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Has Apple ever really surprised you?

X

xMBPx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 29, 2010
183
2
For how secretive they try to be, I've never been really surprised by anything they do.

I'm talking about releasing the iPad before anyone ever guessed they would make one kind of surprise.

I've never seen/heard anything (especially a brand new product) during a keynote I hadn't heard something about before.

Shame on you Apple, up your game.
 
Longtime Mac user, but not closely following Apple-related news at the time, the big surprise for me was the iPod. Seemed like something a little out of their traditional orbit... earlier, other (design) colleagues seemed surprised by OS X and resisted it for far too long.

If you want to be surprised by Apple, stay off the rumor and tech industry sites.
 
Apple rumours are often quite accurate. I know there are many, many ridiculous and exaggerated ones, but often the rumours I've heard have been quite accurate. Therefore I don't think Apple has really surprised me that much, but I don't think that's a bad thing. They make some good decisions.
 
Oddly enough, the iPhone announcement blew me out of the water when he did that whole: "We're introducing 3 revolutionary devices...a widescreen iPod with touch controls (applause), a revolutionary mobile phone (audience erupts in cheers), and an internet communication device (golf clap)" Then repeated it once or twice until the audience started to get it then announced they were one device...frakkin' brilliant.
 
iMac G4 and iPhone, although I didn't frequent an Apple rumor site at the time. Still I was shocked when I first saw each of these new products.
 
The 27" iMac surprised the hell out of me. I was literally about a week away from building a PC and then that iMac came out for the same price and power plus the awesome display that wasn't available anywhere else.

Edit: Also the iPhone 4 was pretty surprising.
 
MovieCutter said:
Oddly enough, the iPhone announcement blew me out of the water when he did that whole: "We're introducing 3 revolutionary devices...a widescreen iPod with touch controls (applause), a revolutionary mobile phone (audience erupts in cheers), and an internet communication device (golf clap)" Then repeated it once or twice until the audience started to get it then announced they were one device...frakkin' brilliant.
Click to expand...

This for me also.

I don't expect many surprises from Apple in the future though. Since they're a much larger and high profile company than they used to be. They work with many suppliers on such a large scale that it would be impossible to prevent parts from being leaked.
 
they surprise me by what they discontinue, not what they release.

they spend oodles of money and time on a product in complete secrecy, and then 'BAM' it gets pulled for no reason. no warning or reason, and apple being apple, there is usually only a blub about 'not our current focus' or something similar on a few trade/rumor sites.

example: HiFi, best speaker dock i've used/owned except for the lame on top dock. big media event, selling fast, and then 'BAM' no more. i love mine, use it every day, wish they would have stuck with it and made a version 2 with a better dock that wasn't on top...
 
4JNA said:
example: HiFi, best speaker dock i've used/owned except for the lame on top dock. big media event, selling fast, and then 'BAM' no more.
Click to expand...


Yes, I've got one too; it's my kitchen beatbox hooked up to an Airport Express. Couple of thoughts about why they were pulled:

1. Heavy, bulky... perhaps out of place in many people's decors. They couldn't compete on price with the likes of Bose and other manufacturers, even though the product in most cases sounded better. Saw shelves of them untouched in a local department store at the time.

2. Perhaps it was always meant to be a one-off to spur the market into adopting the iPod dock across a range of peripherals. Even if that was unintended, that's what happened, cementing the iPod into a virtually monopolistic position.
 
The only time I've been surprised by Apple, or more specifically, Steve Jobs, was over the Antennagate shenanigans. The fact that he couldn't and wouldn't admit there was a problem, and then blamed it squarely on the end user was a bit of a surprise.
 
MovieCutter said:
Oddly enough, the iPhone announcement blew me out of the water when he did that whole: "We're introducing 3 revolutionary devices...a widescreen iPod with touch controls (applause), a revolutionary mobile phone (audience erupts in cheers), and an internet communication device (golf clap)" Then repeated it once or twice until the audience started to get it then announced they were one device...frakkin' brilliant.
Click to expand...
Same here. The Phone had been a rumor for at least a year and no one believed they'd do it and those that had high hopes had mockups that were awful especially in hindsight. When they announced what it actually was and then showed it I was blown away by the innovation, as was the audience. That's still my favorite keynote to watch.
 
Maybe I'm alone in this, but when the iPhone got released, my boss got one the next day, and I have to say, I wasn't impressed by it at all :confused: It didn't compete with other phones on the market with specs, bluetooth functionality was poor compared to other phones, a few wee things and I know he took it back after a week, but because it is Apple, the thing sold well. I still feel that the iPhone 1 was pretty poor.
 
Ping suprised me. I couldn't belive that anyone would be so stupid as to even come up the idea.

At least Apple now know that making a Social Network isn't as easy as it looks in the movies.
 
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