Apple Inc. hinted that its event on Thursday would be a major change or innovation of the Mac when it sent out an invitation to the press dubbed "hello again," a reference to the startup screen that appeared in the unveiling of the original Macintosh.
But instead, it hosted one of its most boring events in recent years, one that is not likely to give investors confidence that innovation is alive and well at Apple.AAPL, -0.24% a topic that was on the minds of some Wall Street analysts during the company's earnings call Tuesday.
Read: Apple demolished by Microsoft at their respective PC events
The lineup included a new TV guide app for Apple TV that runs on the iPhone and the iPad, but does not offer Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, the two most popular streaming services. Jan Dawson, principal analyst at Jackdaw Research, said on Twitter that the move "seemed like an incremental step toward an eventual TV service." But it's worth noting that Apple TV still remains in the "other" category on the company's balance sheet, where Apple does not break down units or revenue of a few products, including the Apple Watch.
In the Mac hardware area, consumers and investors were looking forward to much-anticipated upgrades. The September quarter showed a big decline in Mac sales, and new Macs are seen as key in helping the company's revenue surpass expectations in the holiday quarter.
But it's not clear that the new features introduced Thursday will inspire Mac users to upgrade. Apple launched even thinner and lighter MacBook Pros, weighing in at three and four pounds. But the most widely touted new feature is called the Touch Bar, which replaces the row of function keys, including the escape key, that have been around since the dawn of personal computing. Apple senior vice president and head of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said during the event that it's "time to say goodbye to the function keys." But beyond faster video- and photo editing, the benefits were unclear. Apple even touted the Touch Bar's built-in emojis as a feature. Apple also added fingerprint recognition technology in another feature called Touch ID for securing the device and using Apple Pay for online shopping.
Whether or not consumers will embrace the changes in the keyboard, though, is unclear. The Apple developers and executives who demonstrated the technology looked awkward and maintained their gaze on the keyboard itself, instead of looking at the screen as touch typists do. Some consumers had also been hoping that there would be touchscreen features on the MacBook's screen itself.
Apple also eliminated all non-Thunderbolt/USB-C ports on the MacBook Pro, requiring users to buy adapters to hook up devices that use USB, Firewire or HDMI ports. The price tag was also startling, with a new 13-inch MacBook Pro starting at $1,799, compared to $1,299 for the previous version. The 15-inch version starts at $2,399, up from $1,999 previously. A 13-inch version without the Touch ID and Touch Bar starts at $1,499.
The new product lineup does not seem innovative enough to propel a big jump this holiday season, and a few tweets with the same idea summed up the event precisely: This could have been covered in a press release. Maybe it is time for Apple investors to start worrying about its high levels of R&D spending, if Thursday's event is a harbinger for other new product launches.
Posted by: David Smith <david.smith.14916@gmail.com>
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