Breaking the iPhone Cycle: Lessons Apple Can Learn From Nintendo – CNET

The yearly spectacle that is the iphone launch could be a thing of the past. And I know that sounds wild because I’ve been covering annual iphone launch day lines since it all began. But reports are now questioning if Apple is rethinking the strategy of pushing out a new iphone every year based on this late in the year arrival of Apple Intelligence. Frankly, I think Apple needs to change the upgrade cycle when it comes to the iphone. You could say Apple is stuck in a loop and I think the he can take a few lessons from another globally influential tech company that was big in the eighties, Nintendo on the day I was going 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 sensing sleep, tracking, interactive sound alarm clock. It’s called Alar O. Now the internet went wild over the unexpected gadget news, something so quirky, so strange and yet it’s tied to health by tracking sleep. It puts a new twist on alarm clocks. It’s high tech with motion sensors and no one was expecting it on a random Wednesday in October, there was no early heads up to the press, no teaser to the internet. It was a true story prize and delight moment. Something Apple might want to tap into more. So much in consumer tech is very routine right now. And I think Apple could take a lesson here this week. Let’s go over why Apple might be motivated to change the approach to its yearly iphone updates and start thinking different. I’m Bridget Carey and this is one more thing at the start of the week. Bloomberg’s Apple reporter, Mark Gurman got everyone buzzing when he put out a piece about how he sees Apple inching away from the annual product upgrade cycle. The pattern we’ve been used to for a while. Is that for WW DC in June? Apple shows off new software and then the hardware comes the iphones, the Macs, they all arrive in September and October with the software updates landing at roughly the same time, everyone’s on the same page on what to expect the store employees, the press, the investors and the analysts. It’s a smooth dance. But what happens when we have a situation like this year where Apple markets the phone as being built for Apple Intelligence. Apple intelligence is going to transform so much of what you do with iphone. And of course A I is part of the big launch day celebrations and media push and well out of the box, there’s no Apple Intelligence. It brought about reviews that said maybe people should wait to buy it. I saw folks jumping on social media saying they felt disappointed about how it all feels the same as their last phone. So why bother upgrading Apple Intelligence will be a slow roll out. October gives a few features. November or December may give a little bit 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 or how it all comes together. Would it have made more sense to wait on the release of the iphone 16 until Apple Intelligence was ready? Wall Street certainly would have flipped out. But I think true fans are fine waiting to spend their money until something is fully cooked. We don’t get annual updates to all of Apple’s other products because it’s not always necessary or possible to make a leap in the experience worthy of launching a new device. There’s not an ipad every year. Some Macs go a few years as well and take a look at the airpods Pro two. Here is a product that came out in September of 2022 and it’s getting a software update soon that makes it a whole upgraded experience to the point where it could feel like a new product possibly be. The must have air pods of the year with hearing health features that turn it into FDA authorized hearing aids. It’s a perfect example of how software can make something feel new, exciting again and prevent us from just dismissing something as outdated for being two years old. Of course, we can’t talk about hardware updates without considering the environmental impact. Apple is putting a greater focus on using recycled and renewable materials and it wants to bring the company’s carbon footprint down to zero. Now, the best way to do that is to just make fewer products. Let’s see, embrace the idea that we keep our devices around longer with software updates since these processors can handle so much load. Now with A I Apple’s business is no longer just a hardware business. There are plenty of subscription services also taking in our money all the time 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 comparing Apple to Nintendo is comparing apples to mushrooms. But Nintendo is an example of how there are no set rules you have to follow to be a juggernaut technology company. We can just have a sudden drop of a bedside sleep gadget and fans are gonna get a kick out of the surprise, making it a big buzzy moment in the news. And if we’re talking about the frequency of upgrades, Nintendo sure doesn’t do that often. The switch console came out in 2017 and still works just fine. But the iphone that came out that year, the iphone 10. Yeah, it’s not able to get this year’s I OS 18 software. But the Nintendo executives are also just more straightforward with the public and customers out of the blue. Back in May. Nintendo’s president sent out a tweet saying the announcement of the successor of the Nintendo switch will come within the fiscal year. So that means it could come in early 2025 and he was clear, the next big news event at the time was going to be focused on this year’s games. See, you could just tell people what to expect. We don’t have to have mysterious teasers. There is no pattern, we have to follow every time for product launches and you know what Nintendo’s customers now go into the holiday season knowing maybe something new will come soon, but they still have lots they could do with existing technology. There is a business phrase 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 bit of a tactic to attract loyal customers, maybe in an era where software is king, we could just let the hardware drops be a delightful surprise to Apple fans when they are ready to be launched and not be on a hard date on a calendar. What are your feelings on the matter? Jump into the comments and let me know if I’m just dreaming and Apple will never leave the cycle because of Wall Street expectations and the fear of seeing its stock drop. Or if you think Apple is the one that needs to flip the script and wake up to reality. If so, maybe they should check out this alarm clock. Thanks for watching. I’ll catch you next time for one more thing.