The iPhone 16 event surprises that left me frustrated

An Apple event is always full of potential. Even though rumors and leaks tend to leave very little ‘new’ remaining for event day, Apple still tends to offer some surprises. Maybe a new feature that no one knew about. Or a unique angle that a rumor didn’t quite get right. Unfortunately, with this week’s iPhone 16 launch, the event’s ‘surprises’ largely left me frustrated.

Sometimes no announcement is better news

Heading into Monday’s event, we had a good idea of what to expect.

There would be a four-device iPhone 16 lineup, plus new Apple Watch and AirPods models.

Very little was left to surprise. Except for some disappointments, that is.

General consensus was that we’d see new AirPods Max 2, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and an Apple Watch SE 3.

None of those products ended up being announced.

But that wasn’t the only surprising part.

Sometimes products are expected to be announced, then no announcement is made and that usually means one thing: the new devices aren’t ready quite yet.

They still exist, and after a bit more waiting, they’ll arrive before too long.

Apple, however, made clear that this was a different story.

The two most anticipated of the three products—AirPods Max 2 and Apple Watch Ultra 3—have now been completely ruled out for the foreseeable future.

Why? Because Apple announced disappointing updates to the existing AirPods Max and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

The AirPods Max and Apple Watch Ultra ‘updates’

The latest AirPods Max still have the same basic hardware, but now they charge by USB-C. And they have new color options.

That’s after four years on the market with no changes. Oh, and they’re still selling for $549.

It’s one thing to offer new colors and change the charging port on a year-old product. Maybe even a two-year-old product. But AirPods Max have sat four long years with no updates. And they cost as much as ever before.

All while AirPods Pro 2 users have, for years now, enjoyed modern features powered by the H2 chip. These include Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, and the just-released Voice Isolation, support for nonverbal responses to Siri, and more.

To add insult to injury, at the same event where it announced the AirPods Max ‘update,’ Apple also released new AirPods 4 that do include the H2 chip and all its great features. They cost a fraction of AirPods Max’s price.

It’s a similar story on the Apple Watch side.

Last year’s Apple Watch Ultra 2 got some valuable screen time during the iPhone 16 event. Apple made a case for it being the best sports watch, and debuted a new satin black finish.

The black Apple Watch Ultra looks great. But Apple also announced a new Apple Watch Series 10 featuring:

• a similarly beautiful black finish
• a larger display than the Ultra has
• a newer, more capable S10 chip than the Ultra’s S9

And all of this at a cost that’s nearly half of the Ultra 2’s $799 price point.

Setting expectations for launches

Apple’s announcements made clear that the AirPods Max 2 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, if they exist at all, aren’t coming any time soon.

Does Apple have an obligation to ship products that are rumored? Of course not. I’m not suggesting that at all.

But the company has historically done a good job of setting expectations for its events.

Strategic leaks would occur when a rumored announcement was getting a lot of excitement, but Apple knew it wouldn’t come to fruition. So they would share, somehow through the grapevine, news that better set expectations.

That didn’t happen this time around. And the company’s long-held commitment to secrecy meant that some of the biggest surprises of the event were not much fun at all.

What’s your take on the iPhone 16 event? Would fewer announcements have been a better thing? Let us know in the comments.