I'm so over the iphone. Every year I vent on this site about my frustration with the lack of new features because I'm angry and hopeful that, on the off-chance, something will be done about it.
This year is no different.
How can I say it without sounding like a troll: Tim Cook has NFI. He started from a very high platform. He becomes CEO of the company which invented and makes arguably the greatest consumer product the world has ever seen, all thanks to Steve Jobs (RIP) and has since seen it progressively reduced to an overpriced, feature-starved, glorified emoji device.
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but:
In 2014, the iphone came with with a big screen (cool) with very little else added to the iphone.
In 2015, Apple introduced 3D touch which had so much potential but was left to became effectively a shortcut menu. 3D touch is now, according to reports, on its way out.
In 2016, Apple introduced a better camera (an improvement, not to be confused with a new feature) but took away the headphone jack.
In 2017, Apple introduced Face ID, a biometrich which replaced another biometrich, again, an improvement rather than a new feature because it was a case of one security access feature replacing another, no new capability was added. It also polarised opinion as not everyone was/is a fan of Face ID. Oh, and we also saw anamojis, yipeeeeee.
And in 2018....a bigger screen and a spec bump.
And next year? Well at this rate Apple will be removing something from the iphone because that's the one certainty you get with Apple, for whatever reason, they remove features. Anyone remember the old Youtube app? Gone. Headphone jack, gone. 3D touch, probably gone. Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.
Back to Apple's go slow approach. When's it gonna end? I've had enough of it. In the last 5 iphone keynotes, we have seen improvements and spec bumps here and there, but nothing to make me go wow. When was the last time Apple added something which made the iphone do something it could never do before and which was innovative?
Now before people say "phones have stopped making people go wow" and "what do you expect from a phone", please spare me the comments. Those comments may have been relevant 2-3 years ago, but not now. In the last 5 years, we have not seen one major added feature to spruce life back into the iphone. And don't get me started on the years preceding 2014 and how slow the feature-adding was then too, albeit, better than the years post 2014.
The iphone has become a boring, bland device. If all we want from it is to read email, play music, text and consume media, which is what some keep saying, then why has it become so damn expensive? I have seen at least 5 phone reviewers say if you're going to spend a thousand dollars on a phone, then the Note 9 is the phone to buy. And that is no coincidence. Not kidding you, the Note line has left the iphone line behind. And I say this as an iphone user. After playing with the Note 9 in the store, it did make me go "WOW".
That is all.
