Avi Greengart, consumer technology analyst at Techsponential says that modular designs appeal to engineers, rather than the typical consumer. “You start with a base slab and then you can add things to it, but it doesn’t match how consumers purchase products,” he explains. “The phone itself needs to be something that they want to buy right now and use by itself.”
The primary use of the magnets in the back of the iPhone 12 is to offer iPhone owners an easier way to charge the device. Accessories are just an additional perk. And even then, Apple is starting out very simply on the accessories front—with just a charger, a wallet and a magnetic case.
Of course, established Apple accessory/case/strap makers will be ready to jump on the new functionality. Teoman said he can’t wait to see “the innovative way” that MagSafe will be used, with the aim being to build “a robust and ever expanding ecosystem.” Belkin has already announced a MagSafe car mount and a MagSafe charger which can charge both your iPhone and Apple Watch, while OtterBox has a MagSafe-compatible iPhone 12 case. Similar Moto modules were much more essential to the use of the Moto Z, but Motorola clearly intended Moto Z users to switch accessories out on a regular basis to increase the functionality of the device. Not so here.
Ramon Llamas, research director for IDC’s Devices and Displays team, thinks that this was one of the issues with Motorola’s implementation of magnets—they were unnecessary additions which are already features in many modern smartphones. “Most of their mods were extensions or duplications of what the Moto Z was already capable of doing—think camera, battery pack or speaker,” he says. “Most smartphones already took high-quality photos, and adding a mod to do DSLR-quality pics would most likely appeal to a select crew.”
Another sticking point was that the Moto Mods weren’t just a little bit of a gimmick, but they were also mightily expensive. A JBL speaker attachment cost $80, the 360-degree camera cost $300 and the Polaroid printer attachment cost $200. The iPhone 12 already has a great camera; it already has a great speaker, and well, who really needs a £150 printer?
Apple already learned some lessons from Motorola by not making MagSafe the unique selling point of the iPhone 12. For anyone watching the keynote, the major focus was 5G, followed by the new design and camera improvements. “Moto hyped up the Mods as it needed a way to stand out from the Android crowd. This meant a lot of focus was placed on the mods, which did not help the phone’s appeal as they were frankly underwhelming compared to the hype,” says Daniel Gleeson, mobile industry analyst at Omdia.
Gleeson says that Apple isn’t making the same mistake with MagSafe. If Apple over-emphasized MagSafe, it would mean that the iPhone 12 would be judged by the quality of third-party accessories. “MagSafe will instead just form part of the ‘it just works’ magic of iPhone,” he says, “where similar capabilities on other brands feel clunky and old fashioned in comparison.”
Ultimately, the reason why magnets won’t fail Apple is a simple one. Apple is a two trillion-dollar company which sells millions of iPhones every single year. Compare that to Motorola’s Moto Z which, according to Omdia data, accounted for just 0.3 per cent of the US market in June 2020. The phone didn’t even enter the top 50 handsets in the UK.
So while accessory manufacturers are no doubt scrambling to make MagSafe-compatible accessories to get a bite of that Apple pie, beyond the partnerships locked in for launch, others clearly weren’t rushing around trying to manufacture Moto Mods. The in-built advantage Apple now commands extends beyond that too. While retailers will be more likely to devote shelf space to MagSafe accessories, they were likely much less willing to give Moto Mods the same courtesy. Still, if the Moto Mods have shown us anything, it’s that if Apple’s softly softly approach takes off, there is plenty of potential for what MagSafe could do.
This story originally appeared on WIRED UK.
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