by Jason Snell
Why Apple’s big event seems smaller
I really enjoyed today’s Stratechery piece by Ben Thompson, which tries to understand how Apple can have an impressive roll-out of some really good new products, and yet it all seems so much quieter than it used to:
I have, for the last several years, noted how, from a Stratechery perspective, iPhone launches just aren’t nearly as big of a deal as they were when I first started. Back then I would spend weeks before the event predicting what Apple would announce, and would spend weeks afterwards breaking down the implications; now I usually dash off an Update that, in recent years, has been dominated by discussions about price and elasticity and Apple’s transition to being a services company.
What was shocking to me, however, was actually watching the event in real time: my group chats and X feed acknowledged that the event was happening, but I had the distinct impression that almost no one was paying much attention, which was not at all the case a decade ago. And, particularly when it comes to tech discussion, you can understand why: by far the biggest thing in tech — and on Stratechery — is AI, and Apple simply isn’t a meaningful player.
The circus was Smartphones for a while, but right now the circus is AI.