Maybe yesterday you looked around here or through one of the other mediums where you might see the "Time Flies" event where Apple announced its new Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE models, and the new iPad models, the iPad eighth generation and iPad Air.
If you can't, watch the event now, because it's really something other than what is meant by a product launch presentation. The format previewed in the WWDC2020 keynote is a dynamic succession of interventions that highlight every aspect of the product and involve many unknown people.
By filming ahead of time, attendees can repeat as many times as needed, until it's the way they want, and more people can participate in that stage fright, or poor public speaking skills would never fit in a live presentation of. in front of thousands of journalists, developers and employees.
Another thing you will be able to observe is the incredible game that offers the new Apple Park campus, with its green fields, trees, outdoor auditorium and several buildings. Imagine this in the boring 70s buildings that make up Infinite Loop.
A flawless execution, a constant change between "announcer" and advertising videos, a constant journey in all directions… to form a one-hour event in which the products that are to guide two fundamental segments of the short-term strategy are presented. future of Apple, the iPad and the Apple Watch.
Ten years ago I wrote an article (Apple to the world: I will create a new category of devices and keep it for myself) where I said that the new category of tablet that was created with the introduction of the iPad, Apple had the firm intention of leave no room for anyone else to enter, both in terms of benefits and prices. By the way, if you visit that old opinion column, also take a few minutes to read the comments, where many left on the record that they didn't understand what they had just witnessed.
Yesterday, coincidentally, ten years after the introduction of the iPad and Apple announced that it has sold 500 million iPads since its launch, I felt the same motivation again as when I wrote it. Apple is not willing to allow anyone to overshadow the iPad, neither from below nor from above (and there is still no renewal of the iPad mini…).
It is true that the exit door is much more crowded than the entrance door, and few consumer electronics manufacturers present the products with conviction (I dare say even Google is aware that it will never get to anything significant with Android and whenever has less interest in maintaining the struggle for innovation).
The "experiments" with new formats, such as flip phones, have only succeeded in embarrassing their manufacturers, such as Samsung and, more recently, Microsoft.
No wonder Apple feels that the competition is further and further away, in technology, performance, and even pricing (yes, it hits to write that in a comment on Apple).
If not leaving the oxygen so that the competition can have life has been a norm in the iPad segment from the beginning, for the analysis of the Apple Watch, the Cupertino company is using the strategy that has served it so well with the iPod.
Let's establish a product, see where it goes by considering user feedback, and expand from there.
With a thousand songs in its pocket, Apple has remained in the "premium" market, allowing certain species to survive in the lower end of the market by being vampirised each other. They didn't bother him, as they refined the product and took over the lucrative market… until they decided they didn't even want life in the substrates, of course.
From then on, the iPod nano, the iPod shuffle,… there was no room for anyone - except Apple - to make money making MP3 players.
This is the strategy with the Apple Watch.
They brought out the first model without really knowing where the boat was going (I remind you that they also brought out the luxury model in gold, in case that was the market where the money was) and they have evolved year after year, listening and working on what clients asked for, which turns out to be exercise and health.
Now that the goal is clear, and the distance in technology, production scale and pricing is set, it's time to slowly but surely eat all those "Apple Watch, but cheap" watches with deplorable battery life, with connectivity. problems, and with few functions (compared to the original) and exercise bracelets.
Through the appearance of the Apple Watch SE (and the family plan, let's not forget that masterpiece so that the youngest members of the house have an Apple Watch without having an iPhone) Apple begins to sweep the ground where they have barely survived one. panoply of second-hand producers.
It is perhaps the last breath of Fitbit, Garmin, etc. They may not go away, but they won't be relevant anymore.
Conclusion
Apple is using its huge capital in development and innovation to exclude competition, allowing them, thanks to their gigantic sales channel, to sell next-generation technologies that do things no one can do at prices similar to those of similar products. .with much less functionality.
In the iPad it's less obvious because they don't have real competition, but in Apple Watch every step that Apple takes, the others barely take two steps, and this will be noticed every year in a more noticeable way.
Best of all, Apple is doing this not by hindering competition development, but by creating better products that have the things people want. From chip development to near-science-fiction capabilities of oxygen or heart rate measurement.
Apple's presentations may no longer blow your mind, but its way of innovating, year after year, to the rhythm of a military march, is also very spectacular.
Do not you think?
