Other Are we about to reach peak iPhone?

[furam90]

It seems like soon Apple is going to run out of major things to upgrade for iPhones and every generation will bring minor changes. In the past there were massive upgrades to speed/network/camera/ screen resolution and size every year, but with the XS, all of these issues will have reached a resolution level where they satisfy 90 percent of customers. Screen resolution has reached the level where any more changes will barely be perceptible to the human eye, bezels are almost entirely removed, wireless charging a possibility, speed is essentially instantaneous when going through apps/UI, camera quality is reaching physical limit and provides beautiful Hi res photos. All of this was possible on the X and now the XS will perfect any other outstanding issues.

I’m currently using a 7 and the only reason I’m going to upgrade to an XS + is extra screen real estate. If I wanted to, I’m sure I could squeeze out another 2-3 years from this bad boy, and my next upgrade will last longer.

So where does iPhone go from here? What’s the next big breakthrough for smart phones? Absent some breakthrough in battery tech, maybe foldables? I don’t trust Samsung to get it right. Or maybe health monitoring? But that seems something more applicable to the watch. Thoughts?

 

[jpn]

although 2017's iPhone X really sold well, there is now such a very lengthy distributed series of past model years available and still able to function well (even on iOS 12).
it turns out that not having tremendously stand out, sudden changes may result in not creating a "super (up-grade) cycle".
rather, it may just continue a steady build of ever increasing sales in this and future years.

i personally think the next big upgrade timing will be when carriers the world over have enough well functioning and broad 5G networks in enough of the world-class cities (NYC, tokyo, shanghai, london, hong kong, etc).

 

[Altis]

They've already more or less run out of ground-breaking things to add to the phones. The software still needs work, mind you.

It does make me wonder what Apple will do to encourage people to upgrade to a new device. I suspect they won't let their biggest income generator diminish due to product maturity.

 

[Breezygirl]

It seems like soon Apple is going to run out of major things to upgrade for iPhones and every generation will bring minor changes. In the past there were massive upgrades to speed/network/camera/ screen resolution and size every year, but with the XS, all of these issues will have reached a resolution level where they satisfy 90 percent of customers. Screen resolution has reached the level where any more changes will barely be perceptible to the human eye, bezels are almost entirely removed, wireless charging a possibility, speed is essentially instantaneous when going through apps/UI, camera quality is reaching physical limit and provides beautiful Hi res photos. All of this was possible on the X and now the XS will perfect any other outstanding issues.

I’m currently using a 7 and the only reason I’m going to upgrade to an XS + is extra screen real estate. If I wanted to, I’m sure I could squeeze out another 2-3 years from this bad boy, and my next upgrade will last longer.

So where does iPhone go from here? What’s the next big breakthrough for smart phones? Absent some breakthrough in battery tech, maybe foldables? I don’t trust Samsung to get it right. Or maybe health monitoring? But that seems something more applicable to the watch. Thoughts?

Software focus and customization hopefully, which is badly needed.

 

[kasakka]

To me they are already quite close with the iPad Pro. Reduce bezels a bit, introduce FaceID, add a 120 Hz OLED screen and figure out how to make them a bit lighter. The model has remained quite unchanged over the years and I see no reason to upgrade my 12.9" gen 2 model for any small spec bumps.

In fact several of those things would be welcome on the iPhone as well. Reduce the bezels even further, 120 Hz screen would be fantastic and figure out how to get rid of the notch. After that beyond improving battery life and performance they don't have anywhere to go so I would not be surprised if Apple is also at least experimenting with foldable phones.

Where they can still do a lot is software side. My native language is not supported by default keyboard's prediction, split screen multitasking doesn't with every app even though it should and there are a lot of small things they can improve upon. Those upcoming larger iPhones could use something more elegant than the reachability option to handle one-handed use.

 

[comptr]

It seems like soon Apple is going to run out of major things to upgrade for iPhones and every generation will bring minor changes. In the past there were massive upgrades to speed/network/camera/ screen resolution and size every year, but with the XS, all of these issues will have reached a resolution level where they satisfy 90 percent of customers. Screen resolution has reached the level where any more changes will barely be perceptible to the human eye, bezels are almost entirely removed, wireless charging a possibility, speed is essentially instantaneous when going through apps/UI, camera quality is reaching physical limit and provides beautiful Hi res photos. All of this was possible on the X and now the XS will perfect any other outstanding issues.

I’m currently using a 7 and the only reason I’m going to upgrade to an XS + is extra screen real estate. If I wanted to, I’m sure I could squeeze out another 2-3 years from this bad boy, and my next upgrade will last longer.

So where does iPhone go from here? What’s the next big breakthrough for smart phones? Absent some breakthrough in battery tech, maybe foldables? I don’t trust Samsung to get it right. Or maybe health monitoring? But that seems something more applicable to the watch. Thoughts?

To be honest we are reaching Peak Smartphone, since really smartphones are good enough and the # of people who don't have a smartphone yet is quite small and all of the growth is in other countries outside of the major countries.

 

[maerz001]

In the past there were massive upgrades to speed/network/camera/ screen resolution and size every year, but with the XS, all of these issues will have reached a resolution level where they satisfy 90 percent of customers. Thoughts?

Are you talking about iPhone 6-8??? Four years of minor changes not massive.

Now the X was a bigger change and the XS minor. As usual...
But getting 3 different sizes will be new. So not much to complain as the iPhone history except of the first model was evolutionary not revolutionary.

 

[dfs]

It seems like soon Apple is going to run out of major things to upgrade for iPhones and every generation will bring minor changes. In the past there were massive upgrades to speed/network/camera/ screen resolution and size every year, but with the XS, all of these issues will have reached a resolution level where they satisfy 90 percent of customers. Screen resolution has reached the level where any more changes will barely be perceptible to the human eye, bezels are almost entirely removed, wireless charging a possibility, speed is essentially instantaneous when going through apps/UI, camera quality is reaching physical limit and provides beautiful Hi res photos. All of this was possible on the X and now the XS will perfect any other outstanding issues.

I’m currently using a 7 and the only reason I’m going to upgrade to an XS + is extra screen real estate. If I wanted to, I’m sure I could squeeze out another 2-3 years from this bad boy, and my next upgrade will last longer.

So where does iPhone go from here? What’s the next big breakthrough for smart phones? Absent some breakthrough in battery tech, maybe foldables? I don’t trust Samsung to get it right. Or maybe health monitoring? But that seems something more applicable to the watch. Thoughts?

Where does iPhone go from here. Well, there will be the step up from Whoozits 4 to Whoozits 5, but I'm very unclear about the time line. Nor am I very clear about what actual benefits Whoozits 5 is going to offer me.

 

[Steve121178]

The latest iPhone is always the 'peak' iPhone. For 12 months.

 

[swarlos]

This was bound to happen with how fast the tech has advanced in the last 11 years since the iPhone was introduced.

Really the next big thing could be battery tech since that hasn’t changed hardly at all but you’re right. It’s going to get harder and harder each year for these companies to come up with compelling reasons for us to upgrade.

Not everyone upgrades yearly like most of us on this forum so for people still using an iPhone 6 or 7 today the new iPhones will be a major improvement.

 

[lazerferrari]

Apple is developing technology that could make the iPhone a drastically different device in 2020 than it is today. But unfortunately, no major feature updates are expected in the 2018 releases.

 

[Breezygirl]

This was bound to happen with how fast the tech has advanced in the last 11 years since the iPhone was introduced.

Really the next big thing could be battery tech since that hasn’t changed hardly at all but you’re right. It’s going to get harder and harder each year for these companies to come up with compelling reasons for us to upgrade.

Not everyone upgrades yearly like most of us on this forum so for people still using an iPhone 6 or 7 today the new iPhones will be a major improvement.

The tech has been sleeping seriously, Apple couldn’t have move any slower.

 

[lazerferrari]

This year Apple has not announced any significant hardware improvements and focused itself solely on software. I think the shifting vector of differentiation to AI and agents does not bode well for Apple. It cannot be stated whether it was a wise move or not as Apple may get left behind in the hardware race as it was in AI race.

 

[44267547]

The tech has been sleeping seriously, Apple couldn’t have move any slower.

It doesn’t change the user experience regardless. Does Apple ration various features over the course of new iPhones introduced? Yes. Do competitors release certain features sooner than Apple? Yes. But when you factor the iPhone dominance as a whole because of how fluid the iOS experience AND consumer security features, Apple has a fairly good grasp on the market given they manufacture the most popular iPhone in the world.

 

[Phone Junky]

This year Apple has not announced any significant hardware improvements and focused itself solely on software. I think the shifting vector of differentiation to AI and agents does not bode well for Apple. It cannot be stated whether it was a wise move or not as Apple may get left behind in the hardware race as it was in AI race.

This year Apple hasn't announced ANYTHING yet.

 

[rmoliv]

They'll eventually remove the lightning port (or any charging port of any kind) and make the iPhone only wirelessly chargeable.

 

[44267547]

They'll eventually remove the lightning port (or any charging port of any kind) and make the iPhone only wirelessly chargeable.

I’m not entirely sure about that, at least not for the forseeable future. Because they’re also have to be an alternative method for the iPhone to have some type of restore from iTunes as a backup. I Would also be willing to believe that battery technology would have to change where it would not be relying on the necessary Output from charging through a walled connection. I think wireless charging still be an alternative for the future.

 

[Steve121178]

They'll eventually remove the lightning port (or any charging port of any kind) and make the iPhone only wirelessly chargeable.

Not any time soon. Maybe 5/6 years time or even longer.

 

[x-evil-x]

apple and other companies will start seeing slowing sales from now on. Id say 2017 and on people will take longer to upgrade. Phones are just that good now. Only thing that will get people to update now is BIG NEW things. The competition is good and I think phone companies will need to really innovate now to stay people coming back year after year.

 

[rmoliv]

I’m not entirely sure about that, at least not for the forseeable future. Because they’re also have to be an alternative method for the iPhone to have some type of restore from iTunes as a backup. I Would also be willing to believe that battery technology would have to change where it would not be relying on the necessary Output from charging through a walled connection. I think wireless charging still be an alternative for the future.

Not any time soon. Maybe 5/6 years time or even longer.

Yes but they say they believe in a wireless future so I’m guessing their future to be completely wireless. Be it in 5 or 10 years.

 

[newyorksole]

Apple is developing technology that could make the iPhone a drastically different device in 2020 than it is today. But unfortunately, no major feature updates are expected in the 2018 releases.

Yeah I mean if you look at things Apple has patented over the years, there is still a lot of stuff to come.

I too worry about iPhone’s future, but Apple isn’t dumb.

We’ll probably get an overhauled iOS by 2020 that introduces more AR features. We’ll eventually get a triple lens rear camera. Touch ID under the display. More use of liquid metal or some other material.

iPhone can still use a ProMotion display, an even richer display than what we currently have, eSIM, USB-C, faster wireless charging. Smaller notch.

I’m sure they have a lot of things already thought out for at least a couple of years.

 

[brofkand]

There needs to be a next big idea for iPhone and the Mac to push further. The X mostly just cannibalized 8 sales, although both were successes of course. Not many people that bought an X would have bought a different phone.

The Touch Bar and Face ID aren't the next big idea.

 

[gigapocket1]

This upcoming release of iPhones is going to sell EXTREMELY well. It seems as if everybody from the 5c/5s to iPhone X is going to upgrade this year. With the exception of those that got iPhone 8’s..

But what they are going to do after this year?
I think we will obviously see thinner devices. More facetracking software. Capacitive touch volume and power buttons, Removing of the silent switch, maybe even a curved screen.

What I am waiting on is the iPhone bring your computer.
Where you can plug it into another computer and it takes over that particular pc or monitor. Running Mac OS literally from the phone itself..

 

[x-evil-x]

This upcoming release of iPhones is going to sell EXTREMELY well. It seems as if everybody from the 5c/5s to iPhone X is going to upgrade this year. With the exception of those that got iPhone 8’s..

But what they are going to do after this year?
I think we will obviously see thinner devices. More facetracking software. Capacitive touch volume and power buttons, Removing of the silent switch, maybe even a curved screen.

What I am waiting on is the iPhone bring your computer.
Where you can plug it into another computer and it takes over that particular pc or monitor. Running Mac OS literally from the phone itself..

So previous x owners will upgrade but iPhone 8 owners won’t? Where’s the logic there?

 

[gigapocket1]

So previous x owners will upgrade but iPhone 8 owners won’t? Where’s the logic there?

I think that people who went with the 8 didn’t prefer the x style to begin with.
Also I think that people who bought the X are more likely to upgrade every year.