You can’t say Apple hasn’t been busy. That’s certainly the case given the slew of new products announced and released this fall, with some yet to still hit store shelves later this month. In some ways it feels like it’s an inventory clearing of hardware products that have been waiting for the software side of things to catch up. In some ways it points to a more diversified product lineup and broader user base in the future.
Either way I’m glad to see products like the iPhone Duo and the insanely named MacBook PROLED XDR Display (I wonder if they used Apple Intelligence for that — I hope that’s the excuse) even though they aren’t products I’m interested in. I’m also glad to see familiar hardware form factors continue to receive incremental improvements. Although the price increases for some of the familiar home products will put them further out of the reach for many.
As for the iPhone Duo and… I’m just going to call it the MacBook Touch, these both look like specific niche products that time will tell if their respective niches will be big enough to warrant the initial investment. Regardless of what the bottom line future holds, my hunch is that they will each develop an ardent and passionate user base.
And that is as it should be.
Apple is not only broadening the number of products it sells, it is also broadening the number of ways users can interact with its products and its vision of computing. Apple is often criticized for its narrow and opinionated view of how computers and technology should work. That will still happen because Apple is indeed still opinionated and critics will always be critics. But it will happen within a larger universe of product possibilities that doesn’t feel quite as one size fits all or how one device in a category has to cater to every possible type of user.
As to the price point problem everyone in consumer tech is facing, I don’t think you have to look any further than the introduction of the NEO last spring to understand where Apple is headed. While those initial NEO prices have increased due to chip costs, and the next version will probably do the same, it looks to me that Apple is further segmenting, while still expanding its customer base by including a larger array of price point options.
I am thoroughly puzzled by the $299 price point of the Apple TV though. It seems oddly out of place. I, and several others I know were looking forward to upgrading that device this year. But at that price point most I’m talking to are, like me, sitting tight with what they currently have.
Going forward, a lot of the coverage is going to focus on the new and shiny iPhone Duo and MacBook Touch. That’s understandable. But I think the bigger story is going to be about the entire lineup and how those new products fit in and expand Apple’s user base.
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