Om Malik provides an inside view of the iPhone 16 launch event

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to attend an iPhone launch event in the Steve Jobs Theater, Om Malik has shared a series of photos intended to give an inside view of Glowtime, together with his thoughts on what it’s like to be there.

The writer, photographer, and investor says that this event was quite different to previous ones as there was a new type of attendee …

John Gruber drew my attention to Malik’s observations and photos.

Apple’s iPhone 16 launch event differed greatly from most of its past events. It was larger and more overwhelming. There were fewer familiar faces among the attendees, and there was also a new type of attendee — content creators. They were busy filing short bursts of information to their followers in vertical formats: videos, selfies at Apple Park and occasional comments about the products themselves.

Malik decided to go meta and spend time photographing the people who were photographing themselves.

While not everyone will like the idea of YouTubers spending more time filming themselves than the products, Malik himself said that he enjoyed it almost as a sociologist.

It was a wonderful spectacle — just to bask in this new kind of raw media energy. Content for the sake of content. Events for the sake of content. Fog of content. It’s the new way of the world. As a student of media, I love this chaos and change — because from chaos and change comes the future.

Check out his photos on his website.