'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' works for Apple, but not for cars makers

Winner of the week: Apple

On Tuesday it was time again: new iPhone day! At the Steve Jobs Theater, the company with the bitten apple presents its three new iPhones. The critics, including me at least partially, were quick to get started: these things are much too expensive, the new camera is ugly as hell, there's no 5G, and anyway, Android smartphones can do all of this much better already.

This is not exactly breaking news, and Apple has long ceased to be a driver of innovation, but one thing is clear: although the sale of the iPhone 11 began on Friday the 13th, it will again break records and drive many, many Apple fans to the online shop or to the 'geniuses' in the Apple store. By the way: anyone who wants to get a bargain should be looking for offers for used iPhones of the previous generation, which are currently offered everywhere by the thousand. No matter how you twist and turn it, Apple continues as before, and it's working really well for them.

And it's not just the iPhone. The new affordable iPad will sell like hotcakes, too. The Apple Watch is the most successful wearable on the market, and the Series 5 will only strengthen its position. Again, the new models aren't much better than the old ones, and yet Apple will sell millions of them to the public anyway. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' still works quite well for Apple, so why should it do it any other way?

Loser of the week: the automobile industry

Meanwhile, the IAA has shown that precisely this maxim no longer works in the automotive industry. My colleague Pierre was in Frankfurt this week and was almost shocked at how fewer exhibitors, reduced press presence and smaller stands were to be seen there. The free space at the Frankfurt trade fair was almost reminiscent of the last years of the CEBIT in Hanover (for those of you who remember that). Although manufacturers are committed to electromobility and sustainability, apart from a few electric cars that we already knew of, there was hardly anything groundbreaking to see. This IAA has shown that things cannot go on like this for the automotive industry as a whole.

• We just sat in the Volkswagen ID.3: all the fuss for this?

What were your tops and flops of the week? Share your opinion in the comments below.