Entering Apple’s stream of conscience

Before 3am, I’m preparing to hunker down in front of my desktop to watch Apple’s latest product reveal, streamed from Steve Jobs theatre in Cupertino.

It’s before 3am in Australia and I’m up, yawning, stretching, having a quick coffee. I’m preparing to hunker down in front of my desktop to watch Apple’s latest product reveal, streamed from Steve Jobs theatre in Cupertino. Around me is pitch black, all are asleep. I am alone in this night owl pursuit.

A year ago, things were different. I was in San Jose at the corresponding 2019 launch, on a crowded bus full of journalists bubbling with expectation about the gadgets Apple would reveal and spruiking opinions about their worth. Would they meet customer expectations?

At Apple headquarters, thousands from the international media were greeted by over-the-top Apple employees high-fiving and cheering as if we were long-lost relatives. That is a world away from killjoy corona­virus where it’s just me, the computer, and deep silence outside.

Apple may pride itself on being an innovative tech company, but it is also a creature of habit with a gadget launch event in the second week of September, without exception, for years.

Coronavirus has been both a positive and negative for its business. In July it reported a better-than-expected 11 per cent increase in quarterly sales from a year earlier, with strong demand for apps and work-from-home devices.

According to Kantar research published in July, Apple iOS sales were only mildly impacted by the virus in Australia, dropping 3 per cent compared to 38 per cent for Android in the April-June quarter year-on-year.

The negative is Apple’s supply chain. Both coronavirus and the uncertainty surrounding China have introduced problems. It’s not just the manufacturing of phones. Suppliers to Apple have been considering moving from China to locations such as Vietnam, India, the US and Mexico.

Apple also faces a rebellion from developers who no longer want to pay a 30 per cent commission for sales in the App Store; it is involved in multiple lawsuits with Fortnite developer Epic Games on this issue.

Apple also has also picked a fight with Google, Facebook and Instagram who are unhappy about the company’s privacy features included in its updated operating system for smartphones, iOS14.

If the feature goes ahead, users will need to give express permission for apps to track them across websites and a recent survey suggests most won’t. Users will know when an app accesses their camera, they can turn off precise location tracking in favour of just approximately where they are. Does a weather app really need to know what street or shop you are in, or just the city region?

Users will be notified when apps access the clipboard, a feature that during early testing outed TikTok which was accessing users’ clipboards to work out if they were spamming TikTok posts.

Apple’s declaration that privacy is a fundamental human right hasn’t gone down well with its fellow tech giants. Facebook claims ad rates will drop by 50 per cent if they are not personalised.

Apple has reportedly relented somewhat, postponing ad-tracking permissions until next year so it can address concerns. However, it seems the user community is keen for these measures to happen.