no home button. And so the way that you get around is by swiping from the top and bottom of the screen. So if you want to activate Siri, you hold down this little button on the sides, which is where the sort of power button would normally be and again, just flip back. And then the other element to switch between apps, you, again, pull up this little line, hold it there for a second, and then you can just swipe through to one that you want.
Apple's new animoji feature lets you manipulate various types of emoji from poops to dogs and cats and robots and aliens using just your face. And it even tracks to the movement of my lips. If I growl, the alien scowls. And I can even be really excited. And yeah, this is something you can record as a short clip and then send them on to a friend. Analyst Carolina Milanesi at Creative Strategies was enthusiastic about the prospects for the new device.
People have been asking if an innovation in the smartphone market has ended or if we're going to see enough from Apple to think that this is not just incremental and is a true step forward. And I think it is, but it is in that way where Apple brings everything together and packages it into an experience. It's not-- it's where the individual features adapt to something unique. It's not about only one thing at a time.
The biggest problem with the iPhone 10 is that it does not come out until November and is expected to be in very short supply before the Christmas holidays. But Horace Dediu, analyst at Asymco, said that for Apple's loyal fans it would be worth the wait.
As far as the timing, I think they're going to make Christmas. That's the biggest thing. There might be a little delay, but the story with Apple is usually people do not substitute their purchases. They're just going to delay their purchases. So people are just going to wait another six weeks or whatever it takes.
Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times in Cupertino.
