Five years ago, when the iPad 2 just came out I remember seeing long lines outside of every Apple location in my home city, Calgary. A few years later, the iPhone 7 is released and there are long lines outside of Apple stores again. What changed? Definitely not the long lines, but do the lines represent the same thing they did five years ago?
Before I continue, imagine grade seven me in the back of the car, holding a packaged iPad 2, brain buzzing with the thought of simply having an iPad. Though unable to pinpoint the exact source of excitement, I nonetheless knew that this excitement would not be so augmented if I was bringing home some other device from another company. For Apple, the purchasing experience, the packaging, the product, fit together seamlessly. Waiting in the line, I saw others just as excited for the new launch, and unwrapping raised goosebumps because it was just so fresh. Operating the iPad was dream-like. Unfortunately, these days are no more for Apple fans like me after Jobs’ passing. Apple’s lifetime can be clearly divided into “Jobs-days” and “no-Jobs-days.” If I could characterize each ‘era’, then I would note that “Jobs-days” constantly kept consumers feeling as if they themselves, were at the very edge of technological innovation. In the beginning of “no-Jobs-days,” people were quite forgiving when the iPhone 5 looked and operated borderline exactly the same as the iPhone 4S. A few years later, we would think that Apple has recovered from its shock, but as former The Wall Street Journal reporter Yukari Kane puts it, “the well for ingenuity has run dry.”
iPhone models list.
We start to see Apple being unable to live up to its own hype that it has accumulated for itself during the “Jobs-days,” and this is certainly obvious in the consumer response for the iPhone 7. The iPhone 7’s dual-camera, which was advertised as one of its top selling points, was merely dismissed as being ‘good’, as there are other smartphones in the market with comparably better cameras. So to answer the question, what are these long lines now, if before they represented an eagerness for innovation? To me, customers want to believe that Apple is just as inventive as before, so they purchase the product anyway. But this expectation is often unmet, the latest example being the iPhone 7, and consumers just treat it as any other old product they buy. Though Apple’s revenues have risen since Timothy Cook became CEO, the company is in danger of losing their reputation for being innovative if they fail to once again lead technology advancement. Apple used to be very distinguishable from other smartphone makers. Compared to before, Apple is now settling for less.
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