Thoughts on the Setember 2025 Apple Event

There are few things more certain in life than hearing the familiar “Good morning!” from Tim Cook at the beginning of an Apple event. Going into today, rumours were pretty set on announcements for the Apple Watch, and the launch of a thinner iPhone Air. That’s what we ended up getting, but reading between the lines there are some interesting observations about where the company may be heading next. I’ll go through the product categories and some thoughts that I jotted down throughout the presentation. I don’t own any of the products mentioned, nor am I planning on buying any, so I went into the presentation without any desires or wishlists.

AirPods

Surprisingly, what impressed me most in the entire event was the live translation from two people wearing AirPods. To me, it stood out as an example of technology solving a genuine problem, which is becoming rare these days. There is nothing really ground-breaking or Apple exclusive about the feature (you could already have someone speak into your phone and then hear the translation through wireless earbuds), but it does seem seamless. I could see professionals bringing two sets of AirPods with them when they travel to a foreign country for an assignment. However, for instances in which translations have to be exact (such as journalists conducting interviews where quotes matter, or diplomacy), a human translator will still be needed to fact-check.

For the noise reduction, the 2x relative increase from the previous model (which in turn, was 2x more effective than the model before it) raises questions about whether customers should wait it out for the next release. I am happy to see that they addressed the fact that the AirPods don’t fit nicely in everyone’s ears, should be a nice quality of life upgrade.

Overall, nice to see the improvements for people that like to wear them. I am skeptical of smaller wireless earbuds in general because the battery health will decrease so rapidly, for the next cycle would love to see them enable swappable batteries[1]

Apple Watch

What struck me most in the Apple Watch segment was the marketing around the health features of the watch. As a viewer, it almost seemed like if I didn’t have this device, that I would be stranded, abandoned, and at constant risk of death. I am sure that this was part of the intent, making the watch feel like something that you cannot live without. Announcing the hypertension feature before it is approved by the FDA was a bold move, which may place pressure on the agency. If the anticipated 1 million individuals are sent for further screening and are ultimately diagnosed, then I have to hand it to Apple, that’s a great outcome. Will have to see.

It was funny to hear them say that “Space Gray” is a “new” colour. The third generation Apple Watch I had years ago was that colour… weird.

iPhone

Before the event today I kept thinking “who really wants a thinner phone?”. Most people that I speak to want a bigger battery, and they would rather have that than shaving off a few millimeters. The thinness seems like a marketing gimmick so that there was something “new” this year. The rest of the improvements are the same old same old, better camera, better screen, things you would expect from a year of investment in material science.

The biggest shock was that the prices are staying the same as previous years. Wall Street also seemed to share my view, with the stock dropping dramatically immediately after the pricing page was shown.

Apple Intelligence was barely mentioned, and I think this is an indication that they are going to roll out AI in a few areas, but mostly play it conservative from here on out. The fad of AI in everything is rescinding quickly, and so they are likely facing less pressure to stretch it to fit in areas where it doesn’t belong. The event today felt down to earth, lots of small improvements that can be measured, rather than moonshots.

There will be a new style of video in which people record a concert and their reactions at the same time. I wonder if Instagram will introduce some sort of side-by-side option to accommodate people who want to post it.

Lastly, the naming for things is all over the place. “C1”, “C1X”, “N1”, “A19 in an iPhone 17 running iOS 26”. I pity the Apple store employees who have to keep track of which model goes with which.

Have we reached “peak phone?”

All of this leaves me wondering; what comes next year? A foldable? It feels like there is little room left for massive improvements in all the product categories shown today—from all companies, not just Apple. I haven’t even read any information about the Pixel 10 because there is nothing that they could offer me that would make me want to purchase a new device. I plan to run GrapheneOS on my current Pixel 8 for as long as it lasts, then see what the most reliable and functional product is in 5-6 years time.

  1. As this would negatively impact their bottom line by allowing people to use their current AirPods for longer, I don’t have high hopes. ↩︎