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iPhone X Is Everything Wrong With Tim Cook's Apple

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Say hello to the future” adorns Apple’s iPhone X marketing. That is true… as time moves forward the future of the American company is selling more handsets to a captive audience. But is the iPhone X really the future of smartphones? Or is it just Tim Cook forgetting the lessons of Steve Jobs and following market expectations and demands?

Once you step outside of Apple’s powerful adverbs and mystical presentation of the iPhone X, some truths start to appear. First of all is the launch dates. Pre-orders are not commencing for more than six weeks after the reveal of the handset in early September, and the handset will not be in the hands of consumers until early November at the earliest.

It’s very likely that the initial stock will be much reduced compared to previous iPhone launches. That early November launch will be met, but I’m going to be interested to see how widely spread out and how large the stock is. There’s a huge question over the management of the production to be that late to market. This wasn’t a case of Apple waiting until the device was ready, it was following the market expectations of announcing a new device in September rather than holding on to the technology until it was right. This was “the market expects” and Apple delivered.

The iPhone X is packed with new technology to achieve its signature feat of facial recognition - and any discussion around this has to be caveated with the simple fact that there’s been no independent testing of the system. Alongside the sensors required for this you have Apple’s own silicon inside the handset which is tied closely to the operating system and applications. That offers benefits around power and speed, but these benefits are generally invisible to the user switching between social media apps, instant messaging clients, and Neko Atsume.

Stop and ask what real world problems the iPhone X answers. There are a lot of cute answers but on a practical sense the iPhone X offers very little on top of the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus, which in turn are only incremental bumps over last year’s models. And in a head to head with leading Android headsets there’s very little to differentiate the handsets.

The iPhone X could be the greatest leap forward in technology simply for the sake of having the technology.

The iPhone X also introduces an awkward problem for the iPhone line. When Steve Jobs’ first smartphone was launched it was a ‘do everything’ single device. There were no features that were held back for a ‘better smartphone’. The buying choice was simple and in the face of multiple competing handsets with different options, some had GPS and mapping, some had good cameras, some had 3.5mm stereo jacks for listening to music. Part of the revolutionary nature of the iPhone was ‘this is all you need’.

That is no longer the case. Apple’s iPhone range now goes from the diminutive iPhone SE all the way up to the incoming iPhone X, a spread of five generations of devices. It's a dizzying array of handsets where features may or may not be present, such as 3D Touch or Touch ID, different storage options at different price points, a riot of colors, the 3.5mm headphone jack, wireless charging, and facial recognition.

Now it takes a ridiculous amount of research and comparison to find the iPhone that may suit your needs, and there is not a single device that offers all of features in a single package - every iPhone has some form of limitation and restriction designed into it.

Tim Cook has brought complexity to what was once Apple’s simplest offering.

This is the change that Tim Cook has brought to Apple. The iPhone is more commercial than it has ever been, mimicking the multi-model product line of its Android competitors. It relies heavily on huge marketing spend and the goodwill of the industry to be seen as the leader.

Yes, there are advances in the technology used by Apple, and these should be lauded, but let’s not over exaggerate the benefits of a faster mobile processor or a new biometric identification system. It’s been a long time since the classic “Think Different” of Apple’s yesteryear.

The secret of the iPhone X is this. Apple’s decision to run with its own silicon is arguably the only distinctive point that has an impact on regular users. The rest of Tim Cook’s iPhone is an echo of the wider smartphone industry.

Now read why the iPhone X will force Apple to choose between 'Good' and 'Evil' wireless charging…

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