Fast Forward: Everything Brands Need To Know From The 2018 iPhone Event
Apple triples down with three iPhone X successors, new Apple Watch and more
Editor’s note: This is an abridged edition of our Fast Forward newsletter featuring Apple’s announcements at the 2018 iPhone launch event and their brand marketing implications. For the full version, please contact our VP of Client Services, Josh Mallalieu (josh@ipglab.com) to send a request.
Highlights:
- A trio of new iPhones brings Face ID and advanced machine learning features to more users
- Apple Watch Series 4 boasts bigger displays, more complications, and new health features
- New AirPods & iPads curiously missing from the lineup, pointing to a possible October event
Welcome back to our analysis of another iPhone release event. This year, Apple notably kept things lean and focused on what Tim Cook called “two of our most personal products.” Despite heavy pre-show leaks, Apple dazzled with three brand new iPhone X models and a redesigned Apple Watch with larger displays. As an undisputed leading force in the mobile industry with nearly 2 billion iOS devices sold, the trillion-dollar company sets new expectations for consumers and competitors alike each year with new releases, and this year is no exception. Let’s take a deep dive into the announcements coming out of Cupertino on Wednesday to dissect what new consumer behavior they may trigger and how they apply to brand marketing.
What Apple Announced
Three New iPhones Bring Face ID & Advanced AR To Everyone
First things first, the main event of this Apple event was undoubtedly the trio of new iPhone X models: iPhone XS (with a 5.8-inch OLED display, starting at $999), iPhone XS Max (6.5-inch OLED display, starting at $1099), and iPhone XR (6.1-inch LCD display, starting at $749). All three models come with the now-ubiquitous front notch, which houses the depth-sensing camera system that enables Face ID, the marquee feature of iPhone at the moment. Besides Face ID, all three models support wireless charging and sport an edge-to-edge display design that, as with iPhone X last year, leaves no place for the home button and thus eliminates Touch ID.
All three new iPhones come with a new A12 Bionic CPU chip, which marks a milestone in chip design as it is the first 7 nanometer chip ever on the market. The chip includes an 8-core Neural Engine dedicated to machine learning and capable of processing 5 trillion operations per second. This makes the new iPhones incredibly powerful at handling real-time machine learning tasks.
To demonstrate the advanced machine learning processing power that A12 Bionic enables, Apple invited three groups of app developers on stage to showcase the next-gen apps that they’ve been working on. The team behind iOS game Blades showcased the console-level smooth dynamic graphics and sophisticated spatial audio designs of its game running on iPhone XS. The Nex team introduced Homecourt, a basketball training tool that utilizes the space mapping and motion tracking capabilities enabled by the dual rear cameras on iPhone XS to recognize the placement of the court and hoop, tallying up makes and attempts among other crucial details. Lastly, Directive Games took the stage to demo an AR arcade machine where three players engaged in a “Galaga” battle to show off some dazzling group AR effects enabled by the new iPhones.
While each demo is unique and impressive in its own way, advanced machine learning support is a clear through-line for all three demos. Besides the advanced AR features showcased by the on-stage demos, Apple also spent quite a lot of stage time detailing new computational photography features of the new iPhones. Some standout features include Smart HDR, which uses real-time machine learning to further improve the HDR photos, as well as the ability to adjust the field of depth in photos shot with portrait mode. All of these advanced photography features will no doubt come in handy for the development of AR headsets, which we know Apple is working on and will depend on advanced machine learning and camera technology to map out our real-world surroundings and anchor 3D virtual objects in placements.
With these three new iPhones, Apple will stop selling iPhone X and instead form a line up of iPhone offerings with a wide range of price points as illustrated below.
This new iPhone lineup clearly shows Apple’s “trickle-down” plan in bringing the depth-sensing front camera system — the premium feature exclusive to iPhone X last year — to more models while also keep pushing the upper price range of iPhones (the iPhone XS Max with 512 GB storage will retail for $1449). The fact that iPhone XR is equipped with the same A12 Bionic chipset and True Depth front camera system as the XS models, yet sells for $250 less than the flagship model is a testimony to Apple’s intention in making Face ID and other front camera-related AR features like Memojis more widely available. With this update, the iPhone lineup has officially entered the era of Face ID and advanced AR features.
In addition, this year’s iPhones also come with a new proximity feature that Apple didn’t mention on stage. The new models will be able to scan NFC tags in the background, without having to launch an app to enable the NFC reader like the iPhones currently require. This means that user can simply walk up to a compatible NFC tag, unlock the screen, and scan it to be directed either to a webpage or an installed app. This addition significantly increases the accessibility of NFC-triggered use cases, thus creating new opportunities for app developers and brands to utilize proximity tech to deliver contextually relevant messages.
Redesigned Apple Watch Positioned As ”An intelligent Guardian For Health”
In contrast to the maturing iPhone product line, where few surprises or groundbreaking new features materialized this year, Apple Watch showed great room for growth with an exciting upgrade.
Compared to the 38mm and 42mm displays of the existing models, Apple Watch Series 4 boasts redesigned edge-to-edge displays measured at 40mm and 44mm, respectively. The enlarged screen space means that users can now put up to eight complications right on the watch face, allowing for easy access for information and app actions right on the prime real estate on the Watch. The digital crown now comes with haptic feedback for more precise, responsive selection, and the back of the Watch is now composed of black ceramic and sapphire crystal, allowing radio waves to pass through for better cellular service.
Beyond the enlarged displays and cosmetic refreshes, Apple Watch Series 4 has some nice upgrades under the hood. The new Watch is powered by an S4 chip with a custom 64-bit dual-core processor, delivering twice the speed while maintaining the same 18-hour battery life as Series 3. It also comes with a new accelerometer and gyroscope, which are able to detect hard falls and automatically call for help if the user is unresponsive for long. It’s easy to see how Fall Detection could make for a good selling point for buying Apple Watch for seniors and people with hindered mobility for safety reasons.
Positioned as “an intelligent guardian for your health,” the new Watch also sports a brand new electrical heart rate sensor, which enables a suite of advanced heart-monitoring capabilities that include detecting low heart rates, screening heart rhythm for atrial fibrillation detection, and even taking an electrocardiogram (ECG) with an upcoming new ECG app. It also received clearance from the FDA, making it one of the first over-the-counter ECG products offered to consumers. To protect user privacy, all cardiovascular recordings and associated classifications are stored in the Health app that can be shared with physicians.
Coupled with watchOS 5, Apple Watch Series 4 represents a major upgrade in the Watch product line with redesigned form factors, revolutionary health-monitoring features, plus cool communication and fitness tracking features that we already covered in our WWDC recap. There are an estimated 13 million early Apple Watch adopters that are overdue for an upgrade. The addition of Fall Detection and ECG features should further add to its mainstream appeal, potentially making it a popular holiday gift this year.
What Brands Need To Do
Without a doubt, the new iPhones and Apple Watch will contribute to quickening adoption of mobile AR, machine learning features, as well as smartwatches with advanced sensors. All these will lead to changing consumer behavior and result in new opportunities for brands to reach and engage with consumers.
The increasing use of AR in non-gaming use cases will introduce the technology to a wider mainstream audience. A report by Capgemini Research Institute has shown that among the companies are using AR and VR technologies to enhance business operations, 82% say the benefits are meeting or exceeding expectations. As Apple continues to extend the availability of the depth-sensing cameras and powerful machine learning chips across various iPhone models, mobile AR and other camera-based features will unlock more amazing use cases for brands to delight consumers with.
Similarly, the Apple Watch Series 4 heralds a bright future for the smartwatches to grow into its own and become a viable channel for brands to bring additive value to the consumers on their wrists. Whether it’s something as simple as glanceable updates for an upcoming flight or a coffee order, or as complex as a heart monitoring app, Apple Watch is quickly proving itself to be a huge growth area for all brands to deliver unique customer experience and intimately engage with users.
Even the bigger screens on iPhones could present an opportunity for brands to connect with iOS users via branded apps. According to Kantar, users with 6-inch and larger smartphone displays typically use 2 times more apps than users with 5.5-inch screens. As more iPhone users upgrade their devices, they will likely be looking for new experiences offered by next-gen apps that fully utilize the machine learning, AR, Siri, and NFC features that their powerful new phones are capable of. Therefore, brands that plan ahead and manage to have a mobile experience ready for this group of prospective audience will no doubt benefit greatly.
For example, by incorporating AR experiences into product packaging, CPG brands can increase brand engagement with interactive content and provide consumers with additional information at shelf to drive sales. Coca-Cola recently launched a campaign in China in partnership with Baidu that created an AR experience to allow consumers to interact with 23 limited editions of city-themed coke cans.
With expanded health-monitoring and workout tracking, Apple Watch Series 4 promises to provide users with even more data about their heart rates and other biometric measures. Therefore, there is a real opportunity for healthcare and fitness brands to develop an Apple Watch experience that can help users make sense of that data, connect them with the medical professionals if necessary, and add real value to the process.
What Apple Didn’t Announce
As with all press events, it is usually helpful to learn about a company’s long-term plan and upcoming releases by checking what was announced against the list of what was expected to be announced. In Apple’s case, this event was focused on just two products — the iPhones and Apple Watch, which means that all other Apple hardware products received no updates (with the exception of some minor software upgrades for the HomePod). As we mentioned in our preview post for this event, new iPads, presumably with edge-to-edge displays and Face ID support, and refreshed MacBook and iMac products are in the pipeline, so we might see Apple hosting another release event in October for them.
However, there was one Apple product that was highly expected to appear, yet ended up curiously missing from the event.
The keynote address on Wednesday opened with a humorous video that showed an employee dashing through Apple’s sleekly designed headquarters to deliver a secret briefcase to the Steve Jobs Theater for CEO Tim Cook. Throughout the 3-minute-long video, the main action focused on showcasing how well the Apple Watch and the AirPods work together. At one point, the protagonist was shown summoning Siri to ask for navigation without tapping on the side of one of the AirPods, seemingly hinting at the rumored hands-free “Hey Siri” support for the hotly anticipated AirPods 2.0.
Yet, throughout the keynote address, AirPods were nowhere to be found. Despite some skeptical early reviews, Apple’s wireless earbuds have become an “incredibly popular” sleeper hit since its launch in December 2016, with sales expected to double this year. This makes AirPods long overdue for an upgrade, not to mention the benefits it could add to Siri adoption with the hands-free Siri mode. One possible theory for its delay has to do with the long delay of AirPower wireless charging pad, with which the wireless charging case of the next-gen AirPods is supposed to be compatible. True or not, this is a missed opportunity for Apple.
Want To Learn More?
Overall, the new releases from Apple continue the narrative that Apple kick-started last year with the release of iPhone X and continued to flesh out at its WWDC event in June. As Apple continues to perfect its iPhone lineup while significantly improving Apple Watch, AR and machine learning will continue to anchor Apple’s strategy, shape consumer behaviors, and enable new ways for brands to reach consumers. Ultimately, Apple is setting the stage for a post-mobile world that runs on smartwatches, voice interfaces, and AR glasses, even with its decidedly iPhone-centered product releases today. Smart brands should actively keep up with the trends and try to stay one step ahead of the digital curve.
If you are keen to learn more about Apple’s announcements and explore what they mean specifically for your brand, the Lab is here to help. You can start a conservation by reaching out to our VP of Client Services Josh Mallalieu (josh@ipglab.com).
