With insufficient hardware innovation, how can Apple “connect everything”?

For some reason, the industry paid special attention to Apple's annual new product launch this year. In addition to many foreign technology websites, many domestic related websites also broadcast live. This is probably related to the fact that the industry pinned its hopes on Apple to overcome the innovation bottleneck in the smartphone industry and to explore new industry opportunities. Unfortunately, Apple's new product launch once again poured cold water on the industry. Creativity is not easy, and innovation is even harder. However, some industry insiders believe that this view is too superficial. Apple is playing with "connecting everything", which is quite ironic. How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan? Is this really the case?

First, let's look at the new products released this time or the core of Apple's business (revenue and profit) iPhone6 ​​and iPhone6 ​​Plus (specific parameters will not be repeated). From the perspective of technological innovation, if the 64-bit processor and fingerprint recognition of last year's iPhone5S were the first in the industry, then today's iPhone6 ​​and iPhone6 ​​Plus, except for the larger screen, have hardly left a deep impression on the industry. As for the 64-bit processor and fingerprint recognition alone, many manufacturers in the Android camp have launched such models this year. It is worth mentioning that the 64-bit models launched by the Android camp are basically positioned in the mid-to-high-end market. It can be seen that the 64-bit technology that Apple was proud of last year is not only no longer leading the trend this year, but has fallen to a lower level. As for the screen, camera and other aspects that users are more concerned about in the current detailed competition in the smartphone industry, iPhone6 ​​and iPhone6 ​​Plus are not only following, but also have a big gap. In short, whether it is from the big innovation or the pursuit of product details, which Apple used to excel in, the advantages of Apple iPhone are being lost.

Perhaps someone will again use Apple's ecosystem as a reason why Apple is still the leader. In fact, in terms of quantity, the number of Android applications has surpassed that of Apple. The key is to look at the user usage. According to relevant statistics, smartphone users only download 30 applications on average, and the most commonly used applications are only about 4. This means that the number of applications is no longer the key to prove whether an ecosystem is strong and competitive.

Of course, we are not denying that Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be a big hit. After all, previous surveys have shown that the demand for large-screen mobile phones is very strong in both mature and emerging markets, and Apple users also hope that Apple can release a large-screen iPhone. But this is already a passive reaction of Apple after the market trend is quite obvious and the Android camp has been pushing large-screen mobile phones. Because in the previous Steve Jobs era, he was always against large-screen mobile phones. From this point of view, in addition to the above-mentioned technological innovations, Apple has also become a follower in judging and grasping the development trend of the industry. This is probably the biggest concern for Apple's future development. Because from the development path and characteristics of Apple's iPhone, following is not Apple's advantage (Samsung is).

This lag in judging and grasping the trend of industrial development is also reflected in the APPLE Watch, the smartwatch released by Apple. This is also the new opportunity and industry for Apple in the future that Apple CEO Cook has spent a lot of time to write about (even more time introducing it than the iPhone). Not to mention that the release of APPLE Watch is nearly a year later than its main rival Samsung in the smartphone industry (it has recently released the fifth generation of smartwatches). At the IFA2014 that ended not long ago, Motorola, LG, Asus, etc. all released smartwatches. Judging from its understanding of smartwatches, we think Apple is not in place. 18k gold, square dial design, etc., I wonder what the industry thinks of this?

Motorola also elaborated on the concept of the circular dial design of its 360 smartwatch (circle is the inherent human perception of time), and the circular dial design based on this concept has been highly recognized in the industry and is considered by many well-known foreign technology websites and blogs to be the best designed smartwatch so far. In contrast, what is the design concept of Apple Watch? We did not see a convincing explanation. The concept is fine, but what is more puzzling to us is that the continuous flight time of APPLE Watch, an indicator that is crucial for smartwatches, has not been announced. What's the rhythm? More importantly, when Apple has lost its first-mover advantage in the smartphone industry, it should be slightly better in terms of applications. However, judging from the functions provided by APPLE Watch, there is no killer application compared with the smartwatches launched by its competitors.

In fact, long before the launch of Apple Watch, the industry said that one of the biggest attractions of Apple Watch is the ability to monitor user's physical data and share it with medical institutions (note that it is the availability of data sharing rather than the acquisition of data itself), which is also the core competitiveness of the HealthKit platform. At present, some clinics and hospitals in the United States, Canada and other regions have announced that they will support HealthKit, which means that in the future, doctors can directly understand the user's basic physical data, heart rate, blood sugar level and even chronic disease history during consultation.

But the problem is that the coverage of the HealthKit platform will determine the availability of APPLE Watch data. Obviously, even in the United States, it will be a very large plan to make mainstream public and private hospitals support HealthKit data, which requires very complicated work. If you want to promote it to other parts of the world, it is obviously not something that can be achieved in just a few years. Judging from this press conference, Apple has not made any substantial progress in this regard, which means that in the early stages, Apple can only compete with its rivals in the homogenized smartwatch market, but its price of $349 is obviously not an advantage, and in early user surveys, the proportion of users who can accept this price range is not high.

We talked a lot about hardware, because industry insiders who believe that Apple’s future is to “connect everything” also mentioned hardware, so here we briefly analyze the hardware released by Apple this time, in order to better illustrate the indispensable importance of hardware to “connecting everything”, or the hidden worries that the lack of hardware innovation will bring to Apple’s future of “connecting everything”.

Frankly speaking, we really don’t understand Apple’s lofty ideal (I wonder if Apple understands it itself?). We only know that hardware is still the core of Apple, whether from the perspective of revenue or profit, and it is also the foundation of its future ideal of “connecting everything”. Otherwise, why would Apple release a new iPhone, and even follow the trend of large screens in the Android smartphone camp? As for smart watches, if there is no accumulation of quantity, what is the basis for the so-called “connecting everything”? Remember what Apple said before that mobile payment can not make money, but quantity? What quantity? Using the function of mobile payment to attract more users to buy and use iPhone phones and Watches, only in this way can Apple guarantee the growth of revenue and profits, and then talk about the next step of “connecting everything”. Similarly, the basis for Apple’s so-called CarPlay to connect to cars is also the iPhone smartphone, and even the future Watch. In other words, do you want to use CarPlay? You first need an iPhone or an Apple Watch (if Apple Watch can be used to connect to CarPlay in the future). This is Apple’s real purpose.

Therefore, we believe that the foundation of Apple's "connecting everything" (whether it is the carrier, revenue and profit) is still hardware. If the innovation of hardware (foundation) stagnates or the development direction does not conform to the industry trend, where will "connecting everything" come from? This is the reason why the hair will not be attached if the skin is gone.

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.