Other Giving up on Apple for iPhone

[Neil J. Squillante]

I think this stems from those of us who started out from the early days buying every new iPhone because it felt like we were seeing these big leaps every other year. Now that the market is so mature the only thing in recent years that has actually been an interesting development is the folding phone market.

I think the annual leaps are much bigger now than then. Steve Jobs may have made it feel like they were bigger leaps. Also, then as now some of major new features were software.

2007 iPhone – Revolutionary.
2008 iPhone 3G – 3G. App Store and MobileMe. New design.
2009 iPhone 3GS – Faster but not much else.
2010 iPhone 4 – New design. Apple chip. Antennagate.
2011 iPhone 4S – Siri and iCloud
2012 iPhone 5 – New Size
2013 iPhone 5S and 5C – Two models. Touch ID on the 5S
2014 iPhone 6 – Large display. Two flagship models. ApplePay

I purposely wrote this from memory and not research. This whole debate may come down to Apple increasing the version number instead of adding an S to the same number every other year.

 

[Webcat86]

For me it is mainly utility, and for this point only the book fold makes sense to me. Being able to read a book on the go without bringing a bag with my iPad Mini is really nice, same goes for when I need to configure my mom’s wifi, remote control a computer or do changes in a spreadsheet. Carrying a bag with me all the time just in case is just too cumbersome so that means most of the times I don’t have my iPad Mini with me, so when I get stuck in the doctors office I can’t read my book or similar things.

But my second reason is that it just feels cool to have a large display and fold it and put it in my pocket, it feels like a step towards a future of Star Trek like devices. And those feelings shouldn’t be overlooked, I think tech should be fun to use and own.

Thanks for elaborating on your use case. I can see the utility there and I agree about the coolness factor.

For me, Apple has never been that company. Samsung is the company that throws a lot of mud at the wall to see what sticks, and Apple is the market leading behemoth that takes more calculated steps. Take the iPad - that’s a product category that Apple pretty much owns now, but tablet computers existed for a long time and never got traction. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone and was lacking basic functionality at first - like Bluetooth file transfers, awful camera etc. Apple generally enters the product arena when it can say “Buying Public, this is how we have done it better than anyone else.”

So its hesitation with foldables is perfectly on brand. If and when it materialises, it will most likely be done in a far better way than the current options.

 

[ofarlig]

Thanks for elaborating on your use case. I can see the utility there and I agree about the coolness factor.

For me, Apple has never been that company. Samsung is the company that throws a lot of mud at the wall to see what sticks, and Apple is the market leading behemoth that takes more calculated steps. Take the iPad - that’s a product category that Apple pretty much owns now, but tablet computers existed for a long time and never got traction. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone and was lacking basic functionality at first - like Bluetooth file transfers, awful camera etc. Apple generally enters the product arena when it can say “Buying Public, this is how we have done it better than anyone else.”

So its hesitation with foldables is perfectly on brand. If and when it materialises, it will most likely be done in a far better way than the current options.

I kind of agree with you that Apple never have been first but I do think they have gone into markets or changed products quite a bit previously. It was the iPods and iBook/Powerbooks that initially got me into Apple because they were taking risks and pushing beyond what the market was doing at the time. The first iPhone was a gamble as well since that type of smartphone wasn’t mainstream yet, but they believed the consumer would prefer that in the future.

Part of why it is different today might be because they have grown into the behemoth they are, they need more mass market appeal in what they do because their customer base is larger. I do have to give Apple that putting the M1 into the Macs was a really cool move and I bought those even though I had no real need for a Mac.

I think I just miss feeling excited about when the new device will arrive in the mail and whatnot. But you are right the products are good products, they just aren’t moving fast enough to be exciting for me anymore.

 

[I7guy]

Understand all of this is subjective

iPhone X - truly a worthy upgrade from any other iPhone including iPhone 8
- It was a worthy update
iPhone XS - bigger screen - yay!
- Another worthy update an I took the plunge
iPhone 11 - slightly larger screen, better camera - ultra wide, and CPU (same upgrades every year)
- Another worthy update
iPhone 12 - brings back a similar iPhone 4 design, 5G, brings 3 back cameras, and MagSafe - fun upgraded nothing revolutionary , but MagSafe is fantastic to me
- The iphone 12 was a solid update and started to target those who had an iphone xs
iPhone 13 - smaller notch (improvement, but nothing mind blowing)
- I agree a solid update over the iphone 12
iPhone 14 - Dynamic Island - again fun, but other than moving down a few mm and creatively creating a “Dynamic Island” out of it, crash detection, satellite connectivity, and eSIM, while impressive and satellite and 5G very welcoming, nothing too mind blowing
- This was a great update for all the reasons you mentioned
iPhone 15 - swap mute button for the action button, and due to EU regulation, finally, USB-C port. Again, it took some creative engineering but nothing mind blowing
- Another great update for all of the reasons you mentioned.

Everything is subjective is the point.