If you believe that the stock market provides an accurate reading of a company’s prospects for success, you must think that Apple’s media event was a total failure. Yes, the product introductions were largely predictable and all, what with loads of information being leaked via the supply chain. But that doesn’t mean there were no surprises.

Consider the jump to 64-bit processing. Some suggest it doesn’t mean anything and won’t mean anything until iPhones and iPads come with more than 4GB of onboard RAM. But that’s not quite true. By crunching data more efficiently, there is a real performance improvement. One article suggested from a few percent to nearly twice as much, and the latter is what Apple is claiming for the A7 processor.

Now take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S4. Supposedly the latter does indeed deliver benchmarks up to twice as fast as its predecessor. But that’s done by deliberately overclocking the processor when the benchmarks are being run; it’s not a real rating based on real-world performance. It’s a fake, a fraud.

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So I listened to a talking head on one of the cable news/commentary networks, MSNBC. In being asked why Apple’s stock price declined sharply on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, he said that Apple isn’t good at producing iterative upgrades. They only succeed when they overhaul a market.

Or at least that’s what he said.

Now as most of you know, MSNBC was originally established as a partnership between the NBC TV network and Microsoft. But Microsoft eventually bailed. In any case, the interviewer didn’t bother to follow up this statement; that’s all-too-common on TV news nowadays. Unfortunately, that supposed expert was just plain wrong.

If you look at Apple’s sales over the years, you’ll see the peaks in 2012 and 2013 were reached without releasing any game changers, unless you can call the iPad mini a game changer. While undeniably successful, it’s just a smaller version of the regular iPad. The iPad market already existed, so this was at most an iterative update.

Well, it’s not as if pundits will admit when they are shown to be wrong time and time again.

But the “Apple-fail-to-innovate” game has been in full force in recent months. Whatever Apple does, it’s just not enough. They should be doing more.

Consider the iPhone 5s. Yes, it looks very much like its predecessor, but there are a whole lot of significant changes inside. No, not just installing faster parts, as Samsung did when they went from the Galaxy S3 to the Galaxy S4 (with a slightly bigger display). By going to 64-bit, it’s not just for bragging rights, but a legitimate effort to improve performance and pave the way to a future that might include desktop-grade products with ARM chips.

The M7 coprocessor works with the phone’s motion sensors and is optimized for fitness software and Maps. So your iPhone 5s will know when you are walking or driving, and deliver the appropriate answers. Having the M7 also means less drag on the A7 chip, which helps to improve battery life. Consider there’s a lot more power hogging stuff in the iPhone 5s, but with a slightly larger battery life, it means a longer wait between charges.

Sure, some of this is theoretical. When the product is released and thoroughly tested, we’ll have a better picture on how well it does in the real world. But consider this: On an iPhone and an iPad, Apple’s battery life estimates tend to be really close to the mark. It’s not the same as a MacBook, where you have to basically let it run and do very little to match Apple’s claims.

However, along with improved camera components and software and the Touch ID fingerprint, it does appear that the iPhone 5s is actually a major upgrade. The original iPhone 5’s biggest feature was a larger display. There’s a lot more going on in the 5s.

Sure, Apple might upset the industry between now and 2014 with an iWatch or maybe a smart TV, but the company is still moving ahead of the competition with honest-to-goodness improvements on existing gear, rather than junk that looks great on a spec sheet, but has little practical value.

But the largest amount of criticisms are focused on the iPhone 5c. Yes, it’s basically a plastic-based iPhone 5 with a higher capacity battery and some minor refinements. But having a current product for a more affordable price is apt to capture more customers than just selling last year’s model.

But for those who still regard the 5c as too costly, Apple is keeping the iPhone 4s in stock free with a two-year contract; T-Mobile, by the way, plans to sell the 5c for nothing down on a two-year payment plan.

It has also been reported that the three-year-old iPhone 4 is still available in China, Brazil and a few other countries. With more aggressive pricing, is that the true entry-level iPhone? Well, it still works quite well, and iOS 7 supports that model. More to the point, when you compare an iPhone 4 to the entry-level junk that runs an older version of Android, which is the better smartphone?

Now some are suggesting the iPhone 4 might disappear when stocks are depleted. Maybe, or maybe Apple will keep building them so long as demand remains high in some parts of the world.

Unfortunately, some hoped the iPhone 5c would carry an entry-level price, rather than merely being $100 less than a comparable iPhone 5s. But it’s a sure thing demand will be high, and many customers will decide they don’t care about the fingerprint sensor, 64-bit, a coprocessor, or a better camera if a perfectly good smartphone can be had for less money.

In any case, when you read this article, preorders will be in full force. It remains to be seen how quickly Apple will sell out, and how many will be left to sell on September 20. Remember that the iPhone 5 debuted to five million sales the first weekend. What’s going to happen this time, and will the skeptics be satisfied? Probably not.

So, as promised, Apple introduced a new generation of iPhones at Tuesday’s media event. Now it is also true that Wall Street tends to be somewhat disappointed over the company’s product launches, and this week was no exception. Even as the presentation continued, during which the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s were demonstrated, the stock price slowly declined.

Within a day, some targets for Apple’s stock price were lowered. So what went wrong? Or did anything happen other than typical financial community hysteria?

Indeed, what was so disappointing about Apple’s announcements? All right, there were very few surprises, because most of the details about the updated products were already out there in one form or another. It appears both rumor sites and the mainstream media had glommed on to much of what Apple delivered, so, at the very least, there weren’t many surprises in the event, but that doesn’t mean no good came of it.

Now the problem appears to be blamed on the claim that, at least according to one cable news talking head, Apple does best when they launch an all-new product, rather than do an iterative upgrade. This is the sort of issue that has dogged Apple in recent years, as people forget the six years between the introduction of the first iPod and the first iPhone. They also forget that it took another three years for the iPad to arrive, and you wonder just what other companies have done to revolutionize a market in any nine-year timeframe.

After all, there were digital music players before the iPod debuted, and there were smartphones and tablets before the iPhone and iPad arrived. So it’s clearly a case of higher expectations for Apple.

But you can’t assume that Apple didn’t offer useful features for the 2013 iPhones. The Touch ID or fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s seems a terrific way to enhance security. All right, some people are complaining that not all people have fingerprints, that maybe they have somehow removed them by using their fingers too much. I expect if Apple offered eye scanning, some would complain that a few people  have glass eyes. Nobody forces you to use these features.

In large part, I suspect some industry analysts are doing spec by spec comparisons with high-end Android hardware, forgetting that some of the features touted by Samsung and others simply don’t work, or only work in a half-baked fashion. Apple’s improvements in the iPhone 5s appear more sharply focused on things people actually do with those devices rather than just to look intriguing on a bullet point presentation.

The switch to a 64-bit processor is getting mixed reviews. It is surely part of a long-range plan to continue to improve the performance of mobile gear, though it may take an iPad to best leverage the advantages. But I’m not at all convinced there will be an ARM-based MacBook or that OS X will migrate to the mobile processor anytime soon.

The largest amount of criticism is leveled against the iPhone 5c. It’s not the multiple colors, and the construction quality appears far better than most plastic-based mobile gear. That it is basically just an iPhone 5 in a new dress in most respects wasn’t surprising, but some hoped for a lower price. As it is, it’s just $100 less than the iPhone 5s. Had there been no iPhone 5c, and Apple just kept the iPhone 5 in the lineup, the pricing would be the same. That ensures traditionally high margins.

But some expected Apple to make aggressive price adjustments to gain sales in China and other countries where incomes aren’t as high as in the U.S. However, the iPhone 4s will remain in the lineup, and it’s free with a two-year contract. In addition, the iPhone 4 will evidently stay on sale overseas at an even lower price, and that might be more than sufficient to generate decent sales.

All right, Android still has the lion’s share of the market. But don’t forget that the vast majority of Android handsets are low-cost junk, with older versions of Google’s OS. Most people in the U.S. wouldn’t give those gadgets a second glance, but they do sell well to people who just cannot afford, or do not want, something better. They earn very slim profits for the handset makers. But evidently the media and the financial community still expect Apple to give away the iPhone, or they are fated to fail.

Of course, none of this skepticism will mean a blessed thing if Apple manages to move loads of these devices when they go on sale next week. If there are massive sellouts of both iPhones, and sales continue to impress over the next few months, maybe some will not be so skeptical.

That doesn’t mean the pressure isn’t still on Apple to deliver more new gear this year, and you expect they will. But don’t expect a triangular iPhone, although some can’t wait to buy an iWatch or an Apple smart TV. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

All right, I was disappointed. The WWDC keynote in June was streamed live online and via Apple TV. I looked for an icon on my Apple TV and there was no comparable link, but I was able to simply consult the live blogs from those who were present. The presentation finally went online later in the day.

Still, you might ask why I wasn’t sitting in the audience with my friends and colleagues, as I used to do.

Well, in the old days I had no problem traveling to San Francisco or Cupertino to attend an Apple event, particularly when one of my publishers was paying the bills. These days, I rely on the streaming, the live blogs, and do lots of research.

But I came to a quick conclusion as rocker Elvis Costello took the stage to entertain those who did attend, and that is that the whole affair was mostly predictable. If you hoped for a surprise “and one more thing” announcement of some sort, it appears that ship has sailed. Or maybe you can hope for more at the next Apple event, which may occur in October to introduce a new generation of iPads.

In saying that, there was one surprise announcement: The iLife and iWork apps for iOS, except for GarageBand, will be free when you set up a new device. Sorry, this offer doesn’t seem to be available to existing owners, nor will you get a refund if you already paid for a copy. But consider that Apple has always delivered iLife free with a new Mac, so maybe it’s not so different. But it’s also a smart way to help entice customers to buy new iPhones, what with the extra bundled apps and all.

You can compare Apple’s no-sense and perfectly sensible approach to Samsung’s, a company that loads their Galaxy smartphones with useless features and equally useless apps. These are things that few customers want or need, but, on the Galaxy S4 as an example, it consumes half the available storage capacity of the entry-level 16GB version. What a waste!

Instead, Apple is following through on their philosophy of only adding features that have a purpose. So, if you buy a new iPhone, you’ll be getting some of the best-selling iOS apps as part of the package. Sounds like a deal.

As for the rest, yes, there will be an iPhone 5c, a plastic-cased version that’s similar to the outgoing iPhone 5, with a lower price and a somewhat larger battery to lengthen the interval between recharges. Colors are white, pink, yellow, blue and green, but Mrs. Steinberg remarked that the pink version, at least based on the photos, seems to have too much of an orange tint, and she seems to prefer white.

With a two-year contract, an iPhone 5c will cost you $99 for 16GB, $199 for 32GB. This is $100 less than today’s iPhone 5, which doesn’t seem to mean that the full price will end up being in the range predicted by the media. However, the iPhone 4s, free with a contract, will continue to be available for those of you on a budget.

The flagship iPhone 5s will come in slate, gold and silver. As predicted, the latest and greatest iPhone will include the A7 chip, which is Apple’s first 64-bit ARM-derived processor. What’s more, Apple revealed that iOS 7 already has 64-bit support, which can be quickly added to existing apps. There’s also the promise of twice the CPU and graphics performance of the original iPhone 5 with the A6 chip. Compare that to the claimed 31% improvement cited in some recent rumor stories.

The processing chores are aided by Apple’s M7 motion coprocessor, which is designed to handle motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. Apple touts fitness apps as one beneficiary of the new chip, which will also help reduce battery usage.

The rest of the features are largely in line with expectations. The fingerprint sensor, known as Touch ID, is present and accounted for. There’s a twin-LED flash that supposedly makes it easier to deliver the best exposure under low-light conditions. Although Nokia is touting a 41 megapixel camera on the poor-selling Lumia 1020 Windows Phone, Apple sticks with eight megapixels, plus a superior lens, with an f/2.2 aperture.

As with the iPhone 5, the camera is capable of 1080p HD video recording, along with improved video stabilization. In addition, you can also shoot Slo-Mo 720p video at up to 120 frames per second. So I expect a new generation of amateur movie making.

Pricing is the same as the original iPhone 5: $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB version and $399 for the 64GB version. No 128GB version was announced, and its clear Apple still wants to gouge customers who want or need extra storage.

Both phones contain upgraded LTE radios that support up to 13 bands, which is likely to mean reduced need to build special versions for different carriers. So they are “true” world phones.

iOS 7 will be available for download for supported models of the iPhone and iPad on September 18, and the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s will go on sale on September 20. You’ll be able to preorder an iPhone 5c starting September 13, but the flagship model won’t be available for preorder; you can buy one the day it goes on sale, most likely because fewer will be available  at the starting gate.

Apple also announced that the iPhone would be available from Japan’s largest carrier, NTT DOCOMO. Availability from China Mobile, that country’s largest carrier, is expected shortly, according to published reports.

All in all, investors weren’t impressed. They had hoped the iPhone 5c would be cheaper, and for maybe more unexpected stuff. So Apple’s stock price went down during the keynote, and continued to slide through the end of the trading day. It will take record sales to change their tune, but don’t count Apple out just yet.