Apple, a synonym of premium, expensive, privacy-centric, best in class and more. If someone ask me to define Apple then I would put it like, “A trillion-dollar tech brand making premium best in class products, popular for the privacy it offers.” I missed many things in this short sentence, yet it pretty much introduces what Apple is! However, several things have been changed in the past couple of years. Some of them are good too, some are bad and some, well I am confused. Let’s just see.
Discounts! In other words, below-average resale value!
iPhone 12 was selling for less than 50k, in the Flipkart BBD sale. That’s a crazy value for money deal. Flipkart sold more than 2 lacs units in just one day. More than 10 friends of mine stole the deal, I also got one. Users are happy with Apple. Nothing wrong with giving such crazy discounts, then what’s the problem?
The problem is resale value. We often see such deals on Android flagships, like Galaxy S20 FE was selling for half the price. That’s a good deal too, but we are not used to getting good resale value on Android smartphones, to be honest. But, on the other hand, the used iPhone market is huge! Old iPhones sales for a good amount even after years. 2 years ago the scenario was different. Every new iPhone user had confidence that the iPhone will give good resale value even after 3–4 years. But the people who bought iPhone 12 last year for almost 80k, in just a year, the price went down by more than 35% and used iPhone won’t be sold for more than 40k. So, a premium piece of tech lost its value by 50% and that’s a concern, at least for half of the users. Discounts are good for users and brands as well but Apple should think about the brand image of keeping the resale value high, from the beginning.
Privacy. Is that iPhone?
Apple iPhone 13 Pro with latest iOS 15 ‘hacked’ in seconds. The latest iPhone was hacked by Chinese hackers at an international hacking competition. The hacker could access photos, apps and even delete data from the iPhone 13 Pro. There were multiple vulnerabilities in the iOS 15 kernel and the A15 chip to bypass the security levels. It’s not a massive concern. iPhone is still the best when it comes to privacy and Apple knows how to handle such situations. But it’s not the only case of hacking either.
Thicker MBP with ports!
The new M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro packs tons of power in such a small form factor. However, they are not slim and thin, like their predecessor. MBPs are now thicker and somewhat older design to bring back the ports. Both these things are kind of U-Turn to what Apple was doing, and it’s a good thing.
These are some of the non-Apple things, Apple is doing currently and we might see more in the future like a budget iPhone or a punch hole and USB Type C may be, we never know! The above definition still does not change at all. Apple is still premium, secured and best-in-class.
