Well, Tim Cook's first keynote is over. Put mildly, nobody is blown away with neither the new CEO presentation performance nor the actual products Apple had to announce.
TechCrunch has a nice recap of the things that were rumored vs. what was really announced here.
The biggest disappointment was of course the lost iPhone 5. Instead of launching two products, iPhone 5 and 4S, Apple just upgraded (quite significantly, need to say) iPhone 4.
Other rumors that proved incorrect were:
- No deep Facebook integration into iOS;
- No cheap iPhone 4S;
- Some other crazy, crazy things;
So now when disappointment permeates the blogosphere, I cannot help but remember a similar mood filling the blogs after another Apple keynote long, long ago. Like less than two years ago, when Apple announced the iPad.
Yes, yes, I know it's not a fair comparison, but do you remember how people went mad about the specs after they were finally announced? No camera? Holes instead of flash videos on NYT website? C'mon, who's going to buy this?
Well, we all know what happened. Less than a year after the launch, people were buying this thing like crazy. And I mean, crazy!
There is something about Apple that unleashes strong feelings. Antenagate, anyone?
My humble opinion is that things that were announced yesterday were good. The 4S seems a solid upgrade although not necessarily something you'll run to the Apple Store if you already have iPhone 4 in your pocket. Siri seems solid too.
As for Tim Cook -- this was his first product launch ever. So he may not be as electrifying as Steve Jobs, but he did a good job. And he'll get better with time. I'm sure.
