Another day of Apple altered reality and performance yesterday with the launch of the IPhone 6 and Apple Watch. So whats worth noting from the announcements ? The new IOS 8 as expected carries a range of features and improvements but its biggest selling point may be to developers looking for deeper integration between apps and devices.
The bigger screen size options for the IPhone 6 and 6 Plus show there is still a need to provide screen estate to make working on the devices more realistic. I’ve heard a lot of comments from clients interested in the new phones and among those who spend a lot of time on their phone where the screen size is eclipsed only by requests for long battery life and quicker charging.
The final elephant in the room was the announcement of the Apple Watch. Opinion is divided – some people are saying that it doesn’t provide anything that hasn’t been done before by others but the true value may be in the integration of fitness and other features allowing the device to replace others that are single purpose. It will be interesting to see what the development environment is for this new device as that could be the make or break for it.
The final thing is the introduction of Apple Pay – this could be the piece of the Apple puzzle that allows the widespread adoption of NFC and effective digital wallets that improve interaction between devices and finance.
So an interesting day all round for Apple – rises in the stock value to go along with the product announcements can’t be bad. However as always battery life may be the ultimate measure of success with these devices rather than their functionality.