The Apple event format needs its “iPhone X” moment

This week Apple unveiled — like clockwork — the new generation of iPhone and Apple Watch, but you already knew that.

This morning, I will not write about the devices themselves; I think they are what we expect from Apple now: incremental updates, maintaining their status as the go-to smartphone or smartphone every year. Nothing wrong with that. I still own an iPhone 11, and upgrading to an iPhone 15 would be a big leap forward, with refinements and improvements on most parts of the phone, for a price that is more or less the same.¹ iPhones are basically like cars now: don’t expect a brand new model every year, but you can bet there will be a “mid-cycle” update every couple of years. For the Apple Watch, we now expect Apple to unveil a new generation next year, for the alleged Apple Watch “ten”, so nothing much to see this year.

Like I said, I’m not here to write (too much) about the devices, I’m here to discuss the event itself.

I feel the pre-recorded format is getting old already. During and after the pandemic, it was an obvious choice, and Apple produced this new kind of events perfectly: camera transitions, backgrounds, execution, everything was seamless and genuinely ambitious. Now, the format feels tired, expected, and I think there are way too many transitions, making the “show” a bit long and — yes — boring. People barely have the time to watch their favourite TV show nowadays, they don’t have time to watch 90 minutes of people wearing bland straight-out-of-the-rack clothes.

I will not hate on the little sidesteps they take for humour: as the younger generation would say, some of it I find rather cringe, but at least this is their way of trying to innovate, and surprise the audience. The Craig Federighi jokes are fun enough for me, and I think this latest Mother Nature clip was at least trying to bring a new format/angle to a very corporate and “greenwash-y” topic.

I already had this feeling back in June when they unveiled Apple Vision Pro. I could see the formula used in every “scene,” I could see all the wires controlling the puppets on stage. Maybe my daily job in a brand content team spoiled this kind of exercise for me, but maybe Apple has room for improvement. For the first Apple Watch event in 2015, they reused Steve Jobs’ iPhone introduction format: the “one more thing”, the “only a revolutionary UI and input method could make this possible.” Jobs mentioned the Mac/Mouse, the iPod/click-wheel, and the iPhone/Multitouch combos. Then, Tim Cook proudly unveiled the Apple Watch/digital crown combo.

Back in those days, it felt more like an homage than a formula. It was nice to see Apple use this script again, and it was truly reminiscent of the iPhone unveiling, which made sense for a new product category in the lineup, the first after the passing of Steve Jobs.

For the Apple Vision Pro, it didn’t felt like an homage. It felt like a recipe, a mastered sixteen-years-old formula. Even if it diminished the prestige of the original use of this formula, it was fine, just like if you go visit your aunt and she always cooks the same dish that she does so well. Nobody’s complaining, but it’s arguably less delicious than the first time. During the WWDC event in June, I started to see the cracks in this particular formula, hoping it would be the last time I was seeing this. After all, the “one more thing” was already getting old and almost cliché, way before it was used for the Apple Vision Pro.

I know these events are eventually not for nerds like me. They are for fans and Apple enthusiasts that are delighted to be able to watch these at the same time than reporters and Apple employees (remember when Apple keynotes were not broadcasted live?). But still.

I hope the next “Apple show” introduces a new format, shorter, more dynamic, more TikTok-like maybe? I don’t know. Why not hire one or several hosts, professionals that can truly keep things going? Or maybe split the show: one video per product, each published on a separate day/week and maybe do the hands-on part all at once with strong NDAs? Today, for the first time, I’m not sure I will watch the next one, and I’ve happily watched all Apple presentations of the last 10+ years.

To me, this September event was the one too many using the same exact format. Every show, I feel like Tim Cook is less happy to do it than the previous one, and the backgrounds are increasingly distracting to what the people facing the camera are saying. A drone view of Apple Park, and wide angle on the piers of San Francisco, a pretty country road, the cool Apple lab, a farmers’ market, Mordor…

I’m not saying they should go back to live keynote presentations on stage in front of an audience (even if I preferred them). Pre-recorded shows are obviously easier to make for everyone involved, but this format will work just fine until it doesn’t, just like an iPhone design can be reused and tweaked over and over until the day a brand new chassis and design language is necessary.

Somehow — and the especially “incremental” aspect of this year’s updates made it more obvious — but I feel like this moment has already passed. I am not only growing a bit tired of what is basically a fancy press release format, but I believe the copywriting too could benefit from a fresh perspective: hearing the same keywords over and over again start to feel like I’m watching a parody.²

Again, this is probably the side-effects of my daily job, but somehow I fear — as an Apple enthusiast — that this lack of self-critic and reassessment could eventually translates into the products themselves, if that’s not already the case for some (the immutable App Store policy being the prime example of that IMHO).