Decoding Apple's 2024 Event: observations and reflections on this year’s key messaging and product announcements

Today is one of my favorite days of the year: happy Apple Keynote Day to all those who celebrate!?

If you’re new here, let me briefly explain why I’ve written this piece and what you can expect to read below. I’ve been fascinated by Apple as both a company and a brand for many years, and for many reasons. Not only have I observed it from afar, but I’ve also had the opportunity to see part of it from within. I completely agree with the assessment of Apple as the most valuable brand in the world: while it may not always disrupt as it once did, given its scale and resources, it will undoubtedly shape any upcoming technology and trend. Whatever Apple decides to get behind, there will be some wide-ranging adoption of it. Smartphone cameras? Done. Wearable watches? Done. Tablets? Done. Wireless headphones? Done. Spatial computing devices? On it.?

Part of Apple’s secret sauce is their rigor and perfectionism, which is why there’s nothing more fascinating than watching a 1-hour, 38-minute, and 18-second orchestrated mega event from one of the world’s most secretive companies. As I mentioned last year, I believe that everything Apple does—or chooses not to do—sends an intentional message, which is the lens I use whenever I watch it.

So please enjoy my thoughts and assumptions based on the observations I made at this year’s Apple Event: Glow Time.?

(And you can read last year’s take here as well)

Opening sequence and statement – designed to make every day something to celebrate?

Another year, another opening sequence which seems to focus on all things health. While this clip showcases snippets of real people of all ages, races and fitness levels dancing around on a cheerful soundtrack, I couldn’t help but notice the prevalence of health-focused product and feature highlights with - notably - the first showcased product being an Apple Watch (! not an iPhone), followed by a mix of iPhone FaceTime, Watch, AirPods Pro and Apple Fitness+.

After that, we head to Cupertino and the Apple Park where Tim Cook goes straight to business to tell us what’s on the menu: Apple Watch, AirPods and iPhone and “the profound impact these products are making on our lives” followed by a buzzword bingo you’d expect from any tech company nowadays: seamless, powerfully, intuitively, hardware, software, services, technology. And guess what? To stay healthy, connected, productive and entertained. (Interesting choice of words, let’s see what they are foreshadowing).?

Three minutes in, we’re finally hearing what was quite absent last year: “machine learning” and “artificial intelligence”. Let’s all remember that during WWDC24 in June, Apple finally announced their AI long-awaited play: Apple Intelligence .?

But let’s first hear more about the product updates – where expectations are immediately managed: there are “exciting” announcements about Apple Watch and AirPods, while the focus for iPhone will be its “design from the ground up” for Apple Intelligence.?

Apple Watch – thinner, lighter, thinner, smaller, tracking your sleep and made for sports

One of the perks of millions of people wearing and using your product for almost 10 years, means that you can amass quite some powerful testimonials, how Apple Watch makes their life better.?

The TLDR on this is simple: meet the Apple Watch Series 10 (you can say what you want, but the product showcases remain some of the most visually and sonically pleasing I’ve ever seen in my life) with the biggest display, thinnest design, a lot of optimizations and an interesting new health focus: sleep apnea. I had hoped for a ring to compete with Oura, but I guess we will have to wait a bit longer for it.??

Apart from that, the product keeps going after one sports niche at a time: snorkeling, surfing, kayaking.

And there’s not much more to declare.

Oh wait, Apple Watch Ultra is the ultimate sports watch

More insights, more niche features, more performance for the more athletic ones out there with a titanium band made for scuba diving (or a cute Hermes one if you prefer). That’s all I remember from it, to be honest. (Oh and it’s carbon neutral).?

But back to Tim, because it’s time for .. AirPods!

A new generation of AirPods: .. they’re better

Am I even surprised that they got one of Fred again..’s fresh tracks for their AirPods showcase? Nope. But I have to admit, that it I like to see how they keep using and reimagining the iconic silhouettes year after year:

This year’s hero feature is voice isolation. But I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by the example videos which felt so much more staged than their iconic Snap ad from 2020 for example.?

AirPods Max - new colors, that’s it.?

AirPods Pro: your newest health accessory?

Wait, even AirPods Pro are now entering their health era? Since approximately 1.5 billion people around the world are living with hearing loss, Apple decided to introduce 3 major health features focused on prevention, awareness and assistance:

1. Hearing Protection: in order to help users prevent exposure to loud environmental noise while preserving the sound signature of what they’re listening to
2. Hearing Test: introducing an intuitive, clinical-grade hearing test based on the standard clinical approach called pure-tone audiometry that users can take themselves with their AirPods Pro and a compatible iPhone or iPad.
3. Hearing Aid : using the personalized hearing profile from the Hearing Test, this new feature seamlessly transforms AirPods Pro into a clinical-grade hearing aid for users with mild to moderate hearing loss.

TLDR AirPods are now “The World’s First All-in-One Hearing Health Experience”

Well, as Tim says, they are “taking the best personal audio experience in the world even further” but I had not seen this health twist coming. And it is kind of diluting the big sound superiority narrative from previous years? (Remember the iconic Stroll , Bounce or Journey Into Sounds ads)

iPhone supercharged by Apple Intelligence (and a new camera control button)

“The beginning of an exciting new era” – or the pivotal moment where AI has officially entered the chat to become a key competitive attribute? Let’s see.?

First reason to buy it: obviously, its new color line-up:

And remember when we were skeptical about the Dynamic Island? I found this year’s contestant: the Camera Control button. While I’m sure that many will poke fun at it, I’m intrigued to see how it will be adopted by consumers. This marks a departure from the Vertical image and video capture, back to the old-school, horizontal camera experience. (And hopefully better selfies)

But most importantly there’s the Apple Intelligence integration and “Private Cloud Compute”:?

?By calling out our new favorite tongue twister “Private Cloud Compute”, the company is staying true to one of its biggest pillars, while addressing one of the key concerns of the new technologies: privacy. We all know that AI needs input to serve us this incredible, productivity-enhancing output – and reassuring users that their data remains safe will be one of the key tasks moving forward. It’s a good start, but I was expecting a bigger stance on it?

There seem to be four key ways that Apple Intelligence will transform the way we use the phone across very obvious activities:

Personally, I’m most eager to see what this creative generation will do once it gets the emoji generator in its hands:?

Most importantly, this might FINALLY be the moment where all our Siri dreams come true. He/she/it is now supposed to be more natural, relevant and personal with richer language understanding with the promise to “tap into our personal context to help us in ways that are unique to us”

And most importantly - this will be a FREE software update! “And this is just the beginning as the machine will become smarter and more integrated.“

Enough intelligence? Nope. They now had to claim the term “Visual Intelligence” which, frankly, is a capability we’ve all been waiting for: just point your phone towards anything you see, take a picture, and the technology will tell you what it is.?

Other than that, a lot of other camera updates keep reminding us that while the iPhone might be a mini computer, it is first and foremost still the best smartphone camera out there.

Many different updates, features and innovations, but which somehow feel scattered and incoherent. Anyways, meet the iPhone 16:

?

This year’s iPhone Pro: more Pro, yet again?

?(*checks last year’s notes*) This is also the most resistant, durable and lightest with the best battery yet? Whatever, it has Apple Intelligence. (Will the corners of the screen really be glowing like this whenever the AI is being activated??)

[Then we had the usual mention of chips and CPUs and resolution and stuff which was frankly boring even when watching the Keynote on 2x speed, except for the Grid Composer, the new Audio Mix which lets you extract different sounds and their improved Voice Memos app which will be Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift’s song composing dream]

To showcase the Slow Motion video capabilities of the new iPhone Pro, Apple followed one of its previous winning formulas: co-producing a music video with a famous artist. This year’s lucky candidate is The Weeknd, although I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t pick one of the pop girlies who have been dominating the charts the past year:

Tim’s brief closing (recap) remarks ..

.. are just that. A recap of all the product updates mentioned above. And in general as chaotic, incoherent and underwhelming as the Keynote event in itself. I just re-read all my notes I have shared up until here and I couldn’t see anything more exciting and insightful to share.

.. and my thoughts and musings

Which brings me to one more less thing: the brand strategist in me can’t help but feel underwhelmed when it comes to bigger, purpose-driven brand statements at the altitude of last year’s brilliant Mother Nature 2030 status . I don’t expect them to make any political statements, but given the current world context, I had hoped for a perspective on bolder topics than health features. Don’t get me wrong - these are very important and undoubtedly valuable, but not as disruptive as we’d expect from one of the most valuable brands in the world.?

Speaking of this continued health emphasis, it raises a bigger identity question for this company, especially as its product portfolio expands and all new updates now need to be spread across multiple events throughout the year. In my opinion Apple Years don’t go from January to December, but start in September with the Keynote event. If we’re to follow this logic, we had 4 Apple Events alone in the last year:

There are smaller and greater innovations that are announced each time – but I wouldn't know how to label the company anymore.?

It is definitely a tech company.

It used to be a tech company for creative minds.

Is it now a health tech company with a side quest in entertainment?

While the executional excellence level remains on top Apple level, there seems to be a risk of brand dilution as we’re moving further and further away from the formerly clear aspirational brand positioning to a can-do-it-all tech company with an increasingly bland and occasionally schizophrenic and cringey brand behavior.??

There were also way less great ads than we’re used to, so I’m hoping that we will get more of them in the upcoming weeks – I can’t wait to see how they will bring the Apple Intelligence and other feature narratives to life.?

See/watch you next year, Apple (or probably in October for another special event)