Apple's launch event on March 21st, and the subsequent roll-out of the hardware, continues a trend that has seen Cupertino move away from a single hero device to a bewildering range of devices trying to satisfy every part of the smartphone ecosystem.
The three major products were nowhere close to being 'new' products. The iPhone SE is effectively the iPhone 5S with some new chips inside, the iPad Pro acknowledges the new toys added to the iPad line and offers you the Apple Pencil on a 9.7 inch tablet but only if you buy a new tablet, and the Apple Watch continues down the Swatch route of fashion following form.
And in a world where you get a huge cheer from an audience because you've announced a nylon watch strap... that's where you should be questioning both the audience's attitude and whoever decided to make that product one of the key moments. The event lacked spark, it lacked passion, and it showed a company that was simply looking to position products for maximise sales with as little effort as possible rather than sell the future.
In a sense the event showed the weakness in Apple's current approach. It's no longer setting the narrative for the market. Small smartphones with the same power as the larger flagships have been around for many years - the Sony Xperia Compact and Samsung Galaxy Mini platforms are a case in points. Bringing the key selling point of the thirteen inch tablet down to another ten inch tablet dilutes the unique nature of the former while creating just one more option at the latter's form factor. And it appears clear that watch straps are on six month rotations and will always be pushed as 'big-ticket' items - because Apple believes they should be big ticket items.
My problem with this approach from Apple is that it moves away from what brought the company so much success - a single handset that embodies everything that the company believes will be the future. It's also going up against one of the best companies in the world at filling every price point with various form factors and features. It's going up against a company whose primary skill is selling lots of boxes and getting as many users into its platform as possible across a broad portfolio.
Apple has decided that the way to drive forward is to follow the model that has offered financial success to Samsung.
Of course the correct thing to do for any business is to generate sales, but Apple has never thrived on box-shifting and tick-box product portfolio filling. It has spent years building up an image that it is above this entrenched warfare. The perception of Apple is a company that designs hardware to change the world, that has everything you need in one device, that it has a different approach to other manufacturers.
Apple is slowly trading that away for an approach that brings a slightly above average product to every price point on the market. And it's challenging the one company that has made this approach work int he current smartphone market. But is that really what Apple is designed to do? To me this incredibly safe but boring strategy says a lot about the direction Tim Cook is taking the company. It's not about a single product any more, it's not about a unique vision in slice of hardware. It's about creating a series of boxes at every price point and getting people to buy a new box every single year.
That will keep the shareholders happy. It will keep the production lines rolling. And it will allow Apple to continue growing.
But how can it keep the spirit of Apple alive?
