I had a triple Eureka during Apple’s September 9th surprise and shine event.
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| Apple iPhone Duo (iPhone screen capture) |
Eureka moment No. 1:
I realized how badly and inaccurately I had underestimated Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO for the past 15 years. I made the mistake of comparing Cook’s temperament and leadership style to that of Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and CEO from his triumphant 1997 return to Apple, until shortly before his death, in 2011.
The surprise and shine event showcased, in great detail, that Apple remains as innovative as ever in 2026! It also highlighted the fact that introverts (which Cook likely is) are equally effective as flamboyant extroverts, who love the limelight.
Apple has had two big problems for decades; one of which, it will never overcome.
Problem No. 1:
Apple has frequently felt like the 1962-63 animated TV series, “The Jetsons”. They have sometimes designed, created and brought products to market, years before the public could grasp the concept, see their value or appreciate them.
I don’t believe that this has ever happened on Tim Cook’s watch. For Cook, the exhilaration of unveiling an exciting new product, must be tempered by realistic sales projections.
Two innovative Apple products that had disappointing sales revenues, because the public was not ready for them:
*The world’s first personal digital assistant (with handwriting recognition, that created editable text):
August 1993 Newton MessagePad
March 1994 Newton MessagePad 100 & 110
October 1994 Newton MessagePad 120
April 1996 Newton MessagePad 130
March 1997 Newton MessagePad 2000
eMate 300
November 1997 Newton MessagePad 2100
*The world’s first consumer digital camera:
January 1994 QuickTake 100
May 1995 QuickTake 150
December 1995 QuickTake Video Conferencing Camera 100
February 1997 QuickTake 200
Problem No. 2:
Apple’s products are so:
- well-designed,
- intuitive to use,
- supported for several years (including at least 6-8 years of operating system and security updates),
- durable,
that a large percentage of consumers use them for several years, before finally upgrading, and passing their old device to family members or loved ones.
The long product life of Apple’s hardware slows down their new product sales. However, it also creates loyal, lifelong customers.
Eureka moment No. 2:
Dramatic improvements in Apple’s newly announced hardware:
- iPhone 18 Pro Max camera’s improved photo and video functionality.
- iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable smartphone.
- Apple Watch series 12’s improvements (extended battery life) and new functionality (health and artificial intelligence, including the ability to record and summarize conversations).
- AirPods improved noise cancellation. Apple also extended noise cancellation to the entire AirPods product family.
Eureka moment No. 3:
Apple is going for the market share jugular vein of every company that has invested billions of dollars, Yuan or Euros in artificial intelligence and data farms. I predict that Apple will be taking significant market share from Anthropic, Google AI, Grok, Meta AI, Microsoft AI and OpenAI.
I am sure that most leaders of every AI company not named Apple, did not sleep very well the night after their “Surprise and sunshine” new product announcements.
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| Apple Intelligence Features (iPhone screen capture) |
Here is how Apple has differentiated themselves from every other artificial intelligence company in the world, through their machine learning implementation, Apple Intelligence.
1. Apple respects user privacy.
a. On device processing.
b. Private cloud computing. User data is never stored.
2. Zero AI usage costs. Users never need to buy tokens to use Apple Intelligence.
3. Consumers with a supported Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone or Mac also have the option to enable and use ChatGPT, since it is fully integrated with Apple Intelligence.
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*Data from the MacTracker app’s Apple product timeline
