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what do you think of Apples new trend?

Delighted

Delighted

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
253
1
Wirelessly posted

I'm starting to notice a trend(and maybe some of you have noticed it as well). Apple has been holding out new features on older(but capable) products.

First we had the iPhone 4s who was given Siri, even though the iPhone 4 was proven to be more than capable of running it.

Now we have dictation, which was given to the 3rd gen iPad.

What do you think? Why do you think Apple is doing this? What do you think of this trend Apple is setting?

Personally, I dont mind. I just keep the thought in the back of my head that Apple is sort of beta testing these features first before they're ready for prime time.
 
That's not a trend. It's called smart marketing.

They plan ahead, and are perfectly aware of what their products are capable of. Apple adds in just enough features into new products to make them desirable to the majority of the public, without forcing their hand for the next generation of the same product.

It keeps all their products new and innovative, while keeping ahead of the curve. No company is going to sink all their biggest ideas into one product in one shot, because they plan ahead for the future.
 
Wirelessly posted

basesloaded190 said:
Delighted said:
Wirelessly posted

What do you think? Why do you think Apple is doing this? .
Click to expand...

To sell new products
Click to expand...

that was my initial thought as well, then i was reminded of how apple always tries to keep their product as backwards compatible as possible. It was until Lion that rosetta got the axe.
 
Doesn't seem unreasonable though. New products have new features to sell them. Most companies just disregard older products altogether. Apple at least updates their software and still adds plenty of new features.
 
tmdist said:
Doesn't seem unreasonable though. New products have new features to sell them. Most companies just disregard older products altogether. Apple at least updates their software and still adds plenty of new features.
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I absolutely agree. Despite how big or small these features are, why hold them out? I refuse to believe that apple is doing this just to sell more new products. It just doesn't seem to be in Apples culture to sell more products to make more money. Besides these features are quite small. You can't say that Apple held onto these features for new products because they are key selling points.

There are plenty of better selling points that would sell the iPhone 4s and iPad already. Better cameras, speed increase, better battery, retina display.

To reiterate, I dont think Apple kept Siri and Dictation from their older products to sell newer ones.
 
Delighted said:
It just doesn't seem to be in Apples culture to sell more products to make more money.
Click to expand...

Your joking right? If Apple isn't in this to sell products and make money, they are going to have some mighty unhappy shareholders becuase they need to do that in order to please them.
 
Delighted said:
I absolutely agree. Despite how big or small these features are, why hold them out? I refuse to believe that apple is doing this just to sell more new products. It just doesn't seem to be in Apples culture to sell more products to make more money.
Click to expand...

What?

Just because Apple is extremely innovative doesn't mean they arn't a business.
 
Delighted said:
I absolutely agree. Despite how big or small these features are, why hold them out? I refuse to believe that apple is doing this just to sell more new products. It just doesn't seem to be in Apples culture to sell more products to make more money. Besides these features are quite small. You can't say that Apple held onto these features for new products because they are key selling points.

There are plenty of better selling points that would sell the iPhone 4s and iPad already. Better cameras, speed increase, better battery, retina display.

To reiterate, I dont think Apple kept Siri and Dictation from their older products to sell newer ones.
Click to expand...

Maybe because they worked better on the newer devices, perhaps the iPhone 4S got an upgrade to the microphone, and so on the 4 Siri was less capable of understanding why was said, that coupled with the fact new features sell new products.

There are no other possible reasons for it.
 
Delighted said:
Wirelessly posted

I'm starting to notice a trend(and maybe some of you have noticed it as well). Apple has been holding out new features on older(but capable) products.

First we had the iPhone 4s who was given Siri, even though the iPhone 4 was proven to be more than capable of running it.

Now we have dictation, which was given to the 3rd gen iPad.

What do you think? Why do you think Apple is doing this? What do you think of this trend Apple is setting?

Personally, I dont mind. I just keep the thought in the back of my head that Apple is sort of beta testing these features first before they're ready for prime time.
Click to expand...

It is nothing new, this is called MARKETING
 
Siri is nowhere close to primetime. It was a good addition to the iPhone 4S but the biggest problems are due to voice recognition context as well as implementation. The reason why Apple didn't include Siri is because they are still fleshing out the tech and adding additional load on the current Siri servers doesn't help. They are still collecting data to improve voice recognition context sensitive tech. It's not an easy tech to adapt. Granted, Apple probably could have probably put a 8MP camera as well as LED flash on the iPad but the pricing of the iPad is pretty much good for right now because people are willing to pay premium for last year's tech but highly polished product.
 
Delighted said:
Wirelessly posted



that was my initial thought as well, then i was reminded of how apple always tries to keep their product as backwards compatible as possible. It was until Lion that rosetta got the axe.
Click to expand...

Apple has never, ever looked back to older models with new product rollouts. It's usually just happy coincidence when stuff works but you'll sooner see "not supported" than "will work with earlier versions...." OS updates are a bit different but even then you see certain features that are unsupported.

Look at it this way, wouldn't you prefer they worked to develop new software/features that are not otherwise limited by older hardware restrictions?
 
It's hardly a new trend, but in regards to Siri consensus is that it's a beta product and Apple doesn't have enough server capacity to handle the iPhone 4 traffic too. Similarly, dictation uses Apple's servers too so might very well be an issue there too, but dictation is still available on previous iPads and iPhones with the Dragon Dictation app which is free.
 
Always leave them wanting more and keep them coming back.
Seems to be working pretty good for Apple so far.

Although re-sale demand and value is no longer what it was.
Going forward might see less volume with the re-sale market gone.
 
Expect to see something in the iPad (4) to have full Siri integration and at that time take the program out of beta and allow API's to use Siri. Could they do this in the iPad (3)? Of course, but they won't and it will help them sell next year's iPad.
 
Delighted said:
i was reminded of how apple always tries to keep their product as backwards compatible as possible.
Click to expand...

Apple has never been big on backwards compatibility. They are about trimming off the fat at the expense of backwards compatibility. Not that it is a bad thing, it just suck for those with older hardware.
 
brand said:
Apple has never been big on backwards compatibility. They are about trimming off the fat at the expense of backwards compatibility. Not that it is a bad thing, it just suck for those with older hardware.
Click to expand...

I don't know.
They have been pretty good for the most part with iOS and OSX.
But yes every so often they slide something new in and make it available to only the newest item to sell more of that new product.
But that is just good business sense.
 
brand said:
Apple has never been big on backwards compatibility. They are about trimming off the fat at the expense of backwards compatibility. Not that it is a bad thing, it just suck for those with older hardware.
Click to expand...

of course they have, thats one of the many reasons for pixel doubling with the retina displays, so that developers wouldn't concentrate their efforts on the new display and leave out the old ones, everyone gets access to at least most of the apps, as long as their device is powerful enough.

this is the reason Apple products hold their value so well, because they are still kept up to date by apple at least to a degree (a hell of a lot more than any other company, who just throw out a new phone/tablet and move on to the next one, without looking back)
 
dukeblue91 said:
I don't know.
They have been pretty good for the most part with iOS and OSX.
But yes every so often they slide something new in and make it available to only the newest item to sell more of that new product.
But that is just good business sense.
Click to expand...

Lukeyy19 said:
of course they have, thats one of the many reasons for pixel doubling with the retina displays, so that developers wouldn't concentrate their efforts on the new display and leave out the old ones, everyone gets access to at least most of the apps, as long as their device is powerful enough.

this is the reason Apple products hold their value so well, because they are still kept up to date by apple at least to a degree (a hell of a lot more than any other company, who just throw out a new phone/tablet and move on to the next one, without looking back)
Click to expand...

I never said that they didn't provide some level of backwards compatibility, I said that they were not big on it. If you want to see a company that that insists on supporting ancient hardware look at Microsoft. The level of backwards compatibility that they have is one of the things that continues to drag them down.
 
They've been doing that for a long time.
The original iPhone didn't have a flash on the camera, as if Apple didn't have the common sense to know people would want one.

If they created a device with 100% complete "upgrades" to the highest of their capability, then it would be very hard to make (and keep making) newer, better models. Especially newer, better models that are better enough to upgrade to and buy over the previous.

If Apple were a restaurant and reinventing meals, I'm sure they would introduce a meal, and then next year introduce a meal with a beverage.
 
The other technical term is "Product Lifecycle Management". Apple actually tells you that you should replace your products every 2 years. You can let it slide for another year but by then, the technology is no longer supported to a large degree. Some corporate yahoos still think it's ok to use a computer that's 10 years old and then can't figure out why they can't run the latest software or pay employees for work done at a much slower pace. Apple doesn't always include the latest tech on all of their gadgets. They just include the base minimum of what they think you need and then push you towards things that they think are more important such as the screen and the user experience.
 
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