yofal re: iPhone(s) 6
You were not alone in pre-ordering:
Reuters | Shipments of larger Apple iPhones delayed by a month amid record orders
CBS MarketWatch | Apple: A 'record number' of preorders for new iPhones
Barron's | Apple Says iPhone 6 Pre-Orders a New Record, Says CNBC
I would note that Apple’s site maintained a busy state for much of the morning, making it impossible for large swaths of time to order anything, a phenomenon generally observed in many outlets this morning.
Predictably, some found a way to spin this into an apparent negative for Apple (obligatory hit piece):
Entrepreneur (via Yahoo) | Tech Glitches, Delivery Delays: Apple's Latest Product Rollout Has Been a Mess So Far
While consumer and media response to Apple’s forthcoming range of watches and smartphones has been decidedly mixed, one thing is fairly unanimous: the company’s rollout process seems to have been botched at every turn.
Nonetheless, I've seen or heard a couple issues raised that might qualify the iPhone part of Tuesday's big reveal as less than ideal. First:
The San Jose Mercury News | Magid: Apple's new iPhone could be iPad killer
This is actually an easy one; as we've seen in the past, Apple is much less hesitant to disrupt its own business than the usual cash-calf-worshipping multi-national corporation, and to me this looks like another case where Apple is happy to disrupt its iPad business. As long as it has something better in the works. Such as:
The Mac Observer (John Martellaro) | Why a 12-inch iPad is Almost Certain
"But wait, wouldn't a 12-inch iPad also cannibalize the market for Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air?" I hear a hypothetical reader think. Why yes, it probably would, I think in reply. But why would Apple want to be selling 11-inch MacBook Airs in the first place; they just dropped the price by a hundred bucks last season after all, resulting in what might be the least expensive Mac ever. (Full disclosure, I bought one. For my kid, heh.)
My guess is that Apple would want to move upmarket with its laptops, either dropping its 11-inch models or else bumping them to 12 inches, bumping its 13-inch MacBooks to 14 inches (my favorite laptop ever remains the 14-inch Pismo PowerBook I bought back in 2001), leaving the iPad Air at 10 inches, a new "iPad plus" at 12 inches (possibly this might be some previously unforeseen and unexpectedly wonderful iPad/MacBook hybrid) and the iPad mini at 7-8 inches. Then they could also bump their top-of-the-display-line 15-inch MacBook Pros from 15 to 16-17 inches. Maybe I'm building sand castles here, but I do know that Apple has done well selling 17-inch laptops before, and that was before the industry shift from desktops to laptops had really got going.
Moving upmarket is a good thing, not a bad thing, I say.
The second issue with the new iPhones that I'm concerned about is one I heard a local (Microsoft country) radio personality mention Tuesday evening: she has small hands and is concerned that either new iPhone might be too big for her to easily work with. She's not the only one:
Forbes | Wait, Where Is The 'Normal' Sized iPhone 6?
I'm not sure that selling these customers year-old iPhone 5s units is the right solution. But then again I'm not a serial disruptor. I also continue to believe the iPhone 6 family will be Apple's best-selling and most profitable iPhones ever. |
