Apple's iPhone 11 and More: Boom or Bust? By CNBC Television

Apple's iPhone extravaganza this week, still the biggest product event of the year in tech and why? Well it's a simple reason: the iPhone remains the single most successful hardware, product of the PC era. We can talk about whether sales are growing or not whether apples, innovating or not, but Apple still sells more premium phones every year than anyone else. So what happened this week? Well, three new iPhones announced the iPhone 1111 Pro and Pro max a new Apple Watch with a screen that doesn't turn off. Finally, a new entry-level iPad and two services at $4.99 a month, Apple Arcade and Apple TV, plus we got details. So what does all of this mean? Should you pay 300 bucks more for three cameras on the back instead of two? Does the watch update really matter and can Apple out HBO welcome to Fort Knox, which ideas from powerful people? I am John Ford from CNBC here at the Nasdaq market site, overlooking Times Square with me this week, a great lineup of people who know their stuff first up is going to be Walt, Moss berg, the Godfather of tech reviews. It's going to talk big picture from DC later on, we've got tech, analyst extraordinaire, Pat Muirhead from Texas Tech, strategist, Shelly Palmer.

Here with me in New York, our going to sift through and tell us which of these products and services are most significant and then CNBC zone, Julia, Boorstin, gonna, join us live from LA, give the view from Hollywood on Apple subscription news. First Walt Moss berg, always good to see you, man, John, so up tell me iPhone 11 in kind of like the ranking of iPhone announcements. We don't have a big network upgrade here, but we do have some new camera features. Where would this one rank I'm, you know I, think it's iterative and people don't at Apple. I spoke to some of them this morning.

Don't necessarily love that term, but the look the last big change in the iPhone, where they really change the form factor and though and the way you operated it took away the home button and all that was the iPhone 10 and 2017 everything these are all last years were derivative of that this is still derivative of that now. Is it better? It's better. It hasn't better screen it as a much faster processor. Furthermore, it has in the in every model and particularly in the pro models. Much improved battery life and so and these cameras can do a lot more, but it's not like the camera on the iPhone, 10 and 2017 wasn't a terrific camera because it was.

It was amazing just last year suppose at the right I mean year before last, but yeah yeah, so I have to say this is not one of their giant landmark moments, not one of their giant landmark years. I think you know if I were still writing. My columns I would not advise somebody with one of the last two years iPhones to upgrade to these, even though they are arguably better. But if you had an older iPhone or you were looking to get into iPhones, there's even a little price cut, the lower end, the lower end one, and so it might not be a bad time to get in, except I'm almost embarrassed to tell you because. You know me, we've gotten back a long time.

I do tell you. I've got an iPhone, 8, and I had a 10, but I figured out I, really don't like face ID that much I like being able to unlock my phone when I'm sitting on the nightstand when I'm typing on the keyboard like to be able to unlock it without having to Crane over and look it in the face. That's true, you know so, even with an 8 I'm, not sure if I'm going to jump out and buy this one. What do you think it is that has caused the upgrade cycle to eat long? It used to be every couple years. People who wanted these phones would get into it.

Now it's like four because they figured out how to make a great phone Apple did and then the others, the some Aunt Rose got. Android guys did a great premium phone and people's and the big new features have stopped coming. Are there new features on this? Yes, there are the ultra widescreen photos and the integration of the three lenses in a way that I don't think the Android guys have done yet, although we'll see right, bible's up yeah, there are others coming, but Apple does a great job of integrating it. So it looks like one lens, and you know all of that is great, but it's not a big, big new deal like we used to see you know in the 2000s when it was boom. This huge thing is here boom this these two new huge things are in the phone that you desperately want.

You know and so on and so forth. It is settled down now the big deal- and this goes to whether you should upgrade this year. URI or anyone else is five g 5g could be a big deal for folks. Apple is strongly rumored to have 5g next year, and so to me, that's another reason to say: hmm really, maybe I don't want to do this year. Maybe I want to do next year, and you know well, I was looking.

I was looking. When did we get LTE because I was going to I, couldn't I couldn't remember exactly what year it was like 2012 with the iPhone 5, but it's been that long. Since we had a significant network update, I, remember the early days of the iPhone, the first iPhone had 2.5 g. Getting 3g was a big deal than 3.5 G whatnot. You could do video that was big and then 4G, and then we've had this long gap.

I mean it used to be network upgrades really powered phone upgrades in the early days and then that stopped well. Of course, that's not apples fault right, but it's just the way. The timing, you know is rolling out for this and I don't thump by the way I. Don't blame Apple for not having a 5g phone this year, I think there's going to be almost no 5g, you place to use it and, and they want to make they want the chip to be right. May all of that stuff, but if you're, a consumer, and you're thinking about whether it's monthly payments or whether it's one payment, do you want to take the plunge this year? Maybe if you're having if your phone model is, you know running out of battery, or you really are a photo person, and you want because I'm one of they showed some super cool things like multiple video streams at once, and all that kind of stuff that might make you bite, but for the vast middle, the vast bulk people like John for Walt Moss berg.

Apparently it might be that you wait till the five 5g next year. However, on the Apple Watch, they made a big change this year, yeah yeah, and that- and that is that, for the first time since it came out, and I am an Apple Watch, fan and I have one right here and lots of people you see every day, John I'm sure have them. I got larger. You got one on now. For the first time the Apple Watch is going to always be on.

It's going to be dimmer when you're, when it's when you're, when your wrist isn't raised, but it's still going to be on, and you're not only going to be able to see the time, but you're going to be able to see all your complications. That's the word for the extra information that you put on this, which I can't believe Apple actually used, because there's so much about technology being simple I know it's a watch industry term and everything but complications every time I every time they say that I'm, like really I, can't believe they're actually using the word complications. But okay go ahead right! Well! Look! Yesterday! Yesterday you put when a guy who I'm sure is a very smart, very vital person, and maybe even a really nice guy on stage to talk about deep in the weeds' breakdown of the processor, which I really don't think that would have been a Steve Jobs move in his lifetime, but they got right was when Phil Schiller used to come on stage, and they would talk about. You know the processors and the g4 you know Tower and how they compared versus Intel. Back when IBM and Motorola were helping to make those chips, they would get into the weeds a little there, but yeah that was a little.

They would mostly just say they would have a slide that would show it. You know bursting into flames and blowing away the Pentium and whatever you know this was different yesterday, so you know, and- and it's probably all justified it's you know, machine learned, I think one of their main points was hey. There, processor can do machine learning with it's like left, pinky finger, while that's doing all this other stuff, and that may well be true. They typically are way ahead on the processor. Now give me your take, finally on the Apple, arcade and TV, plus, because it seems like apples trying to apply its sort of curating.

You know cultured take-two content that they have to hardware and software, and it's different from the rest of the industry. They're coming out with what nine shows initially they're going to happen work every month, but I mean the approach has been, give people a lot of content and then let them choose apples trying to say no. This is the content that you're absolutely going to love kind of Pixar like, but Steve Jobs isn't with them anymore. Can they do it? Well? I, don't know about you, but the pro feed the previews, the trailers I've seen, and they showed one at the event. Yesterday, look pretty good to me.

The morning show one looks terrific and- and so you know, I, as I said, I was talking to people at Apple today, because I don't want to look dumb with in front of John four and one very senior person. It's not a PR person said to me. Our approach is much more sort of early HBO here when we're going for high quality limited quantity than it is Netflix, and that's what we're doing, but there's more to the story of course, and, and that is both and the same with the game thing I, don't I can't give you a judgment on the quality of the games yet, but it seems to me that these $4.99, which is not a lot of money, it's almost an impulse, buy I paid I, think I paid four thousand thirteen cents for my Starbucks yesterday, um what you have. It was a grant iced coffee, nice, but the point is they want to lock you into the ecosystem and, as you have reported about a billion times and properly so they're trying to build up and have built up their services business. If you broke their services, business out of the company would be on the fortune, 500, yeah, and they're.

Trying to you know bolster that out. That's why if you buy a new iPhone or a Mac or an iPad and there's also a new iPad, we didn't mention that low an even if you buy one of those touch you can you that you can get this service and that's a year free and if you don't buy a new one, and you want up- and you want to own it anyway- it's $4.99 a month which is not much money, not bad, especially when it's $4.99 for the whole family plan right there's like six I, think six people can use it yeah, but I'm putting it flip that around they can't charge much, much more than that, because Disney is gonna, be at what $6.99, and they have a whole back, catalog, the library and all zillion shows and all of Marvel and all Star Wars and all that kind of stuff. So their Apple has picked a particular niche that is going to be helpful to selling hard their hardware products and maybe make them a little money. Maybe they're losing money on it. I, don't know it doesn't sort of matter at the at the amount they're spending well, and so that's what that's? What I think about those two things always value your insights, Walt Moss berg thanks for joining me today, anytime John, all right now.

Let's talk about yesterday's biggest announcements joining me now for a little, would you rather to tech, Shelly Palmer here with me in New York and Patrick Muirhead? Okay up first, what do we have better value, apple, arcade or Apple, TV, plus all right Shelley? What do you say? It's apples and oranges from my perspective, it's a gateway drug. Both of them are gateway drugs into Apple, but if you've got five bucks to spend 60% of so 60% of all mobile usage period is games sixty-six zero, so that's pretty valuable, Apple TV Plus every single, every single media company will tell you cannot in any way decouple content from distribution anymore. Everybody's got a strategy to put those two things together. So Apple's got a strategy. Put these two things together, and this is their little tiptoe into the water.

Is it valuable? Content is in the eyes of the beholder right, so you can't really say it's more or less valuable if five bucks a month, it's how many $5 is, do you have? What do you say? I mean on the one hand, you've got Apple TV plus it just got. Nine shows right, right, curated shows, but nine of them. Then. On the other hand, you've got arcade a hundred games, but they're not necessarily games that you've heard of they're like crafted curated games like indie movie type games, which one is going to be. You think the best value for the typical person, so typical person I think we have to split this into two I know.

You want a straightforward answer, but you're not going to get win, I! Think for family fun. You have to go with our Kate, because these are our very narrow genre fun for the whole family. You don't have these violent, first-person shooters. If you're a family, you go with arcade I. Think if you're, not a family, then I think there's at least one hit inside of Apple TV plus.

That's all they need. Whew sure. Has this huge back catalog, but it's really defined by the handmade tales and maybe one or two other shows all Apple needs, is one hit and you're locked in and least two I think look pretty good, especially see. But that's that's my demographic and the thing that I like yeah see, looks good. You know the world where everybody's blind, except for a few, a few new people who are born Shelly, I have to, tell you I think that TV might be the best even for families, because it's $4.99 and there are six accounts. The only issue is I, don't know if I want my kids sort of willy-nilly playing games failing all-you-can-eat their time is limited anyway, so Apple has a perfect parental control system and, as a father and a grandfather, I am completely happy to tell you that you can get every ounce of control you want inside the Apple ecosystem, so limiting the number of games played, limiting the amount of television watch for videos watch super easy to do, for parents you're right for $4.99 a month and all-you-can-eat hay and all-you-can-eat buffets and all-you-can-eat buffet, no matter how you think about it. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet once I'm paying for it all.

You can eat buffet and I kind of want people, kids free games in there. Okay, so I want to pay I, don't know, I, see where you think one of the challenges here. One of the things we're ignoring here is that arcade is Apple. Only okay and while 50% of North American smartphones are iPhones. That is not the case around the world.

The thing I really like with Apple TV plus, is that, whether you're on Android or Windows and Apple's, even adding multiple TV support the top brands on the planet. You're going to find Apple TV, plus, where you have to be part of the Apple ecosystem to get that that full breadth and the percentage of people globally who have iPhone Mac iPad Apple TV, is actually low, yeah to confer John. If you think about what Apple's up against right now handsets are over, we can talk about anything. You want to talk about better battery better screen by the way the cameras they put out yesterday, that's a whole other level and the computational photography that they demonstrated no matter what any of my colleagues that are pundits say: I'm telling you that is game-changing. The workflow is, unlike anything, ever put in any device in the history of Isis, but that doesn't change.

One reality handsets are done the next thing. Everybody has a minute, that's right, and the next thing is either an are eyeglasses or mixed reality: glasses or implants or cuff, or a Darth Vader helmet or something what it isn't is. A handset, so what we're only ever going to see incremental iteration from now on, better battery, better screen better this better that. So what does that one have to do? They have to get you deep into an ecosystem where they can consistently get service revenue and the TV and games both check those boxes for real, so if they gave it to you for five bucks a month, which is just enough friction to make you someone who wants it and not enough money where you say. Oh, this is a problem for me: they're going to start what they'll learn, and then they're going to go we're in this I tend to agree.

Smartphones is the new PC market, and we're in this uncomfortable zone with Apple that were far away from automotive and augmented reality. So for Wall Street, how do you connect the two? Well, its services? Yeah? The challenge, though, is, is that Apple can't get too comfortable with that position we saw what it did to companies like IBM, who turned a little inward and found ways to monetize their customers opposed to looking outward to new markets, and Apple needs to be very careful with this, because it's the classic innovators' dilemma. When you have this degree of success, you have to keep reinventing yourself, and I've, never seen a company long term be able to Flak the better term milk. Its customers set without innovating, reminds me of the PC in 2002-2003, people were saying that was over ? and in a way in a way, it was all right. Next, parent, let's have it more impressive, the new Apple Watch or the new iPad all right, Pat you up first, which is more impressive.

The entry-level watch or the entry-level iPad I, have to say the entry-level watch. I mean this is going to be a game-changer at $199, even though it's not the latest and greatest you do have the base level of advanced features. You could even get cellular in that. If you want it now, that's not $1.99! So you're saying here's a $1.99 more impressive than the new always-on watch, a 399, absolutely and impressive. To me.

Just that you've removed a psychological pricing barrier. It may only be $50, but that retail price point of $199 versus 249 I think is huge. I think you're going to see kids by their parents and their grandparents. These watches everybody who wanted an Apple Watch is going to get one of these, as opposed to which, by the way it's its a super differentiated product, watches, Apple's, most differentiated platform right now, it's not iPhone. It's not the Mac.

It's not Apple TV its watch yeah. If you're Fitbit you're, probably not having a good day Shelly. What do you say? Watch our iPad, and I'm really looking for the new watch of the new iPad, what you want? No no first ago the iPads at a price point, that's great! The new watch is really important to me personally, and I'll. Tell you why they have opened up the platform to researchers worldwide and with apples level of encryption and their respect for pH I personally health information. They announced three partnerships yesterday that are going to actually change lives, save lives and make the world a better place, and they're actually reinventing health care.

With the Apple Watch now, I'm personally, working on a thing called food fighter right now to win your daily battle with food, and that is not a diet program. That's a stay alive program because we're genetically programmed to not be able to keep the weight off once we lose it right. The only way to learn about this is to take a ton of data off something and to constantly analyze it to use all the tools available. Apple understands heart conditions. All the problems of inflammation everything you can do with respect to women's reproductive health can be learned about by taking massive data sets and analyzing them, and yesterday's announcement made me really happy that they're taking their incredible privacy tools, their incredible technology tools, and they're, saying you know what we can do: medical research.

That's gonna actually help people, that's what the series 5 is about, and I was blown away by that little all by itself. That does speak to impact, and you raise an interesting point about the year-old watch, because the year-old iPad has been on sale at Amazon and Walmart for 249 for some time now. Just a week or two ago, I was looking for one for my son for school and whatnot and saw oh wait.2:49, it's still selling for 329 and Apple I know, there's probably a new one coming, but chill 49 I can get with I'm more impressed with that price. On last year's iPad, even that I am with the new iPad. What are you John and John in it? Well, John you take that 249 or $2.99, and then you add the $129 case, and then you, you add the pencil, and here you are at around $600. All in this is my screen: oh he's not getting any of that I'm thinking beyond the sixth grader.

Sixth graders are important, but as they move up the track. What's portrayed as a low cost, very high quality offering and I gave Apple a ton of credit for enhancing multitasking with the latest version of iOS. You still have a very expensive platform and when you compare that to how far a Windows 10 laptop has come or how far a Chromebook has come, it's an even it's a much harder decision in trade-off today than this was five years ago. Okay, we got to get. We got to get this last pairing.

Let's give it to us superior phone, the iPhone 11 Pro max or the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, to hear from you on this FAQ, because you've got experience with the Galaxy Shelley. What do you say? Okay, as a note, 10 user and an iPhone user I will tell you that both devices are great and there's no such thing as the best there's only best for you, but so which is best for you. I'll tell you what's best for everybody right now. If you make content for a living, and most people do if you're a social media person, or you like to post stuff, the three prime lenses on an iPhone 11 Pro max, including the ability to shoot the front and rear facing cameras simultaneously, four images to choose from with onboard editing. So, if I'm doing a concert, I can do the audience and the performer if I'm, shooting an interview.

I can get both of us at the same time and then make the edits afterwards for the posting of social media for the doing of any kind of videoing that any dad has ever done at a soccer field at any kind of concert for their kid. If you make content- and we all do- this- is the most remarkable thing anyone's ever brought to market now. Look the note.10 is mind-blowing LY great. It's a business tool. It's one of my favorite devices that Samsung has ever made if you're an Android person, it's amazing, but for iPhone you know.

Computational photography is a new level and they're. The first group, that's gotten into that. Deeply and I want to tell you the stuff that we're doing in the device to enhance photographs and video yesterday blew my mind, so they have to get. They get a checkbox until Samsung can answer Samsung the gauntlets been thrown down from Samsung. The note 10 was never trying to do this.

The note 10 is trying to be a great business tool, and it is this is a Content generation tool, unlike any I've, ever seen, all right Pat. What do you say? I think Samsung doesn't tend to even get enough credit for its camera technology and its screen. Technology, who do you, think, might have the edge here, I think for still photography in business. There's no question in my mind: it's the note, 10 and I agree with Shelley that the five people who are going to want those four video streams at the same time, the Pro max is for them and I think that I'm going to have to give the edge on video to the pro max as well. I did a little of testing when I was at the event it doesn't have when you switch from lens to lens.

It doesn't have that that jerk that I've experienced but Huawei and Samsung have both had triple lenses and have had fantastic computational video for years now, and so it sounds like you're leaning towards Samsung in this one. It sounds to me Shelly, like if you alluded to this. A little if you're an Android person, not necessarily anything here, that's gonna, convert you right, no look! If you're an Apple person, nothing else will do if you're a Samsung person. Nothing else will do if this all depends on what you are use cases, and it always has, depending on what your use cases, if you're a business person. If you like the pen, the s-pen, which is awesome like if you want to take notes like I, do on just the surface of the device.

There's nothing like a note 10 in an S Pen. It's amazing. On the other hand, you, when you go out, and you're shooting and I, don't know if it's just five people that are going to shoot or a lot of people. Because I see an awful lot of video by the way. When we talk about why 5g is not their low, latency high bandwidth networks, you want to see eating bandwidth.

You look at a 4k camera. You start making for companies are throwing that stuff around you give yourself three and four to five different shots to choose from. Furthermore, you want to start chewing up storage in the phone you're going to need the 512. Well are going to need a ton of like you're gonna ton of things you don't have I've got two friends who switch back and forth between iPhone and Samsung, so we'll see what Shelley I carry both I carry both two three phones at all time, but you guys are perfect. I mean like regular one more on different s, Lana you do it for a living.

Okay, guys! Thank you for all the insights see you again soon. I thank, John I, want to close the show today with Julia Boorstin I want to get Hollywood's view on Apple's new streaming service, Apple TV, plus. What? If anything, does this mean for Disney who Netflix etc. ? Julia I know you haven't talked to all of Hollywood about this, but you were really plugged in to the strategy. The strategy is behind all these streaming services on one hand, $4.99. On the other hand, no library and hardly any shows so is this.

Going to have any impact on the way the others move from here. Well, it's interesting John, and it depends on whether you consider Netflix to be part of Hollywood. These days, I would argue, it probably is, and I spoke to a source who's familiar with Netflix is thinking on this, and I asked what the reaction is to the pricing of Apple TV, plus it at five dollars a month which is half of what some analysts expected, and this source said that basically Netflix thinks this is probably a good thing for them and that most Netflix customers will see this as complimentary, rather than as something they should switch to complimentary, because the price point is low, and it's not a direct analog for the $13 a month service. That's the most popular Netflix option right now, and because there's so little content, it's not going to directly replace what you're getting from Netflix. So the theory would be that Netflix could actually see it as a good thing that Disney Plus, an Apple TV plus, are so much less expensive.

But then the question then becomes what will happen when Apple dramatically ramps up the amount of content it has and could potentially then decide to increase its price as well and then last question Julia, because I know you got a run. How hard is it? What Apple is trying to do here to offer this curated kind of choice, number of shows and a few movies they're arguing? We don't have to do everything we just have to do a few things really, really well kind of like early HBO, but even early HBO had library right. Making good content is very hard. Jon I think that's something that every single player across Hollywood understands just too well, so I think. The question is how good this content ends up being and if you're creating a portfolio strategy where you're going to end up having 24 shows going on at once.

Then it's okay, if one or two of them is a total disaster, but sometimes it's hard to tell until this content is already out there in the world so from a Hollywood production standpoint, I think all the studios nearby, where I am right now in Universal City, are quite pleased that there are all these buyers because it means there's yet another studio. That I mean another place for a studio to sell their content, but I think it's too soon to say whether these shows are going to be huge hits because they haven't been seen yet, but I think the more shows that Apple and Lesson the better chance it has of actually having one of those shows being a huge hit like a call it Game of Thrones, yeah I, don't know, Hollywood's look in their chops for some of that Apple money, Julia Boorstin! Thank you and boy, I, don't know what else you want I mean we talked about all the major announcements got takes, even if we have to force them a little on what's more important between our made and TV plus we talked about iPad Apple Watch. We had Walt Moss berg, easily pulled him out of retirement. I know, I got a lot of insights, but for now that'll do it for Fort Knox this week. Thanks for watching see you next time.

Source : CNBC Television