I've been thinking lately about something Steve Jobs once said on stage. "Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. One is very fortunate to work on just one of these in their career. Apple's been very fortunate that it's been able to introduce a few of these into the world." He identifies the Mac in 1984. The iPod in 2001. And then he introduces the world to the very first iPhone.
That's it.
Not even the iPad got that introduction.
Well, maybe you heard that Apple announced another new iPhone last week. And cue the annual chorus of tech press who immediately took to calling it boring, ho hum, meh, yet another. (Great roundup here: curiousrat.com/home/2012/9/17/boring.html)
Here's the thing: most of these folks are actually whip-smart. Like me, they do this stuff for a living, and they've seen it all. They're looking for something fresh that will really pop with their audience.
And that's the problem, right there. Blink and you'll miss it.
Before I explain, let's take a quick look at some of the marquee features that marked the evolution of each new model since the introduction of the first iPhone:
iPhone 3G
- Faster data (3G)
- GPS
- (And global availability, if you call that a feature.)
- Even faster processor / graphics
- Better battery life
- Better camera
- Retina display
- New slimmer design
- Even faster processor / graphics
- New, vastly improved camera.
- Even faster processor / graphics
- Even better camera
- Better antennas
- Faster data
- Siri
- New slimmer, lighter design
- Larger screen
- Even faster processor / graphics
- New, vastly improved camera
- Faster data
So it figures why we're told year after year the latest iPhone isn't all that interesting, and that the iPhone 5 is no different. Yet we also know that each successive iPhone has sold more -- and faster -- than its predecessor.
So where's the disconnect?
How does the customer validation -- in this case, record-setting sales and industry-topping user satisfaction ratings -- seem to so consistently differ from the pundits' collective yawns?
Here's the thing: most products aren't exciting. Or boring. They're just to varying degrees better. Year in and year out, they improve. And then eventually they'll start to get stale, and are invariably disrupted by something totally new and novel. Something we haven't seen before. Something exciting. (Or, if you prefer, something not "boring".)
That kind of product invents -- or reinvents -- an entire product category. Sometimes it even causes us to step back and revel in our collective human achievement.
These products are rare. Like, only-once-every-few-years rare. They're almost never made by the same company (see: The Innovator's Dilemma - www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062060244/ref=as_li_tf_...). And they never go back to back with another product in the exact same space -- that kind of lightning just doesn't strike twice.
The trick isn't to ship the most advanced product. Advanced has almost nothing to do with it. In fact, too often the most technologically advanced products are poorly executed, or wind up doomed to the bin of failures labeled "ahead of its time."
The products that break the game open aren't playing the specs game or the iteration game -- that comes later, if they're lucky. It's about vision. It's right place, right time. It's execution. And it's super rare.
These product don't always look revolutionary on day one. In fact, they can even be pretty hard to spot at first blush. But they're always easy to identify in hindsight -- once they've fundamentally changed how we do something, once they've caused us to question how we ever went without them.
But the buzz inevitably wears off, and the long haul sets in. We remember the magic of our first WiFi router or microSD card -- but now that stuff has become totally pedestrian. The game-changers make way for mature new product categories, which in turn produce mature new products.
And mature products -- like cellphones -- aren't supposed to be reinvented every year. That's the point -- if they were under constant, complete reinvention, you wouldn't be able to call them mature. (Remember what Steve said about products that change everything?)
Well, here's the kicker: smartphones have gotten mature in the last five years. Very, very mature.
So now you're starting to see why it's almost impossible for there to be a whole lot of novelty. Is it any wonder why the next best selling device is such a snore when you're a technology critic looking at your 400th cellphone this year?
It's exactly in this way that mainstream consumers see things in ways that technology enthusiasts often don't, or can't.
So let me propose a new way to look at this. Consider whether a product is thoughtfully and humanely designed. Consider whether it's superior to its predecessor in meaningful ways. Consider whether it's a good value. These are the questions we ask when we give a product its gdgt Score, or when making it a Must-have.
Expecting every single product to be utterly exciting is bullshit. Ask: it a great product?
Zoom out. Stop staring at our beautifully laid out product spec pages for a second. Is it a great product?
The Kindle Fire HD has great WiFi, a better screen, and a killer price.
Fine. But is it a great product?
Motorola's (not at all ostentatiously named) DROID RAZR MAXX HD has ridiculously great battery life.
Fine. But is it a great product?
The Paperwhite has a backlit, capacitive E-Ink screen.
Fine. But is it a great product?
iPhone 5 has a 4-inch display and LTE.
Fine. But is it a great product?
I think most people don't need to see the sales numbers to be able to tell.
