Apple needs to bring back in-person announcements

Yesterday was the annual Apple iPhone event. Go watch it! Go look at how slick it is. The camera swoops across America and drops us at various Apple locations that are so gorgeous as to appear entirely computer-rendered. At one point, I was thinking “did they open an Apple store on Myst Island?” Stunning. And when it’s time to demonstrate the features of the new products, there’s a seamless transition to a flawless presentation of, first, the product explosion where we see all the parts as they fit in the hardware, and then to a meticulously stage-managed pre-recorded micro-advertisement of the feature being used in absolutely perfect conditions.

At 37'22 of the YouTube version of the event, they introduce the “Center Stage front camera”, which is supposed to expand the field of view of the phone’s selfie camera when it detects more than one person in the shot. Between all the breathless adjectives (I was “advanced”-d and “innovative”-d out within 10 minutes of this event) and the pre-recorded ad of a model and all her gorgeous, photogenic friends hanging out in perfect lighting, I didn’t give much thought to this feature. It’s no doubt a beautiful presentation but it’s so beautiful, I’m left wondering how much of this is real and how much is fixed in post-production? Even with those gorgeous people in that gorgeous location, how many takes did they require to get that shot? And also, I’ve been burned too many times by Apple products and features not working as they show in these pre-recorded videos (I’m in Europe where Apple features work especially bad, if we get them at all), so I didn’t pay much attention to this feature.

This morning, I saw a TikTok from The Verge where they got hands-on with the new iPhone 17 Pro. In this TikTok, the presenter was demonstrating the new camera features, including the center stage front camera switching its field of view to accomodate people in the background. And the presenter doing this inside a crowded, noisy area. Real-world usage. You can hear the excitement in the presenter’s voice. Compare this to the breathless but flat affect of the narrator in the official Apple event video. This is what sold me on that feature. It made sense to me now. It made sense why I’d want it and it I understood how it behaves in less-than-ideal surroundings. It felt human and I got it.

Now, maybe this is all just part of Apple’s strategy. Just like I get the feeling they’re okay with Mark Gurman leaking all of the information of what is about to be announced at these vents ahead of time and they’ve factored this into their marketing, I wonder if their plan is to just do the snazzy videos and then let other outlets do the “real world” stuff.

But one thing I noticed is that since they’ve moved to pre-recorded videos during Covid, I haven’t come out of a single one feeling really excited about the new stuff they’ve announced. I thought this might just be the sign of a maturing product line where new iterations no longer mean a slew of whizz-bang features to get you fired up. But the difference between the Verge video and the too-polished Apple video really showed me that it’s not the lack of features, it’s the way Apple is presenting them to us.

Bring back in-person announcements, Apple.