Expecting larger public for much exciting announcements, what the public saw was an desperate company trying to beat their own products and copycatting competitors.
Maybe the only thing to be really excited about was the TV OS development environment announced together with the new Apple TV.
Followed by the Apple TV news, another announced expected by "fans" and media in general was the iPad Pro. A new an larger iPad was somehow longer expected and announced and it finally came to life.
This new larger iPad, as the name implies, is focused on productivity and corporate environment. It aimed to publishers, designers and medical professionals as showed during the Keynote. Apple made it clear showing applications like MS Office, Adobe design tools and 3D body viewing tools.
And was during this part of the Keynote that Jobs rolled over 2nd time. The fist time mentioned bellow.
Phil Schiller called first developer to demonstrate iPad pro and says "... who to know better about productivity than Microsoft". That was when Jobs definitely rolled and I am sure I heard laughs from audience and Schiller got uncomfortable and really tried to control the mood.
One of the main launch of the day would depend on bigger competitor development to make success.
That is not the Apple I used to know.
But before that, there was the announcement of so called Apple Pencil (a.k.a stylus). Something that was strongly beaten by Jobs internally in Apple and also publicly when the launch fist iPhone back in 2007. He even made an "eeek" showing how disgusting it would be to use an modern multi touch technology with an "stick".
That was when Jobs rolled for the 1st time and could see how hard Apple might fighting internally for really innovating tech like ones presented by Jobs in the old good times.
Then the copycatting started. First the "Smart keyboard" cover companion. Something very, but very much, similar to the one launched by Microsoft a couple years ago together with its pro tablet named Surface.
And it didn't stop there. Apple with its promo videos showed details of iPad pro and is innovative magnetic "dots" connector to be used to communicated and send power to and from keyboard case. That was already present in Surface keyboard case companion. Another copycatting?
And the Apple Pencil is something already used by others (including Microsoft Surface, Samsung tablets).
The innovative thing they mentioned, like being able to capture pressure, inclinations etc, are also features available in several stylus being sold for long time now.
And finally, the 3rd time Jobs rolled.
If we take a look at how complex the Apple line of products are becoming we will see how far it is now from that long time Jobs speech of simplicity. When he draw a 2 by 2 matrix show how Apple envisioned their products according the usage (personal and professional).
Take for instance the current iPad line. There is the new iPad Pro. But also two iPad Air and two iPad minis. How could user easily identify which of those address his needs?
The Apple Pencil is another example of lack of simplicity. Although it might look simple with its white clean outside look, it requires being charged in order to work. And that when it lacks simplicity. It has a "male" lightning connector that can only be attached to the iPad connector.
 |
| From Apple image repository |
So to charge it you will drain power from the iPad. And it will look like an weird and fragile antenna. There will be cases of people breaking it when connected for charging.
And to sum up, there was at least on good thing from the Event. The Apple TV development environment is something really interesting.
If we recall one of the biggest changes brought to smart phone was possibility to install new applications, and latter on, the possibility to develop even newer applications addressing needs we didn't know exists.
The possibility to develop applications to TV independent of TV maker is innovative and might actually bring revolution this old black thing almost everyone has in its living rooms. Lets wait an see.
No comments:
Post a Comment