A reminder for those breathlessly awaiting the Anniversary Edition iPhone

[RedOrchestra]

"Always up for celebrating an anniversary, Apple in 1997 celebrated its 20th anniversary with a brand new computer appropriately named the Twentieth Anniversary Mac, or TAM for short. The computer, which was actually one of Jony Ive’s first projects at Apple, was pretty intriguing for its time. Whereas most CPUs back in the late 90s were decidedly clunky, Apple’s TAM featured a sleek and incredibly thin all-in-one design. The machine featured a vertically positioned CD-ROM drive, decent internals, and came with external Bose speakers.

But in what will fast become a theme in the other examples below, the Twentieth Anniversary Mac didn’t sell all that well because a) it was overpriced with a $7499 pricetag and b) the internals, which while decent, were completely underwhelming relative to the cost of the machine.

When sales didn’t explode right out of the gate, Apple quickly slashed the price down to $3,500. When that didn’t help kickstart sales, Apple cut the price even further, all the way down to $1,995. Alas, even that did nothing to inject any semblance of life into a decidedly unpopular yet intriguing product."

http://bgr.com/2016/02/18/apple-product-failures-all-time-lisa-pippin-newton/

 

[braddick]

I am curious what one of these, MIB would sell for today within the collector market.

 

[ardchoille50]

Isn't that the machine that ran OS Harmony? 7.0?

 

[Charadis]

Nice. I do remember that. But what was the 30th anniversary Macintosh?

 

[ericwn]

Good old Twammy! Nice machine, and exactly the reason why Apple moved away from the concept of anniversary editions for the last couple decades. While fancy designed, they were expensive and that put a lot of people of I think.

 

[Andres Cantu]

I think Apple did not learn its lesson and will release an iPhone 7s and 7s Plus for the same $649 and $769 prices and an iPhone 8 or iPhone X or whatever name they choose for at least $799, possibly more. Their ultimate goal is to increase revenue per unit, and they know that might do the trick, as much as I would hate it.

 

[anonymous guy]

The big surprise is 24k gold plating like the ill fated Apple Watch, lmao.

 

[Juan007]

People will pay $1k for a premium iphone. No doubt about it.

 

[rijc99]

People will pay $1k for a premium iphone. No doubt about it.

Yep, Apple sold plenty of 256gb 7 plus at $969 So they'll undoubtedly sell a boat load of the next one too at $1,000.

 

[chrfr]

Always up for celebrating an anniversary, Apple in 1997 celebrated its 20th anniversary...

This is not your writing; you should credit your source.

 

[RedOrchestra]

This is not your writing; you should credit your source.

That was pretty evident ... I'm not defending a doctoral thesis so the bibs can be a little loser on a low end internet forum.

 

[jabingla2810]

"Always up for celebrating an anniversary.../

This was before Jobs returned.

Apple is not one for the mawkish, they rarely celebrate their history.

Sure Apple will probably mention its the 10th year since the first iPhone, but it will have no impact on their product road map or what they announce.

People hoping for a big '10th anniversary' iPhone announcement are going to be disappointed.

 

[Kjung7]

There are rumors that the anniversary edition may not exist and that the next release will be the same design we have right now, so essentially iPhone 7s.

 

[Brian Y]

There are rumors that the anniversary edition may not exist and that the next release will be the same design we have right now, so essentially iPhone 7s.

I would not be surprised. Apple has stuck with the x->xS scheme since the 3G, normally with some kind of big feature/design change between numbers. The 6S->7 seemed a bit minor, but Apple might have thought water resistance, dual cameras, and the new home button etc to be big enough.

Who knows, but it's more like Apple to stick with their revision schedule than to have a major overhaul off-year, especially as most people either buy a new phone every year, or every 2 years - so by introducing a big model off-year they'd be interrupting a lot of upgrade sales for those on 2 year contracts.

 

[ericwn]

There are rumors that the anniversary edition may not exist and that the next release will be the same design we have right now, so essentially iPhone 7s.

The anniversary edition is just a rumour. The case you describe is common sense, I think. The 7S is probably up next.

 

[BigDO]

Who knows, but it's more like Apple to stick with their revision schedule than to have a major overhaul off-year, especially as most people either buy a new phone every year, or every 2 years - so by introducing a big model off-year they'd be interrupting a lot of upgrade sales for those on 2 year contracts.

Agreed. The big anniversary all-glass buttonless design is just wishful fancy. We will get the 7S this year.