BANGALORE: Apple chief executive Tim Cooks got a standing ovation recently morning in Cupertino, when he announced the "next chapter in our story" at a special event that also launched the iPhone 6 in two sizes.

The Apple Watch checked more than the expected boxes: Nifty design (not spectacular by Apple standards), sapphire crystal, a new interface with an innovative little crown to control most things, vibrating feedback for reminders, a new NFC-based Apple Pay system, and even "wireless charging"-sort of.

Don't rely overly on standing ovations as an indicator of great products, though. Especially when it's a fan audience that's waiting for months for just that announcement.

And remember when Steve Jobs announced the iPod way back in 2001? He didn't even get polite applause, until the end when he pulled the iPod-with its 5 megabyte hard drive-out of a pocket in his blue jeans. There was no standing ovation.

Yet the iPod, with its companion iTunes software and service, opened up for Apple a new market with new customers: hundreds of millions of music lovers. Most weren't Apple users. And yes, it also changed the world of digital music.

In January 2007, when Steve Jobs announced that Apple had just "reinvented the phone", there was more excitement. Again, it wasn't a global new category: as with MP3 players before the iPod, smartphones had been around. But it was an all-new market for Apple. Many who weren't Apple users bought the iPhone.

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