Another Event, Another Product: The new iPad?
The 3rd generation iPad came to light today, and in traditional Apple fashion is sturring the online discussions up. Better display, upgraded hardware, and iOS 5.1 with new and updated apps to feast your eyes upon.
To me, there was only one surprise from this whole event, and that was the name of the new iPad: “The new iPad.”
Am I the only one disappointed that Apple isn’t really surprising us anymore?
But, There’s One More Thing…
Steve Jobs was the keeper of the phrase, “But, there’s one more thing…” It was an iconic phrase, not because Steve Jobs said it, but how he used it in Apple Keynote presentations.
The phrase was used to introduce the product or main feature of a product that Apple wanted to focus the consumer’s attention towards. More specifically, it would have been what Apple’s marketing department wanted the consumer to know about first.
That’s what these keynotes are all about: Marketing and hyping up new Apple products and features.
Remember when FaceTime was announced as a, “One more thing,” for the iPhone 4 in 2010? There had been speculation of video chat capabilites for iPhone, but no solid evidence out for it before its unveiling. Video chat features on mobile devices weren’t even new then. All FaceTime did was made it more convienent for non-technical consumers to easily video chat with each other, and only if they each had a FaceTime-capable Apple product.
But, it was Apple’s main selling point for the iPhone 4, and the build up and surprise of it at the end of the keynote is what helped sell it to the media…and to millions thereafter.
…And That’s Nothing
Today’s keynote went by and with all the impressive things the new iPad has to offer, none of them were surprises. The retina display has been talked about for months; Better hardware is a given; The wild, crazy, and fun speculations: none of them happened; Apple seemed to spend more time demoing iPhoto for iPad than anything else (which in my opinion is their only other surprise).
Apple is focusing their advertising and marketing on the new iPad at the retina display, using phrases like, “Resolutionary.” However, it would have been difficult to make that a surprise, but there was nothing else shown today that I would have considered worthy of a “One more thing” selling point.
The new iPad will stil be an amazing product regardless, and it will still sell well. Apple is at the point where they don’t need to surprise people with the gimmick they are trying to push on the consumer. The fact that it’s a new product from Apple will sell itself.
I, for one, still miss the surprise. There’s always “The new iPhone,” right?
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