Some thoughts on watching the Apple Event 2024
Last night, as usual, I stayed up late to watch Apple's autumn event. Just like before, it was a pre-recorded event and quite boring.
I’ve been watching Apple events since middle school, twice a year. Over the years, I’ve only missed one—the WWDC during the year I took the Gaokao—but I watched all the others.
Although I never watched live events during the Steve Jobs era, I searched for the iPhone 4S launch video on YouTube when I was in middle school. The very first iPhone launch was broadcast live on January 9, 2007, at 9:41 AM. At that time, Apple events always started at 9:00 AM, and new products were introduced 40 minutes into the presentation, which is why the iPhone was first unveiled at 9:41. You can find recordings of all past Apple events on their official website, with the earliest being the 2007 iPhone event.
Back then, I used to watch every event eagerly, staying up late, and the next day after school, I’d discuss it with members of the Coolapk community. This continued until 2021, when Apple’s events completely shifted to pre-recorded formats. While today’s events feature smooth transitions and flashy production, the authenticity is gone. There’s no longer Luo Yonghao’s "Understanding and Support," nor Lei Jun’s live jokes. Instead, all you see are executives pretending to be excited, as if they are part of a carefully choreographed stage play. Sometimes, I really want to say to them: "When you compare the product you’re introducing with its predecessor, are you really excited?"
Ever since Lei Jun handed the smartphone business over to Lu Weibing, interesting product launches have only become fewer and fewer. Watching old tech product launches, I sometimes wonder: Is it because I’ve grown up, or has tech just become less exciting? Tech product launches used to truly excite people. In recent years, though, with the increasing homogenization of tech products, big brands are stuffing products with specs to compete on price-performance ratio. The software upgrades haven’t been impressive, either. Instead, it’s smaller companies like Nothing that are putting effort into design and functionality.
This reminds me of what Nothing’s CEO, Carl Pei, once said: "Make tech fun again."