We get it. The wild overreaction to COVID-19 — blanket lockdowns, useless cloth masks (safe not to use when eating (smirk)), plexiglass partitions that did absolutely nothing, abjectly stupid “6-feet apart” stickers on floors, etc., etc., etc. — necessitated the suspension of live presentations at Apple events.
Yet, it’s 2023 now and even China — which very likely engineered and let loose COVID-19, partially funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, no less — has finally exhausted its prodigious authoritarian inclinations and largely resumed normal life. Regardless, Apple plans to continue doing canned keynotes.
Not that there was any doubt, but Sept 12 event is being prepared as an in-person launch. So recorded video + people watching at the Apple campus + hands on afterwards. Same as the iPhone 14.
As a journalist, I covered press conferences in the most diverse places with different styles of keynotes and executives. Still, none of them offered the same experience as an Apple event. In 2019, I covered the last in-person WWDC in San Jose, California.
Being surrounded by developers from all over the world, international media, and Apple staff was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. During the keynote, I saw developers cheering about the latest software updates and gasping when Apple introduced the all-new Mac Pro and the Pro Display XDR.
But it seems Apple prefers to move on from Steve Jobs-like keynotes to error-proof presentations that only a recorded video can bring. The events are faster, but they lose that special Apple touch only a live keynote could have.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in September 2022:
It’s highly likely that Apple’s pre-taped, edited special event videos are with us for the foreseeable future due to the significant reduction on demand on executive presenters’ time alone. The hands-on area and access to Apple executives at these events are easily strong enough draws for the media to attend in person: Watch the movie, then play with — or at least see — and photograph the actual tech afterwards with an executive Q&A. It obviously works.
If Apple ever again gets a dynamic, charismatic CEO who’s mastered on-stage live presentations, we may return to such events, but, for now, enjoy the videos!
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