Apple’s Product Event and 5 Reasons Why You (Really Do) Care
Even if you don’t obsessively follow the tech market, here are some reasons paying attention to the Apple event Tuesday makes sense.
Apple plans its major product announcement tomorrow. Depending on whether you’re in the fanboy or foe camp, the event could represent anticipation or antipathy. But for either side, or the mass of people in between, there are major business and personal reasons to care about what Apple does.
Rumored to be on the plate are the iPhone 6 (with a larger screen option and who knows what else), the wearable device long nicknamed the iWatch, a possible mobile payment system, andmaybe even a new iPad Air.
With that, even the most ardent follower of all things tech can feel some weariness over the calculated and orchestrated public buildup to what is, after all, only a product announcement. But don’t write it off. Even if you really don’t care about what Apple’s doing, chances are you actually do.
1. Make or break on Wall Street
Investors in Apple care about how the company does. So should those with money in other companies, particularly in the tech sector. The company is big enough that a major shift in its fortunes can have an impact on the general mood of the market. There will be no automatic pass tomorrow for Apple. At least one major equity analyst has said that product disappointment would result in a downgrade. The stakes are big.
2. It’s the economy, stupid
Apple has at times tried to stress its economic importance through all the jobs it directly and indirectly creates. But forget that bit of PR. The bottom-line reality is that the company makes a lot of money, spends big with other businesses large and small, and directly and indirectly creates jobs. A hot release could help propel Apple and do some significant good for the economy at large.
3. Design directions
The days are long over when Apple’s designs dictated what every other vendor would do. The widely discussed possible move to a larger phone screen is an example of the company following competitors from behind. Still, Apple is more than capable of hitting the street with something that makes everyone else scramble. It could be that by this time tomorrow the idea of a wearable device that sounds silly now will suddenly drip with screamingly obvious appeal, particularly if you see how your life could be healthier, more active, or otherwise improved.
4. Business directions
Google Android may be the operating system of choice for most of the mobile world, but Apple products have an affinity for higher-end markets. Given that the company has pushed connections to its products in accessories, automotive, home, apparel, and many other segments of the economy–including basic payment for goods and services, if rumors are correct–it is difficult if not impossible to be in business and ignore Apple’s moves.
5. Because you can’t get away from it
Nothing like how an inevitable event can become part of your life, whether you want it to or not. And an Apple product announcement, particularly one as closely watched as this one, inevitably becomes an event. There will be broad coverage on the media and social networks that will be hard to miss.
