Why 2019 iPhone Event Was So Boring, and What True Innovation Is

Almost everyone said that the iPhone event is getting much more boring year after year. Why people say that? One reason for that is what we think of Innovation might be basically wrong.

After the 2019 September event of iPhone unveiling, as usual, many people and media criticized it as another boring product release.

In fact, the critiques themselves are the most boring thing. And here is why people keep complaining about the “non-innovativeness” for the iPhone event:

Modern phones are way too good for average people

Most of the functions, innovations (if any) and capabilities of modern phones have been way too much for average people. Each year people are expecting for breaking through innovations, and the more they realize those innovations are nothing to do with their actual everyday needs, the more they tend to think such innovations are just tricks.

Taking the new iPhone Pro as an example. Yes, the 3 lens camera system is very cool, full of black magic, and indeed a revolutionary leap forward for digital photography technology. But average people will be well satisfied with good enough camera on his/her budget phone, with some cool apps which do great photoshop jobs. People are just happy with this combination (it just works), and the so-advanced innovation is way too far for their everyday life.

Since those new capabilities are nothing to do with average people, they do not really care about them. So they will easily make such cheap comments for the event: boring.

High-end iPhone are for Pros

I think the most interesting thing for the Sept. 2019 iPhone event will be the naming scheme for new iPhones.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he reorganized the Mac product lines, axed a lot of confusing models to only 4, as the following matrix shown: