Well, in the long list of Apple product launches, last week’s announcements were certainly some of them. Marketing supremo Greg Joswiak didn’t set the bar especially high when he predicted “an exciting week,” but even that comparatively tepid assessment turned out to be wildly optimistic. As explored in our weekly Apple Breakfast roundup, the latest hardware cycle has revealed a widening gap between Apple’s marketing rhetoric and its actual product pipeline during these Apple Fall Product Launches.
The Marketing Gap: When ‘Exciting’ Becomes Optimistic
Traditionally, when there’s a big backlog of unreleased products, Apple follows its September event with another in October. Consumers and tech analysts expected Apple to group together the Mac and iPad launches as it has so often in the past, build to the touchscreen MacBook as the flagship launch, and then very likely unveil the HomeView as One More Thing. But for whatever reason, the company decided to go down a different route, splitting its remaining fall launches into a pair of low-key “experiences,” followed by a series of quiet press releases and site updates at the rate of one or two products per day.
This shift has drawn intense scrutiny. While major keynotes build collective momentum, this fragmented approach highlights the mundane nature of several iterative refreshes while occasionally isolating genuinely innovative hardware.
Iterative Refreshes: The iPad mini 8 and M6 Macs
Several devices launched during this period fall firmly into the category of necessary financial maintenance rather than revolutionary engineering.
- iPad mini 8: The 8th-gen iPad mini gets some nice upgrades, including a thinner and lighter body, a faster processor, and an OLED screen. However, it doesn’t alter the fundamental truth that big-screen smartphones, and especially foldables, have rendered mid-price mini tablets largely obsolete. Thanks to another $100 price hike, the mini is now verging on premium territory when it needed a change of direction rather than a costly glow-up.
- M6 iMac and MacBook Pro: Tuesday’s twin launches saw the arrival of M6 updates to the iMac and MacBook Pro. Apple found itself painfully short of “exciting” things to say about the new iMac; of the six things trumpeted in the summary paragraph at the top of the press release, four also apply to the previous M4 model. The same is basically true of the M6 MacBook Pro. The best we can say about them is that at least the prices are the same.
- HomePod mini (2nd-gen): The second-generation speaker essentially amounted to better AI in a future software update and worse colors. Because it was second on the bill at a very small event, it drew unwanted attention to the fact that Apple didn’t redesign the speaker or make any substantive non-AI-related upgrades six years after the first model came out.
The Groundbreakers: iPhone Duo and the Touchscreen MacBook
It wasn’t until later in the week that we got a launch that was genuinely groundbreaking within the Apple ecosystem. This fall has been unusually interesting beneath the surface, featuring three major innovative product launches:
- iPhone Duo: A landmark folding device that brings folding technology to a refined state, as highlighted in our dedicated coverage and podcast.
- Touchscreen MacBook Pro: Featuring a PROLED XDR Display, a touchscreen MacBook still strikes some critics as an offense against logic and reason, yet it undoubtedly breaks a ten-year grid in Apple’s design philosophy.
- HomeView: An innovative if strategically questionable product rounding out the Apple Home Collection, which also included a worthy but straightforward new HomePod mini and an Apple TV refresh that costs way too much and has few exclusive features.
The Strategy Shift: Why Apple Abandoned the Big Keynote
Apple’s new approach of quiet press releases and minor experiences has distinct advantages and drawbacks. Most obviously, it saves on time and money because the marketing team doesn’t have to script and edit a 90-minute show, and busy senior execs don’t need to rehearse and perform a full-length presentation.
There’s also the handy side effect that more obscure products get to enjoy their day in the sun. The new iPad mini would have been a minor footnote in a massive touchscreen MacBook show, but instead, it basked in the glow of media and customer attention. Conversely, that same spotlight can cruelly expose missteps, as seen with the Apple TV’s high price tag and lack of exclusive features, or the aforementioned limitations of the HomePod mini.
The Financial Reality of Iteration
Not every Apple product is exciting, it turns out. But of course, we knew that already. The company has found over the past decade or so that small iterative updates generally make the most sense from a financial point of view. Even with the introduction of high-end oddities like a Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM shipping for ‘New Car Money,’ Apple relies on steady iterative cycles to sustain its massive hardware ecosystem. The funny thing is that this fall has been unusually interesting, yet the idiosyncratic manner in which the company has made its announcements has drawn attention to everything else.
