Breaking the iPhone Cycle: Lessons Apple Can Learn from Nintendo – Video

The annual spectacle of the iPhone launch could be a thing of the past. And I know that sounds wild, because I’ve been covering the annual iPhone launch days since it all started. But reports now question whether Apple is rethinking its strategy of releasing a new iPhone every year, based on the late arrival of Apple Intelligence. Honestly, I think Apple needs to change the upgrade cycle when it comes to the iPhone. You could say Apple is in a circle and I think it can take a few lessons from another globally influential tech company that was big in the 1980s, Nintendo on the day I went to film this week’s Apple video. I stopped everything for a bigger story. A Nintendo story. The video game company surprised the world this week by suddenly dropping new hardware. It was this emotion-detecting sleep, tracking, interactive sound alarm clock. It’s called Alar O. Now the internet went wild with the unexpected gadget news, something so quirky, so strange and yet connected to health through sleep tracking. It puts a new spin on alarm clocks. It’s high tech with motion sensors and no one expected it on a random Wednesday in October, there was no early warning to the press, no teaser on the internet. It was a true story and a moment of delight. Something Apple might want to take more advantage of. A lot in consumer technology is very routine right now. And I think Apple can learn a lesson from this this week. Let’s take a look at why Apple might be motivated to change the approach to its annual iPhone updates and start thinking differently. I’m Bridget Carey and this is one more thing at the beginning of the week. Bloomberg’s Apple reporter Mark Gurman got everyone excited when he published a piece about how he sees Apple moving away from the annual product upgrade cycle. The pattern we have been used to for a while. Is that for WW DC in June? Apple shows off new software and then comes the hardware, the iPhones, the Macs, they’re all coming in September and October with the software updates at about the same time, everyone’s on the same page about what to expect, the store associates, the press , the investors and the analysts. It’s a smooth dance. But what happens if we have a situation like this year where Apple markets the phone as built for Apple Intelligence? Apple’s intelligence is going to transform much of what you do with the iPhone. And of course AI is part of the big launch day celebrations and media push, and out of the box there is no Apple Intelligence. It generated reviews that said people might have to wait to buy it. I saw people jumping on social media saying they were disappointed that it all feels the same as their last phone. So why bother upgrading Apple Intelligence, it will be a slow rollout? October gives a few characteristics. November or December can yield slightly more. We saw the broad potential in June with the big sales pitch at WW DC and customers are now left in the dark wondering when and how it will all come together. Would it have made more sense to wait until Apple Intelligence was ready to release the iPhone 16? Wall Street would certainly have turned around. But I think true fans are fine waiting to spend their money until something is fully cooked. We don’t get annual updates for all of Apple’s other products, because it’s not always necessary or possible to make a leap in the experience worth launching a new device. There isn’t an iPad every year. Some Macs also last a few years and take a look at the Airpods Pro two. Here’s a product that came out in September 2022 and is soon getting a software update that makes it a completely improved experience to the point where it feels like a new product. They should have airpods of the year with hearing health features that make them FDA approved hearing aids. It’s a perfect example of how software can make something feel new and exciting again and prevent us from dismissing something as outdated because it’s two years old. Of course, we can’t talk about hardware updates without taking into account the environmental impact. Apple is placing more emphasis on the use of recycled and renewable materials and aims to reduce the company’s carbon footprint to zero. The best way to do that is to simply make fewer products. Let’s see, embrace the idea that we can use our devices longer with software updates because these processors can handle so much load. Now with AI, Apple’s business is no longer just a hardware company. There are plenty of subscription services that are also constantly taking our money, including Apple TV, which Apple is finding new ways to sell to more customers with an Amazon Prime Partnership. It just makes sense that a new iPhone isn’t needed every September. Now I know that comparing Apple to Nintendo is comparing apples to mushrooms. But Nintendo is an example of how there are no hard and fast rules to follow to be a giant tech company. We can just drop a sleep gadget at the bedside and fans will get a kick out of the surprise, making it a big buzz moment in the news. And when we talk about the frequency of upgrades, Nintendo certainly doesn’t do that often. The switching console came out in 2017 and still works fine. But the iPhone that came out that year, the iPhone 10. Yes, it can’t get this year’s I OS 18 software. But Nintendo executives are also just being more direct with the public and customers out of the blue. Back in May. The president of Nintendo sent out a tweet saying that the announcement of the successor to the Nintendo Switch will take place within the fiscal year. So that means it could happen in early 2025 and he was clear that the next big news event at the time would be focused on this year’s matches. Look, you could just tell people what to expect. We don’t need mysterious teasers. There is no pattern, we have to follow product launches every time and you know what Nintendo customers are now going into the holidays knowing that something new will come soon, but they can still do a lot with the existing technology. There is a business expression that is said to have originated with Apple. It’s called surprise and delight. And the meaning is that a company should give customers unexpected rewards, access or even unexpected events as a tactic to attract loyal customers. Maybe in an age where software is king, we can just let the hardware drops be a pleasant surprise to Apple fans when they’re ready to launch and don’t have a hard date on the calendar. What are your feelings about this? Jump in the comments and let me know if I’m just dreaming and Apple will never exit the cycle because of Wall Street expectations and the fear of seeing its stock fall. Or if you think Apple is the one that needs to flip the script and wake up to reality. If so, maybe they should take a look at this alarm clock. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next time for one more thing.