Besides being expensive, the most notable feature of the iPhone 8/X is that it is boring

The Magic is gone?

The iPhone has become less and less innovative in the past two years.

Since the iPhone 6, the rounded design led by Jonathan Ive has been criticized by old users, and the white strips caused by the injection-molded antenna strips have been criticized to the point that people don't want to criticize them anymore. Although the latter has adopted a new curved design that fits the body more closely on the iPhone 7, it is still ugly, IMHO. The most popular colors of the 7th generation are the two black colors, precisely because the antenna strips are not so conspicuous.

In the past three years, there has been no breakthrough in appearance design and the function updates are not significant. These two sentences summarize the three years from iPhone 6 to iPhone 7. I think most people should have no objection.

Oh, except for Apple Pay.

But even Apple Pay has been overtaken by the Android camp in various ways: NFC payment has grown rapidly thanks to the joint efforts of mobile phone manufacturers and China UnionPay, and the inclusion of bus cards has truly enabled users to go out without having to bring a wallet.

The only thing that the iPhone can boast about nowadays is the quality of its apps.

The current one that is not good enough always reminds people of the good things about the previous one; when the iPhone 5 was first launched, it was also ridiculed as a "horse-faced phone", but now it is still regarded as a classic. Of course, this does not mean that the current iPhone is useless, but it is just that a student who always scored 98 points suddenly scored 95 points for three consecutive years, which is bound to raise questions.

This year's iPhone 8/X launch conference still gives me this 95-point feeling: a special-shaped high-body ratio screen? Oh. Cancel Touch ID? Oh. Use facial recognition instead? Is it easy to use?

Cool or not? Of course. But we’ve seen this before.

But these three years are also the three years when the iPhone has undergone the greatest transformation: starting with iPhone 6, Apple made a phone that users could not operate with one hand for the first time; starting with iPhone 6s, Apple increased the ancestral 1G RAM to 2G for the first time; starting with iPhone 7, Apple provided a daily waterproof function for the first time.

Cook almost shouted at the audience: What the hell do you want? I'll do it.

They are certainly good products, and the sales volume proves everything. However, is it enough to just meet the existing demands of consumers?

The remaining 8.2% share in the country clearly shows that it is “far from enough”.

The magic might be back.

Apple also seems to be trying to become its stubborn self again, such as removing all 32-bit applications and removing the headphone jack from the iPhone 7.

But this is far from the source of the magic of the old times: it should be a new toy for the holidays, although it is rude and has no choice, but it is surprising and useful. Today's Apple seems to only have the rudeness of making decisions, without the surprise of the old times.

The iPhone X is not a truly magical product. Yes, it has no buttons on the front, which is exactly what Steve Jobs envisioned. Unfortunately, because of Apple's lag, we have seen too many of them. Full screen, facial recognition, wireless charging, which Eastern manufacturer's products have we not seen?

One issue that is hard to ignore is that after so many years of development, the imagination space for touch-screen mobile phones is not very large. The era of revolutions has passed. Unless a more subversive form of interaction emerges, the current main theme is destined to be minor repairs.

Will AR be that revolutionary interaction? I don’t know. But at least we already know that 3D Touch is not, and Apple has guessed wrong once.

So this time we can expect that the magic might be back, although it is just a possibility. After all, this year is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, and it would be unreasonable if there is nothing to justify it.

Apple's genes and memes

When you take a look at a product, you can tell it’s an Apple product. This is Apple’s gene.

For example, iPhone.

But in recent years, there is a saying that Apple is no longer the Apple of the past. This is true that there is an element of Jobs' personality cult, but there is also a fact that cannot be ignored: Cook is good at defense but not offense. He is just a master of supply chain management, but his innovation ability is definitely not as good as Jobs. Today's Apple has inherited Apple's genes, but has lost some of Apple's memes.

In other words, as we often say, Apple has lost its magic.

Interestingly, this magic is pursued by his imitators. For example, Hammer. Although the level of crosstalk performance has seriously declined in recent episodes, overall, the meme of "you want to buy it after watching it" has been inherited quite well. "A paranoid pursuit of perfection", "a master of creating dramatic effects". Now Apple, which is seeking stability, has lost these things.

The 10th anniversary of the iPhone's release, I think, should be a perfect time for Apple to find its own meme. In a place named after Steve Jobs, there should never be boring things happening.

It's a pity, it's boring, but it still happened.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.