Virtual Pants

It happens every year. Excitement for the new iPhone grows for months, the leaks increase in frequency, and finally Apple holds an event to unveil it. Then everyone complains that the new iPhone isn’t new enough. Then the new iPhone becomes the best selling one ever. Why does this happen?

The answer is all the way back in 2007. The original iPhone announcement was so good, and the original iPhone so revolutionary, that people want more. But we have to remember that the original iPhone was a new product category. A miniature touchscreen computer with a constant Internet connection that also made phone calls. The new iPhone won’t be a new product category and, therefore, won’t be quite as exciting as the original.

If you look at most of Apple’s other products (iPad, iPod touch, iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro), you’ll see that Apple tends to create a great design and then incrementally improve upon it over a long period of time.

On September 12th, let’s remember that we won’t see a new product category. We probably won’t see a radical new redesign. We will see a new and improved version of the best computer ever.