Brief:
- Apple is promoting its iPhone X, the tech giant's first smartphone to have advanced facial recognition technology, with a new commercial that depicts life as a game show. The commercial shows a contestant whose winning answer to a trivia question is the password created for an online banking account, per Cult of Mac.
- The ad is intended to show how Face ID saves users the trouble of having to remember passwords to maintain data security while using an iPhone. Touch ID, which scans fingerprints, has similar protections, but Apple says Face ID is 20 times more secure.
- The latest ad says "Remembering your password doesn't have to feel like a memory challenge. With Face ID on iPhone X, your face is your password." Face ID is expected to be added to all 2018 iPhone models and possibly the iPad tablet, per Cult of Mac.
Insight:
Apple's latest ad looks to burnish Face ID amid various concerns over the technology. More than 40% of iOS users in the U.S. said they're unlikely to use Face ID as a method for authenticating payments, according to a survey by Juniper Research last year. The technology also shares facial recognition data with apps, sparking privacy worries, a topic that's been broadly in the spotlight this year. However, the iPhone X's other features could open up other opportunities for marketers.
Face ID technology was a key selling point for the iPhone X as its retail price reached $1,000, or about $200 more than the iPhone 8 Plus that resembled prior models with its home button and fingerprint scanner. While Apple doesn't break out sales of iPhones by model, the company in May said that unit sales had risen 2.9% to 52.2 million units in Q2 2018 from the prior year. Those results helped to ease worries that the iPhone's best days were behind it.
Smartphones are now in 87% of U.S. homes, second to TVs at 96%, according to a study last month by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). For the first time, the top three most frequently owned tech products are now screen devices, as laptops — trailing only TVs and smartphones — reached their highest ownership level at 72%. The CTA predicts higher growth for smart home products that use voice-enabled tech, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The CTA forecast supported research from the International Data Corporation that said the global market for smart speakers, digital media adapters, lighting, thermostats and other connected home gadgets will grow 26.8% this year to 549.5 million shipments.