The biggest leap forward since the original

Go Apple.  iPhone X.   I'm trying really hard not to be cynical. Apple is a good company, really. They produce good products that do what they claim and last. They're not junk. I will never forget the awesomeness of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 6 designs, the bold "jet black" of the iPhone 7, and the truly revolutionary marketing of iPhone 6 with ginormous marketing photos of their product (not those stupid dumb little teeny photos that most marketers offer). But they're clearly coasting this year. Makes me wonder if they've lost their touch.

Their CEO, Tim Cook, made two claims at their annual product launch last week.  Two dumb little sentences that if they'd left out, I wouldn't be cynical.  But those CEO speeches are written weeks and months in advance, and are very carefully crafted.  With these sentences Apple is going out of their way to (yet again) prove to the world how devoted their fans are, and that the fans will drink any "kool-aid" they serve up (no matter how bad).

The product launch video is at https://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2017/, and as videos go it's perfectly fine. High quality, clearly good planning of the event, nice new venue. But here we go. At 1 hour 16 minutes in, Mr. Cook says "our teams have been at work for years on something that is important to all of us: the future of the smartphone. The first iPhone revolutionized a decade of technology, and changed the world in the process. Now, 10 years later, it is only fitting... to reveal a product that will set the path for technology for the next decade." At 1:17:50 he continues "This is iPhone X.  It is the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone." You've got to be kidding me. One of my favorite articles I read in my masters class had this excerpt in it:

Here's the thing about innovation: I'm not sure any of us needs a definition. We don't need a journalist to tell us what it is. Or who really gets it. Innovation is like obscenity: We know it when we see it. It's hard to miss when paradigms shift.
-http://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/innovation-is-executive-porn/d/d-id/1111194

If he'd left these exaggerations out of his speech, I'd have nothing to be cynical about.  iPhone X is a decent product. But it's nothing innovative. It's new features are:

• edge to edge screen (something almost every other manufacturer has dabbled in for years)
• wireless charging (something every other manufacturer has had for years)
• facial recognition (Samsung did even better earlier this year)
• super retina display (Samsung has had higher for at least 2 years)

And that's what he calls "the biggest leap forward" since the original device?? Then at 1:21:25 Phil Schiller says removing the home button "is a big step forward in the iPhone user experience." Now instead of pressing the home button we swipe up from the bottom of the screen. He follows by saying "it's incredibly smooth and once you do it for the first time, you'll know there's never been a better way." Really? Last I checked, swiping takes more effort than touching. And let's not get into how old all this is to Android users, especially those who've installed alternate launchers.

And lastly, to add insult to injury, they're charging a whole grand. Yeah right. Sorry Apple fans. The 10th anniversary was supposed to be the year for the iPhone. What a let down. I mean, if you want a thousand dollar phone, and you want it to be an Apple, then great, I'm happy for you, go for it, it is their most impressive yet. But don't try to brag about it's technology. It's not cutting edge. Unlike the original iPhone, there's nothing new here here at all.