At 10am PT today, Apple held what was the much-anticipated “Special Event” at their headquarters – an event that was shrouded in rumors of new releases and changes.

Apple is notorious for doing everything it can to keep the general populace in the dark about its releases right up until the very end, and they are normally very good at it; however it seems that this time around there were enough legitimate leaks that many of the rumor-mill sites hit the nail on the head in regards to what the ordeal was about and left little to the imagination. As everyone (at minimum) expected, the “Special Event” held today was centered on the unveiling of the new iPhone 5s and the newly-developed-and-launched iPhone 5c. 

As my readers may already know I did not exactly have my hopes up about the event as a whole; in fact just yesterday I posted a guess as to what could be expected from this launch, and I also included my prediction as to how investors would perceive the announcements that were to come. I surmised that Apple would likely release three products: two iPhones and a new iPad. I also predicted that if Apple only launched the two iPhones (and possibly the iPad) without the added launch of some other sort of innovative technology, it could be expected that a notable loss of interest from investors and from the public would instantly follow.

Okay, Okay. So what actually happened at the event?

During the course of what ultimately turned out to be nothing more than a very over-dramatized release party, Apple did not even so much as launch a new iPad – all they did was launch the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. Furthermore, aesthetically and technologically speaking the new pair phones were shown to be just as I had feared they would be; the iPhone 5s is nothing more than an iPhone 5 with a fingerprint reader and a few upgrades (albeit a significant camera upgrade, but this is to be expected based on their previous camera issue in the iPhone 5) and the iPhone 5c is nothing more than a plastic iPhone 5 with  bunch of colors. Aside from these changes, there is virtually nothing different in the iPhone 5s from the iPhone 5, and as for the iPhone 5c… well, I didn’t even think that should have launched in the first place.

So what does this all mean for Apple, and for consumers?

The end result of this less-than-exciting launch was that we saw a significant drop in Apple’s stocks today. Apple closed the day down two percent, which is not good considering they just launched the product intended to carry their profitability for the next year. If Apple is going to continue to stay in the good favor of stockholders and investors, they will need to make some kind of splash soon with a new product. Holding a launch like this without really innovating anything was not good for Apple. Even iOS7 (which I personally think is quite the beautiful system) is already experiencing mixed reviews from developers, and the negative commentary behind the software mixed with uninteresting hardware might result in a serious hiccup for Apple.

In my opinion, today’s launch was definitely not a business-savvy maneuver unless Apple has something like a Google Glass competitor up their sleeve that’s aimed for launch in the very, very near future. After all, we are seeing a lot of shifting in the mobile market right now, and we have historically seen that when a company sits still in times like these, it never ends up well. Google is currently launching their first original Motorola-branded smartphone, and Microsoft is currently moving into position to make some big changes in their mobile business. Even Blackberry is making ripples with the undertones of a Microsoft buyout. Without any real innovation, Apple is just leaving that door wide open for Microsoft and Google to walk through.

So is all hope lost for Apple?

I want to be optimistic and say that this launch being so underwhelming means that something huge is in the pipeline, but I can’t say that with any kind of assertiveness. It’s just a hope and it is not based on any sort of facts, but I would like to believe that Apple has yet to lose its touch; unfortunately, though, the cards don’t seem favorable right now.

I will be closing this with some extra resources for you. Below I will be linking the keynotes to the new iPhones and the new iOS (for those who didn’t catch that a few months ago). I feel I should also point out that I will be posting again very, very soon covering a small conspiracy I noticed, regarding the iPhone 5c; to give you a little teaser, I think Apple shot it’s “Innovation” slogan in the foot with the iPhone 5c by using similar marketing tactics to the Nokia Lumia 920 – but, we’ll get to that in the next post.

iOS7 Keynote can be found Here

the iPhone 5s and 5c keynote can be found Here

Image Source found Here