I got the iPhone 6 right (and very wrong) 20 months ago
Crave's Eric Mack threw cold water on the iPhone 6 back in January 2013. While many of his predictions came true, he's a little shocked at how much he got wrong at the same time.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
All the way back in January of 2013, I predicted here on CNET that we might never see an iPhone 6 because Apple would have to move toward other form factors such as phablets and wearables.
Now, one day after the unveiling of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and the Apple Watch, I'm faced with having been both very right, and very wrong at the same time.
This is what I wrote back then:
"My gut tells me the iPhone as we know it will be done at that point. I have a hunch there will never be an iPhone 6 , because Apple will be forced to move into a significantly different form factor to keep people interested and compete with the movement toward bigger phablet-like thingies and emerging wearable electronics (lots of us have fat thumbs, after all). Or, there will be an iPhone 6 and it will disappoint."
That article from 20 months ago was titled " The iPhone 6 won't wow: 6 reasons why," and I regret that headline choice now, because I certainly felt wowed at the end of Apple's media event Tuesday.
I am wowed by the audaciousness and ambition of Apple Pay , and by how once again Apple took an existing concept (in this case, the smartwatch) and made it so much better than the early offerings. Like many others, I find the simple addition of the digital crown to provide easy scrolling and zooming using a button most analog watches sport is so smart and intuitive that it now seems shocking that Samsung or Motorola or Pebble didn't try it earlier.
Clearly, my prediction that there may never be an iPhone 6 was foolhardy -- why not bring the iPhone brand along for the ride into the phabulous phablet universe? -- but the very fact that there are two new iPhones, including one that's comparable in size to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phablet, bears out the rest of my prognosticating.
When it comes to smartphone form factors and wearables, Apple is now wholeheartedly following Samsung (er, I mean, the market). And of course, there's the new Apple Watch that was a star of the big reveal Tuesday. Obviously, Apple is concerned with owning the wearables world as well.
As for the last part of my prediction that declared that whatever iPhone 6 we do get will be disappointing, it's too early to call on that one, but the indications are that sales will probably wow after all.
I suppose I need to schedule some time to simultaneously find some laurels to rest on while eating a dish of piping hot crow.