The usually bullish Apple analyst, Ben Thompson, believes that Apple recent WWDC Keynote was a tale of two halves. The first segment was very good, the presenters were able to deliver a coherent and purposeful message while the last part of the keynote left a lot to be desired.
Ben Thompson:
WWDC went in the other direction. The first 90 minutes were excellent: very tight, with excellent clarity and momentum, well-rehearsed speakers delivering mostly iterative announcements with the occasional surprise. The final 60, on the other hand — the “one more thing” — were the exact opposite: unclear and dragging, with unprepared speakers delivering…well, I’m honestly not sure what most of them were saying. If there was a surprise the lack of a coherent message has to be top of the list.
Ben Thompson posits that the problem with the second segment is largely attributed to a lack of focus, especially around the unveiling of Apple’s new music stream app.
According to Thompson, Apple Music – a combination of streaming music, curated lists, BeatsOne radio and “Ping” Connect – had no cogent thread to tie them together beyond the assumption that Apple must do a music service because that is what they do. That’s what big companies do. And while Apple Music may turn out to be great, the message came out rather muddled as was the case with the Apple Watch presentation.
“Maybe it’s time for Cook to spend less time talking about how “the management team of Apple would never let that happen” and make absolutely sure that a loss of focus is not, in fact, happening,” Thompson mused.
