The long and rumor-ridden road to Apple's biggest media event since it first unveiled the iPhone in 2007 is almost over. Cupertino is set to introduce its iPhone 6 and the media-dubbed iWatch wearable wrist device tomorrow.
And while Apple's devoted fans and zealous haters alike will have a blast picking out the new Apple products for their strong points and imperfections, Apple, which is feared to have lost some of its innovative flair when its founder Steve Jobs lost to cancer in 2011, will have to put in the effort to wow back customers lost to Android phablets and a few users who have grown indifferent to the lack of exciting new products introduced by Apple in the last several months.
The rumored 5.5-inch iPhone 6L is said to even out the phablet playing field, which has been largely dominated unchallenged by Apple's bitter rival Samsung over the years. But although size matters in the smartphone arena, Apple will have to do more than add inches to its display, with Samsung's newly unveiled Galaxy Note 4 amassing positive reviews with its 64-bit processor for its international variant, Quad-HD display and improved camera functions after its introduction at Berlin's IFA last week.
Apple is expected to incorporate these improvements into the iPhone 6, but the company will have to do more to truly leave Samsung and other phone manufacturers in the dust. Could near-field communications (NFC) finally fuel Apple far forward into the competition?
Although the average consumer may not have heard of NFC, this feature allows Apple to integrate a mobile payment system to let users pay for physical goods with the touch of the iPhone screen over a point-of-sale system. Analysts believe this could be the real differentiator. But for Apple to make mobile payments mainstream, it has to convince a multitude of retailers to accept its payment standards. Otherwise, what's the point?
Moreover, Apple is expected to integrate NFC into the iWatch, which many hope to become the champion of wearable devices to help the nascent wearable industry veer from its niche market of technology and fitness buffs into the mainstream. Many smartbands and other wearable devices have made it to the mass market in the past few years, including six Gear smartwatches from Samsung and the popular round-faced Android Wear Moto 360 from Motorola. These, however, are plagued with several problems that prevent wearables from going mainstream, including poor battery life, dorky user experience and bad design. With Apple's reputation for design and the company's key executives reportedly working hands-on on the iWatch, it's easy to expect a beautiful smartwatch out of Cupertino tomorrow.
However, just because the device is beautiful doesn't mean it will be quickly snapped up by consumers. Analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research has conducted a survey of consumers' preferences for features such as fitness tracking and mobile payments. The findings, he says, indicate that interest in these features is low. One major obstacle Apple has to overcome is security, which is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
"That's where the privacy issue comes into play, because health care providers are scared to death of data breaches and privacy issues," says Dawson. "They've got to figure out a way to get them comfortable."
Others believe Apple is taking the necessary steps to ensure user privacy when it comes to their health data. Tim Bajarin, analyst at Creative Strategies, notes that Apple has partnered with the Mayo Clinic and health care software provider Epic Systems with the introduction of Apple's HealthKit fitness and health app platform. Last week, Apple also announced new guidelines for its HealthKit developers. The new guidelines say health apps are not allowed to store user data in iCloud, which was lately implicated in the leak of hundreds of nude celebrity photos.
