Yesterday Apple held its first event – or keynote, however you want to call it – of 2016, where it announced new products and initiatives. I will start with the most important thing and tell you that there was nothing revolutionary Apple announced yesterday and that the event as a whole felt rather boring.

But let me explain this in a – mostly – chronological way:

 

Opening

The event (which you could watch live on Apple.com) started with Tim Cook talking about how great Apple is doing and how many gazillion devices they sold. Seriously is this necessary?

Anyways, the second thing Cook talked about, was probably the most important of the event, the Apple vs FBI case. For those who don’t know about this, I am talking about the rather infamous court case in which the FBI tries to force Apple to unlock/decrypt the San Bernardino – shooter’s iPhone 5, because the FBI itself isn’t able to. As some of you may have already guest from the beginning of this post, I’m definitely no Apple fanboy (and some may even say I am contra Apple ;)), but I just love, LOVE how Apple handles this matter. They don’t just buckle before the FBI and give them anything they want, but they real seem to care about their users and their privacy. And this is something that can’t be valued enough!

 

Initiatives

Environment

This is the second thing about the keynote and also about Apple in general I like. The first “initiative” Tim Cook and after that Lisa Jackson discussed was about the environment and how Apple tries to preserve it. I have to admit – if all the things stated are true – it’s really impressive how well Apple is doing in this area. If I remember correctly, it was stated, that 93% of everything Apple does (stores, servers, offices, …) is powered by renewable energy. They also talked about how they use recycled materials for their packaging and also try to recycle even more parts from old iPhones and other devices. This is really something other (tech) companies could learn a thing or two from.

Health

The second initiative Apple talked about yesterday was health. In this section they talked about the accomplishments they made since they introduced Research Kit last year and also introduced Care Kit. But I am not so sure Care Kit will change that much. Don’t get me wrong, I think health is the most important topic ever, but because Apple currently only works with six universities to improve and use Care Kit. But if they manage to quickly grow the number of hospitals and doctors (also outside the US) they work with/who let their patients use Care Kit enabled apps, this could be HUGE.

 

Products

Apple Watch and TV

WHOO, the Apple Watch got a new “Woven Nylon Band” and new band colors!!! (Yeah, that was irony, for those who haven’t noticed). What the hell Apple, that’s nothing you have to talk about for 3 minutes at a keynote! And the new tvOS now supports sorting apps in folders and there are also new apps for it. Sorry Apple, it’s great the tvOS App Store is getting new apps, but that is also nothing you have to brag at an event.

 

iPhone SE

Apple started this part of the keynote by saying that they sold over 30 million 4” (or smaller) iPhones. This is the reason why they launched this new iPhone which is most of the iPhone 6s hardware cramped into an iPhone 5(s) body. That isn’t very innovative at all, but I have to admit that the price is quite reasonable – especially for Apple standards. It starts at $399 (off-contract) for the 16GB version. One of the 6s features it is missing is 3D Touch which may seem odd at first, but is most likely to keep the price down as the pressure sensitive screen may be one of the most expensive parts of the iPhone 6s. All in all, this will be a good iPhone for those who want to get into the iOS world without spending “normal” Apple prices or for those who just don’t like larger phones. One thing that bothers me about it is the old design and the horrible screen-to-body ratio resulting from that. Somebody who will be happy about this though are the case makers who can just keep producing the same old iPhone 5 case (and of course the people who already own one of these cases).

Something I almost forgot to talk about is the rather strange name (which was already leaked weeks ago by the way). Until a few hours ago, I was wondering what it stands for, but then I found this post on theverge.com. According to it Phil Schiller stated yesterday that it stands for ‘Special Edition’. What the heck is this supposed to mean? It will be available in unlimited quantities, so that’s not what it means. Neither is it made out of gold like the Apple Watch Edition. In my opinion this name only adds to an increasingly complicated iPhone line-up, which may very well overwhelm the average joe, who just wants to buy a new iPhone (more on that in the iPad section).

iPad Pro 9.7

And there we are, back with even more strange naming choices. Is this the successor to the iPad Air 2 or is it not? Will there be a new iPad Air 3 in the fall? Will there be an iPad Pro 7.9 in the future, or will it be called iPad Pro Mini or even iPad Pro 9.7 Mini? These are all question I thought about and wasn’t able to answer because of growing complexity and absurdity of the iPad line-up.

This is a list of all the iPads Apple is selling on Apple.com and now please tell me how a normal (“not-geeky”) person –the majority of people who buy Apple products – is expected to be able to decide for one of these. And I know that the tablet (and phone) line-ups of almost all other companies – looking at you Samsung! – is even more complex, but Apple itself always brags with how easy all their stuff is to use.

Sorry for getting so far away from the main topic, but this is something I really thought about a lot.

Although I just ranted about its name, I still think the new iPad (let’s just call it that from now on) is a great device with more horsepower most people/apps need today. I also think that its price at $599 for the 32GB variant is ok – again for Apple standards.

 

Conclusion

I hope I didn’t rant too much in this post😉. Everything considered, I think this was probably Apple’s weakest keynote so far. Nothing excitingly new, and the fact that Tim Cook talking about the environment and the FBI were my favorite parts speaks for itself I think.

I would be interested about your opinion, so please let me know about it in the comments. If you liked this post, please consider liking it or even subscribing to my blog.

 

Image sources: Apple Press Info, Apple.com