Amid all the benchmark-testing and feature-dissecting surrounding
Apple's new iPhones going on sale Friday, I've come to a conclusion: The
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are the company's most millennial phones to date.
When
it comes to technology, surveys show that millennials tend to be
heavily dependent on mobile devices, use social media far more than
other age groups and have short fuses for gadgets that don't work
smoothly. Take this tidbit from the Pew Research Center, for instance:
More than half of millennials post selfies on social media. The
researchers described them as "distinctive in how they place themselves
at the center of self-created digital networks." No other generation is
inclined to do this, Pew said. Indeed, six out of ten Baby Boomers don't
even know what a selfie is (um, it's a photo of oneself, by the way).
Which
brings me to the new iPhones. Of course, they still have Apple's
trademark wide appeal. But judging by the time I've gotten to spend with
the devices ahead of their official release, I see a lot in these
devices that fit well with the under-35, always-connected, social-media
obsessed smartphone user. (Full disclosure: Born in 1986, I'm one of
them.) Posting photos to social media is far easier. You can zip around
the apps much more efficiently. And, yes, the camera for taking selfies
is much improved.
So without further ado, let me point out several
features that should make the millennial crowd especially pleased with
what Apple has done with its latest phones.
Multitasking
First,
these are the best iPhones the company has ever created for
multitaskers. That's certainly not a trait limited to millennials, but
it is a documented hallmark of the generation. Apple's new feature -
called 3D Touch - makes doing everything at once much easier than ever
before on the iPhone.
As you probably could guess from the name,
3D Touch adds some depth to the old swipe-and-tap routine, by way of a
screen that can tell how hard you're pressing. It's not always perfectly
implemented and takes a little getting used to. You can "peek" into
certain parts of the phone with a gentle push, most often to call up a
menu of quick-launch options or a preview of what you want to read. Some
apps let you push again to "pop" the preview into a full screen view.
The idea is that this saves you time while keeping all the information
at your fingertips. At its best, 3D Touch lets users see and do more on
their phone, all at once, without breaking stride.
Other phones
have tackled multitasking more effectively than Apple in the past. Some
arguably still do, such as the Samsung Galaxy line of smartphones, which
supports running apps side-by-side. Apple has only just added that to
the iPad - you can't split your screen between two apps on the iPhone
yet. But the basic design of 3D Touch, a host of improvements in the
operating system and a faster processor has made app-hopping very
snappy. This is by far the best iPhone for the way most millennials work
today.
Using a review iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus provided by
Apple, I ran a couple of informal experiments to see how much time using
3D Touch could save me, one second at a time.
The results were
pretty good. Take e-mail, for example. With 3D Touch, you can peek into a
message to get a snapshot of the top of an e-mail. So I was able to
give some new e-mails in my inbox a quick but thorough scan, then delete
them, in just two seconds. The same action took me four seconds using
the normal method of tapping to open the message, reading, then hitting
the trash icon. And that's with the benefit of muscle memory.
It's
not a slam-dunk on every e-mail, particularly those with headers that
take up the whole preview window. Still, given that I get an average of
200 work e-mails a day, 3D Touch might save me nearly half an hour per
week. That's not enough for a new hobby, but it's a whole sitcom
episode's worth of time that I'm not spending in my inbox. I'll take it.
Other
time savers included getting a preview of my calendar by pressing on a
line a message that suggested an event - "dinner at 8 tomorrow," for
example - and as well as links in Safari and in e-mail. Not every
implementation is perfect; for instance, pressing on the App Store icon
brought up a search bar that I don't feel is hard to get to without 3D
Touch. But with just a few exceptions, the new feature proved to be
extremely useful.
A media machine
The processor on
the new iPhones also bulks up their capabilities as a multimedia
machine. With a new 12MP camera that can shoot 4K video, these phones
are now for production as much as consumption. That, too, has broad
appeal, particularly for the visually-minded of all ages. But it is a
must-have for those who rely heavily on the YouTube, Vine and
Instagram-fueled social media entertainment complex.
The photos
and video that these phones take are, in a word, stunning. It feels like
we shouldn't be impressed with the megapixel wars anymore, particularly
since Apple's 12MP camera doesn't even boast the most on the market.
Still, the increase from 8MP to 12MP was a significant improvement.
You can see remarkable detail in these images, and that clarity holds up
even when you zoom in tight. When it comes to video, Apple's iMovie has
also gotten a serious upgrade, allowing users to edit up to two streams
of 4K video right from their phones. Mobile documentarians, this is
your moment.
Again, 3D Touch also weaves in here: Having shortcuts
to social media pop-up in a menu while using the camera makes posting
videos and photos to the Web quick and easy. 3D Touch also made the the
entire experience much faster. Jumping into the camera to start a video
took me 5 seconds - I had to tap the camera icon, move the slider at
the bottom over to video and then hit record. Using 3D Touch, it took
just 2 seconds to start up a video. That could be the difference between
getting a moment and missing it.
And then there's all the new
possibilities these iPhones offer for that most millennial of all media,
the selfie. Live Photos, which captures a few seconds before and after
your shutter click, is available on both the front- and rear-facing
cameras. That's great for scenic landscapes and family photos on the
rear-facing camera, especially if you have kids or pets that don't
properly time their adorableness for your shutter click. But, let's face
it - that also means you can pull off even goofier faces with your
friends in selfies.
Live Photos can be shared in their full glory
with anyone who has iOS 9, as well as Mac users; Apple's also launched
an API for the feature, which means we could see it supported on other
services down the line.
Apple's also added a novel selfie flash of
sorts, turning your screen white as you snap a picture with the 5MP
front-facing camera. It adjusts its balance based on the lighting and
subject matter, which should help avoid having either washed-out or
darkly obscured faces.
With more finishes and customization
options - you can even have Live Photo wallpapers - the company's also
offering up more ways to make your phone more personal. It is not on the
level of something like Motorola's build-your-own-phone designs, but it
is still a good and welcome fit for what's been called the "me me me"
generation.
Then again, since Americans spend a reported 4.7 hours
per day on their smartphones, it makes some sense that everyone would
want their iPhone to reflect their personalities.
Pink but no wink
Finally,
there's just something about the way that Apple is marketing this phone
that appeals specifically to the way millennials shop. As my colleague
Sarah Halzack has reported, when it comes to expensive purchases,
there's been a clear shift toward what's known as "functional luxury."
That's a fancy way of saying that millennials need value in addition to
status when they opt to purchase high-end items. And these phones do
cost a pretty penny, starting at $649 (roughly Rs. 43,000) for the iPhone 6s and $749 (roughly Rs. 50,000) for the
6s Plus.
Chief executive Tim Cook has made no secret of the fact
that wrapping the iPhone in gold - and now a new and very pink rose-gold
- was an appeal to middle-class and wealthy customers in China. But it
also fits into Apple's broader push to establish itself as the luxury
brand of hardware devices - an effort that was seen in the marketing
around the Apple Watch (recall that one model was priced at $17,000!).
Apple
has also - rather smartly, in my opinion - thus far avoided the impulse
to launch a pink phone with a wink and a nod to the ladies. (Marketing
ladyphones, in general, is a dicey, often sexist move.) That's worked
well in its favor; there are thinkpiecesa-plenty about men buying the
blush-colored phone in defiance of that whole, tired "pink is for girls"
stereotype (I'm not a fan of pink myself). These articles also noted
that some men just like the very distinctive and admittedly attractive
finish.
We're all modern people, after all.
© 2015 The Washington Post
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Further reading:
3D Touch,
Apple,
Apple iPhone,
Instagram,
Live Photos,
Mobiles,
Social Media,
Tim Cook,
Vine,
YouTube,
iPad,
iPhone,
iPhone 6s,
iPhone 6s Plus
iOS 13 Hints at Lack of 3D Touch on 2019 iPhone Family, Apple Confirms 'Peek', 'Quick Actions' Coming to Compatible Models5 June 2019
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