Apple held its first conference this year, and Cook revealed some information

On March 1, Apple held its first conference in 2019 at the Steve Jobs Theater. This conference was not a new product launch conference, but an investor conference.

For general consumers, Apple's annual investor conference is not as important as a new product launch conference, and it does not involve too many specific products. It is more about investment and company dynamics. At the conference, Apple will announce the results of several company-level decision-making votes and give a speech on the company's development direction to let investors understand the company's future direction.

Last year, Apple focused on three topics: wearable devices, services, and Apple Pay. At this year's conference, Apple CEO Cook also gave detailed answers to three topics: changes in iPhone sales, the development of current devices such as Apple Watch and AirPods, and the direction of future devices.

Cook first talked about Apple's development and future at the conference and expressed his positive attitude. He is still confident about the company's prospects. The degree of his confidence can be seen from his words "the prospects have never been so optimistic". He said in his speech:

Apple's revenue from iPhone sales is expected to increase further in the future. By 2020, we expect this figure to more than double the $25 billion it earned in 2016.

This statement is believed to be related to Apple’s previous slowdown in iPhone sales growth.

[[258675]]

Faced with the slowdown in iPhone sales, investors seem to have seen the fatigue of smartphone development. Although there are still many new technologies that change the form and experience of smartphones, these have not yet been able to break out of the "mobile phone" model. Faced with the decline in consumer enthusiasm for upgrading, smartphone sales growth has also begun to slow down.

Under the influence of these changes, Apple, which is highly dependent on the iPhone as its key product, has also been affected. Apple needs to find a new project to replace the iPhone, the leader that has led them through the past ten years.

[[258676]]

Cook also expressed his attitude towards this view in the meeting. He said that the sales prospects of iPhone are still bright, and Apple can achieve great growth within two years. This "stabilizing the morale" speech is indeed very effective. Bloomberg reported that Apple's stock price rose by 1% after Cook completed the investor conference, stopping the previous decline.

The devices that will shock people in the future are still related to AR

When talking about the development direction of Apple's future devices, Cook stated that the core of future development is AR.

[[258677]]

There was news that Apple was developing an AR glasses. This AR glasses will replace the iPhone and become Apple's main terminal device in the future. At that time, Cook also expressed his confidence in the development of the AR field in a related interview:

AR still needs some time to develop, and there are still many technical difficulties and challenges that are difficult to overcome. But we believe that when these difficulties are overcome, our smart life and experience will undergo a subversive change. We will face a life that no longer requires the use of mobile phones.

The development direction of AR devices was determined as early as when Apple launched ARKit.

[[258678]]

When Apple launched ARKit, it began to attract developers through this open solution, allowing them to develop some corresponding AR applications, including the most common distance rulers and large-scale games shown at the press conference, as well as many applications in education and daily environments.

Since then, ARKit developers have gradually formed a group called "Made With ARKit". This group is like "Shot on iPhone", constantly providing Apple with ARKit application-related content, which will also become the experience basis of the "future device" mentioned by Cook.

[[258679]]

In addition to the reserves of application content, Apple also began to reserve technology in the direction of device development in the early years, and acquisitions are the main way to achieve technology reserves.

Apple acquired Metaio, a German augmented technology company, in 2015, and after the acquisition, it integrated a team dedicated to developing AR technology, which later launched ARKit. Subsequently, they acquired SMI, a company that develops visual tracking technology for VR helmets and AR glasses, in 2017, believed to be preparing for the development of AR hardware devices.

Cook mentioned in his speech that Apple acquired a total of 18 companies in 2018 and is seeking more acquisitions in the future. The purpose should also be related to more technology reserves and integration.

From this we can see that the "future shocking" device mentioned by Cook at the beginning of the investor conference is very likely a pair of AR glasses.

The launch of this device is not only to subvert the user experience, but it will also replace the iPhone and become the "heart" of Apple's future development.

The "two-in-one" future of AirPods and Apple Watch

In addition to predictions for future devices, Cook also mentioned the development direction of current devices.

[[258680]]

However, the devices he mentioned did not involve iPhone and iPad, but more on Apple Watch and AirPods. Cook said at the conference:

Apple will still focus on its current business and the sales of devices such as Apple Watch and AirPods. In the future, Apple Watch and AirPods already have a clear product development roadmap. In the future, Apple Watch smartwatch products will be invested with more health functions. It will be combined with AirPods to create a "wonderful and dreamy" combination and develop in the long run.

[[258681]]

It’s not hard to understand that Apple Watch and AirPods will focus on developing health functions in the future.

On February 27, there was news that Apple will add a native sleep tracking function to the Apple Watch in the future. The biggest obstacle to this model is still related to battery life. As long as Apple Watch can reduce the impact of battery life or improve its battery life through hardware, it will not be difficult to use the native sleep tracking function. After adding sleep tracking, the Apple Watch will be more complete in terms of health monitoring function experience.

In fact, Apple's intention to vigorously develop health monitoring functions on Apple Watch was already in mind when the product was launched.

[[258682]]

From the initial basic data monitoring, to the subsequent addition of breathing adjustment and exercise mode, training suggestions and other functions, to the electrocardiogram drawing function and sleep tracking in the future, Apple has always wanted to make Apple Watch a more focused health monitoring device. Compared with wearable devices that can only collect and display data, Apple Watch with certain processing capabilities can directly process data and immediately feedback the data results to the wearer, which is much more efficient than devices that rely on mobile phones for data processing.

It is not difficult to predict that Apple's future hardware and technology investment in Apple Watch will be related to health monitoring. The addition of AirPods will strengthen the combination's capabilities in both data collection and data display.

[[258683]]

iFanr also mentioned in related reports before that AirPods are closer to the human body than Apple Watch and can collect data more accurately than Apple Watch.

At the same time, in the sleep environment, earplugs seem to have less impact on sleep than watches and bracelets. After improving the accuracy of the data, the monitoring results and data analysis obtained by users will be more accurate.

From the design patents previously exposed by Apple, we can see that other sensors will be added to the design of AirPods. If the problems of battery life, wearing stability, and the impact of wearing mode on sleep can be solved, it will not be difficult for AirPods to become a data collection device for Apple Watch.

In addition, the results obtained by Apple Watch can also be fed back through AirPods.

After all, it is not always convenient to look at the watch during exercise. If there is no picture data involved and the watch only needs to submit digital or text results to the user, it would be better to use AirPods to process it.

[[258684]]

In this way, Apple Watch and AirPods will be integrated into a new solution. AirPods will become a new data detection device, which will transmit the data to Apple Watch for processing. After the processing is completed, Apple Watch can provide feedback to the user in the form of voice, pictures and text.

Compared with the previous solution of taking a mobile phone with you when exercising, and turning on the mobile phone and connecting it to a bracelet for sleep monitoring when sleeping, this combination is indeed much simpler. And the solutions mentioned by Cook at the conference will not be limited to the existing experience, and there will be more changes in the future.

[[258685]]

Whether it is the future-oriented AR devices or the combined development of AirPods and Apple Watch, the topics mentioned at the Apple Investor Conference are all future-oriented. In addition to giving investors confidence, it also shows the future development direction.

For consumers themselves, this is not of much reference value at present. It is estimated that AirPods will have to go through 1-2 generations or even longer to achieve this goal.

[[258686]]

At this conference, the most relevant news for general consumers is probably the price adjustment information of the new MacBook Air. Cook said at the conference that the price of the 2018 MacBook Air will be adjusted to make it a more price-competitive product. For users who want to buy the new MacBook Air, it seems that they can wait a little longer.

In addition to Cook, Apple's director Crag Federighi personally answered small questions related to the iPad's switch to a USB-C interface. But he didn't talk too much about technology or other deeper things, just revealed that Apple will continue to enhance the extensibility of the USB-C interface, and will also increase file access read and write functions. Or maybe we will see that the iPad can connect to more external devices through the USB-C interface, or improve the efficiency of the iPad reading and writing files through the USB-C interface.