iPhone 11 Pro Announcement: What Went Wrong

Everyone’s been buzzing.

Well sort of.

Buzzing over Apple’s Special Event this past week.

They paraded, not surprisingly, the next line of shiny products and sparkling services within the Apple portfolio. No one really cares about Apple TV+ pricing, $4.99, being lower than both Netflix’s and Disney +’s most economical offer.

People are equally unimpressed by the star of the show, the newest iPhones. 

This fall we’re getting three new iPhones: iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Back to the old naming conventions I see. Aside from that glaring observation, the iPhones are higher performing than older models, have increased megapixels, and more colors! Exciting stuff. Or is it? 

I could compare all the specs of each model and come to some sort of conclusion about whether or not I’m on board with this release. I could but I won’t because that’s exactly where the Apple execs went wrong on the Cupertino stage. They just spouted out a bunch of tech specs that no average human could ever digest or even care about. 

Instead of explaining the actual value of the new iPhones, what it would mean to have one in your hand, the Apple team decided to word vomit f-stops, megapixels, CPU, GPU, and other nonsensical words that all amounted to a cumulative, “so what,” from the sitting audience. 

It’s highly probable that this numbness comes from a generation filled with tech bombardment. This year alone, we’ve seen folding phones with more than 3 lenses and 5G’s arrival. There have also been air pods, or at the very least, knockoffs, in every teenager’s ear, and scooters are wreaking havoc all over the place. We’ve become totally desensitized by new tech, which is, as a consequence, considered sensational only by those who are in. For all of us, outsiders, it’s just another smartphone. 

The saddest part is that opening a new phone, laptop, or tablet, now comes with little to no novelty. It feels as if we’ve had that product in our lives all this time. 

For all of us, outsiders, it’s just another smartphone. 

But, here’s the kicker.

Are we putting too much pressure on tech giants?

On the one hand, we tear them down for breach of data or being a conspiratorial force of evil. On the other hand, we expect them to be delivering mind-reading technology and clones we can grow like the good old at home sea monkey kits. Make up your mind, people. 

On a serious note, innovation is not a steady beat with traceable hills and valleys. It comes in uneven waves, ones that are gathering up momentum over time and will inevitably at some point, break.

So each small step that these tech giants make, gets us all closer to the Star Trek world I know you’re now imagining. 

In no reality do scientific breakthroughs, that will change the way we live, come every single year. It’s not happening. Let it go.

Fire was used by humans as early as 1.5 million to 400,000 years ago. The light bulb was invented 140 years ago. Maybe we won’t even be around for the next earth-shattering discovery. 

Then again, maybe we will. In the meantime, keep buying $1000 smartphones.