Apple declares war on mobile phone "bad habits" for 5G and to save itself

Apple held its 2019 spring conference again, and this time it was a rare conference without any hardware products. Unlike previous hardware or system conferences where Apple mocked the Android and PC camps, this time Apple started to attack itself, or the "bad habits" of the entire mobile phone industry. Apple wanted to return mobile phones to the original good old days before the advent of 5G.

Bad habit 1: Reading in a “sliding” manner

Many mobile phone users have a Kindle reader because this slow, black-and-white machine can provide users with an in-depth reading experience. However, the reading on mobile phones is becoming more and more like toilet paper, which is only for sliding and comfort, but hardly leaves enough nutrition. Unverified gossip and soul-stirring chicken soup are everywhere in social circles of "loving family". The reading of many mobile phone users has also been downgraded from the past periodicals to the level of "forwarding for good luck".

At this conference, Apple dug out the "Newstand" that was almost buried in the memory of iOS users. It integrated the operation mode of Apple Music and added magazine browsing function based on the original Apple News at $9.99 per month. The initial number of magazines was more than 300, which was called "Apple News +". Obviously, after the failure of Newstand last time, Apple once again attempted to help magazines digitize.

Bad habit 2: In-game purchases that ruin your future

Many mobile phone users also own a game console. Even if they don't like playing games at home, it doesn't prevent them from buying a Nintendo Switch that can be played in multiple occasions. Although this device has a retro screen-to-body ratio, is thick and heavy, and will be slightly deformed after being heated for a long time, it is the first choice of many players. The reason is that Nintendo and independent game developers have good content and few in-app purchases. A blockbuster game only costs 300-600 yuan, allowing you to play to your heart's content.

300-600 yuan is too expensive? Are all the "pesticides" on the mobile platform free? But how much money will many people charge during the game? When Apple released the iPod Touch, it always claimed that iOS would beat portable game consoles, which did affect the game console market at that time. However, with the serious problem of in-app purchases in games now, many games cannot even run without an Internet connection. Developers no longer focus on the game content itself. Even companies like Ubisoft, Blizzard, and Gameloft, which have created many classics, have begun to delve into the road of making money from games. Mobile games that once relied on new features such as capacitive screens, multi-touch, gravity recognition, and gyroscopes to bring a new experience have become the most decadent games.

Apple's announcement of Apple Arcade clearly shows the current problems in the mobile game industry and the reasons why products such as Nintendo Switch have been successfully revived. Apple particularly emphasizes that through Apple Arcade, players can freely experience any game selected by Apple, all games can be played 100% freely, without ads and ad tracking, without additional purchase, and fully respect user privacy. They also support offline mode, and many will also support game controllers. Obviously, Apple also wants to return mobile games to their original intention, back to the time when you could buy a fun masterpiece for $9.99 without any in-app purchase traps, and when the App Store just appeared.

Bad habit 3: Killing time with “bad movies”

With the arrival of 3G and 4G, data traffic charges have gradually changed to monthly packages, making mobile video services a new tool for mobile phone users to kill time, but the content of streaming media is indeed worrying. Needless to say, the nutritional value of live broadcasts and short video content is very limited, and even the quality of normal dramas has begun to decline. Take Netflix as an example. Members have complained about the decline in the quality of drama production. On the one hand, they are facing operating pressure under the package model, and on the other hand, content producers feel that it doesn’t matter whether they do a good job or a bad job, and there is no risk of "abortion" in the drama.

Apple, which once built iTunes in the music field, has now fully entered the field of TV series and movies. Apple announced that it will launch the Apple TV+ application this fall, bringing exclusive original TV programs, movies and documentaries. This application will be cross-platform and cross-terminal, and can also be used on mobile phones, tablets, and smart TVs of brands such as Samsung, LG, and Sony. At the press conference, Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, the star of "Friends", Jason Momoa, the "Aquaman", Kumail Nanjiani, the programmer of "Silicon Valley", and the mascots Elmo and Big Bird from the cartoon "Sesame Street" and other film and television stars came to support and introduced the programs that will be released on Apple TV+ in the future.

Apple TV+ also says no to the "bad habits" of current video applications. All content is ad-free, and on-demand content supports offline viewing. At the same time, the Apple TV+ application will also replace some functions of the original iTunes Store, and hundreds of thousands of existing TV series and film content will also be available for viewing on the Apple TV+ application.

In the 5G era, the trend of content enhancement is coming

With the advent of the 5G era, a large number of American companies have begun to make a fuss in the field of content. In June 2018, AT&T officially completed the acquisition of Time Warner, spending more than $80 billion in total; another telecom operator Comcast is also accelerating its pace into the large-screen content industry. In September 2018, it also announced the acquisition of Time Warner Limited for approximately $45 billion. During the same period, it also bid for British Sky TV for 29.6 billion pounds. In February 2019, it began to participate in the bidding for the Korean game company Nexon; Disney also announced the acquisition of 21st Century Fox last week. This transaction enabled Disney to obtain controlling rights in cable TV networks FX and National Geographic and streaming service company Hulu.

This spring Apple conference obviously also puts content as the top priority. For this reason, the new AirPods, iMac, iPad Air, and iPad mini were released on the official website one week before the conference, freeing up all the time for the conference to explain Apple's series of actions in the content field. On the other hand, under the current R15 5G standard, global telecom operators can only choose eMBB as their current business focus. Equipment and solution manufacturers have already begun to expand and empower the field of TV broadcasting, which also makes "content" the top priority for American companies in the 5G era.