Re-reading an old note (the trend-insight section),
I ended up overlapping it with the articles bickering about whether the iPhone 6S is "innovative" or not — these are my thoughts.
# 01. A Few Thoughts on the Reviews of Apple's — Not Just the iPhone's — Innovation
Expecting innovation through the iPhone 6S or the iPhone 7 isn't a particularly positive stance.
Apple's (or Apple Computer's) innovations so far haven't been within-product changes or feature additions.
For example — the Macintosh was innovated by the iMac.
Apple Computers dreamt of innovation through the iPod. The iPod, in turn, through the iPhone.
And the iPhone is extending its innovation range not through the iPhone series (3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6..) but through the iPad.
This kind of hardware innovation is gradually shifting its layer toward the cloud.
That means moving from a device-based network (internet) model
to the fragmentation of data-based "devices (hardware)."
Through this process,
the chicken-and-egg style relationship between IoT and big data will become visibly valuable.
But what I'm worried about
is not the trend or insight itself moving to the next stage.
It's the social phenomena that emerge through it.
Looking at today's reality — shaped by the commodification of humans that came along with the shift from production-based capitalism to financial capitalism —
I'm concerned about the effect this change will have. Big data can take away even humans' freedom of choice. Whether humans are free — or selective — beings is
a question that, awkward and cringe-making though it may be, I think we should at least ask once.
Reading an older book I recently picked up, "GOOD WORK" (E. F. Schumacher), and a relatively new one, "Psychopolitics" (Byung-Chul Han), and the like,
I think I've gotten some hints toward interpreting the reasons I've been unconsciously thinking, worrying, and acting the way I have.
Given the chance, I'd like to run a workshop from these books with people from different fields and different kinds of experience.
# 02. A Few Thoughts on the Reviews of the iPhone 6S
The iPhone's purpose and concept are changing from the 6 onward. Most outlets or experts call this a revenue-expansion move or a shift in mass-market strategy, while some experts actually criticize Apple for it.
But I think a bit differently.
Assuming that "they are experts in their domain. And they live in that culture. They are not fools." —
they seem to have certainty or a plan regarding the next iPhone or iPad model.
And just as they developed the iMac with the revenue earned through the revised Macintosh,
I wonder if they are, through the mass-extended iPhone 6 and 6S, accelerating R&D or production for the next model.
If so, we too could start thinking about that new object. If we're lucky, we might even be able to make it. That's the thought.
Only — if we don't stay as buried as we are now in what they have produced so far and in what they currently reveal..
