Earlier this week, Apple revealed a new 12-inch Retina MacBook, and announced pricing for its Apple Watch lineup.

My first reaction to both announcements was quite positive, because let’s face it – they’re both, quite simply, stunning. But, hey, we’ve come to expect that level of industrial design from Apple by now, right?

Then the flaws started creeping up. The new MacBook – relatively underpowered by today’s standards, with the 8GB limit on RAM, and a less capable CPU/GPU. And the Apple Watch – expensive, and seemingly limited in what it can do. As I watched the presenters bring up some pretty contrived use-cases, like looking at Instagram pictures on the Watch, for instance, I couldn’t help but think…yeesh, would I really want to do that?

Some would claim (and many have) that Apple has lost its ability to innovate after the end of the Steve Jobs era.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this event wasn’t that different from most other first-gen Apple product announcements, even those that happened when Jobs was at the helm.

Remember the Slashdot commenter’s infamous 2001 reaction to the first-gen iPod? “No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.” he quipped. Remember the first-gen iPhone, with no third-party apps and measly EDGE connectivity? Remember the first-gen MacBook Air, and how underpowered that was compared to its peers?

Apple took all of those seemingly flawed first-gen seedlings, iteratively and relentlessly polished the heck out of them, and turned them all into the massively successful products that they went on to become.

So even though the new MacBook, and the Apple Watch may not be perfect yet, it’s important to remember that they’re just taking flight, and could be destined for the same greatness as the others that came before them.

Those crazy Apple Watch “Edition” models, on the other hand? I have no idea…