Jonathan Richman's Tweet made me smile today. He like many others seem underwhelmed by the Apple announcements yesterday. But this could be a classic Apple move.
Siri is the big game changer in yesterday's news. We knew it was coming but we didn't know how smooth Apple would make the integration. Know we know - very smooth. Yesterday was the culmination of many threads of development for a 1.0 launch with some beta (Siri) included. In that regard the iPhone 4S makes total sense.
Apple have:
- Optimized the iPhone's internals
- Launched iOS 5 which is a major upgrade and we can expect a series of updates as the software gets heavy real world use.
- Launched Siri as a beta assistant
- Maximized the profitability of the design cycle by getting another 12-15 months value out of the original iPhone 4 design.
This will really help to drive the profitability of the iPhone product line.
What it does do is give some interesting pointers for the iPad 3. They packed all of this goodness in to the iPhone and extended the battery life. This points to the ability to reduce the weight of the iPad 3 while increasing to a Retina style display.
It also makes the most sense for the iPhone 5 next year. Apple will take the experience of millions of users of the iPhone 4S and optimize the integration of iOS 5, Siri and iCloud and deliver that in a sleek new design that people will no doubt lust after.
This is Apple evolutionary design in practice.
