This article was originally meant to be released on the 11th of September but due to technical issues we only just recently managed to get TZP back up and properly running. We apologise for all the inconveniences we caused and will do our best to make sure no such accidents happen again.

So yesterday Apple finally had their much-anticipated iPhone 11 event, with a little less fanfare from most especially since the nearly all the three iPhone 11’s had been leaked into oblivion over the past few months and there was very little to new stuff to announce. But interestingly enough, the event also emphasized a lot on the rest of Apple’s product offerings, essentially everything that’s not an iPhone, from Apple TV+ to the expected accompanying Apple watch to even another iPad (that’s older-specced and cheaper than the iPad Pro) to some Apple Arcade, the company’s also-new gaming subscription service. And while the Apple hater might rush to point out how Apple’s doing this because this year’s iPhones are also underwhelming (and they might have a point), we’re pretty sure Apple’s vision goes a little further than just making people cheer over iPhones that they’re going to buy anyway , regardless of how impressive or unimpressive they are (it’s honestly mind-boggling if you think about it).

So why was Apple’s iPhone event so focused on non-iPhone products as well? Because Apple themselves are trying to be a less iPhone focused company. The iPhone has been their bread and butter for around ten years now, and it’s served it’s purpose well as the company’s cash cow. But as their latest earnings reports shower, the iPhone no longer accounts for over half of the company’s revenue, and if Apple wants to keep being the trillion dollar level behemoth its been the past six or so years, it’s going to need to need to give more customers more products worth buying  than what they’ve been offering for over the past ten years. Now the Mac and MacBook lines aren’t doing bad, but Apple knows the main PC market will always belong to Windows based competitors, the iPad line does well enough but won’t blow into anything crazy huge anytime soon and the same goes for the Apple Watch, simply put, Apple can’t rely on hardware to save it, which is why software and services are it’s new focal point. Anyone following Apple’s news has been well aware of that, in fact we spent a bit of time talking about Apple’s new TV+, Arcade and News Plus services. Along with Apple Music all these services are expected to be the company’s new bread and butter while it still continues to try and add value to it’s existing hardware products as well. The new Mac Pro has garnered our admiration, while iPadOS at least seems like it will make Apples tablets a little bit more dependable as productivity computers (though not full on PC replacements). It’s these incremental changes and services that Apple hopes will keep giving the growth they need, and while it’s too early to tell how much success the company will have because of these moves, we definitely think it’s better than them sitting on their hands and trying to convince yoy the iPhone 11s are totally worth buying if you have a phone from the last two years (especially if you’re an Android fan).

Now is Apple making the right play with these services and device increments? Well……considering that it aims on selling most of these services mostly to existing iPhone and Mac customers, that part might be debatable. After all that would mean if you want to have what some may call the complete Apple experience, you’re coughing out more money after buying a thousand dollar phone to listen to its complete music streaming experience, or gain it’s TV streaming service, or get…better news articles (we guess?) . That value proposition already sounds a little dicey, but considering that trials free months to year long trials of these services will exist for Apple customers that buy their devices (TV+ will actually have a free year on the new iPhones) ,perhaps Apple can sink it’s hooks enough in customers for them to happily part with their money. In fact, Apple Music and the Apple TV app are both available in Zimbabwe so as long as you can somehow find yourself able to pay for their premium services, you can help fund Apple’s future too.

Either way, yesterday’s iPhone event was a true indicator of where apple is headed and what their plans are , and it will be interesting to see how countries and economies like ours will take part in that.

Related Stories: