iPhone 15 vs. iPhone 16 Buyer's Guide: 30+ Upgrades Compared

[I7guy]

For 14 straight quarters apples market share has dropped.

Do you have some citation on this and who is gaining the market share and what the growth of the entire market is? Domestically and internationally?

For Tim Cook this should be a very upsetting trend.

Only if it’s not fake news.

People are keeping their phones longer.

Think you are getting to an answer that across board makes sense for smartphones. Or are people only keeping their iPhones longer?

People are getting vocal about apples boring upgrade cycle.

Which people? Macrumors posters or some vocal minority complaining on the internet.

Extremely vocal.

But small in numbers.

Additionally since you admit people are keeping their phones longer, the services revenue is doing very well considering phones aren’t selling.[sic]

 

[ackmondual]

At most every two years? What? I would say, for iPhones, at minimum, every two years. 3-4 is a much wiser choice.

They prioritized having the newest phones. And contracts expiring means "discounts" on top models.

Otherrwise, yeah, I've known people who get a new iPhone every 3 to 6 years

 

[spcopsmac21]

I believe it's seven quarters. The Chinese government, starting last year, has been discouraging/banning iPhone purchases, especially for government use. That amounted to a large drop in sales of Apple iPhones in China. 20% of Apple's overall revenue comes from China.

It's not totally clear what's driving that. But most analysts believe it's a mix of the Chinese government strongly encouraging sales going to Chinese companies, and, Apple diversifying it's iPhone and other product manufacturing to other countries so as to be less dependent on China.

I suspect some kind of negotiations are underway to deal with that issue.

7 straight quarters would have seen the CEO and his team replaced at any other company.

Apples competition is near equal footing now. Where as their competition has been expanding at growing, Apple put all its eggs in a headset very few wanted or could afford.
And no one wants to develop programs for it.

The Apple of my childhood is being ball gaged by Tim Cook.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Do you have some citation on this and who is gaining the market share and what the growth of the entire market is? Domestically and internationally?

Only if it’s not fake news.

Think you are getting to an answer that across board makes sense for smartphones. Or are people only keeping their iPhones longer?

Which people? Macrumors posters or some vocal minority complaining on the internet.

But small in numbers.

Additionally since you admit people are keeping their phones longer, the services revenue is doing very well considering phones aren’t selling.[sic]

So well long time investors plan on pumping and dumping after the September event.

Fanboy all you want.

Apple needs new leadership.
They have stagnated.

 

[Chuckeee]

So well long time investors plan on pumping and dumping after the September event.

Fanboy all you want.

Apple needs new leadership.
They have stagnated.

It more like the typical investor behavior of up on rumors and then down on actual news. This is a general large corporate stock investor behavior, it is nothing unique to Apple or Apple management.

 

[citysnaps]

7 straight quarters would have seen the CEO and his team replaced at any other company.

Apples competition is near equal footing now. Where as their competition has been expanding at growing, Apple put all its eggs in a headset very few wanted or could afford.
And no one wants to develop programs for it.

The Apple of my childhood is being ball gaged by Tim Cook.

Nope. It would have happened to any Apple CEO regarding the Chinese govt requiring mobile phone purchases be made from Chinese companies.

It has nothing at to do with AVP.

As I said earlier... I suspect there will be negotiations between Apple and China to smooth the above out.

The good news for you is there are plenty of mobile phone and computer companies out there. Since you are so disappointed with Apple, send Apple a strong message and vote with your wallet, purchasing future phones and computers from an Apple competitor.

Will you do it?

 

[citysnaps]

So well long time investors plan on pumping and dumping after the September event.

Fanboy all you want.

Apple needs new leadership.
They have stagnated.

Nope. Apple's valuation is around $3.4 Trillion.

I think you should be considering purchasing your future phone and computer tech from an Apple competitor and find happiness.

 

[I7guy]

So well long time investors plan on pumping and dumping after the September event.

Fanboy all you want.

Apple needs new leadership.
They have stagnated.

Okay in that vein, if it’s okay to criticize it’s okay to fanboy? Someone’s pumping and dumping is another’s gain.

Burner has it the iPhone 16 will be a good upgrade over the iPhone 15. So we will see.

 

[switz]

The conjecturing ends next Monday morning when the "facts" are released. Then the conversation can shift to reality and one can make an "informed" decision.

Just replaced the badly chipped and cracked ZAGG sacrificial screen protector which requires removing the Apple leather case. The iPhone 14 Pro Max looks pristine again. A new battery perhaps later this month will make it as good as new. If I elect to acquire the latest and greatest, my existing iPhone would be ready for my wife and her iPhone 13 Pro Max can go to one of her four daughters or one of my 11 grandkids.

There are a few privileges left for being the nearly age 80 senior member of the family

 

[spcopsmac21]

Perhaps the decrease in market share reflects that the sky high prices are beyond the purchasing power of more and more folks.

Changing a button just does not usually trigger an instant urge to spend nearly $2,000 if a new iPhone Pro Max is to be bought outright like I do for cash.

Yes, Apple has lost 13% of Apple sales year over year.

13%!!!!!

That’s insanity. The 15 line up didn’t do Apple any favors the fine woven didn’t either.

People want folding devices, they want gimmicks and features phones had back in the day. They want unique and they want fancy.

They do not want to keep buying the same iPhone over and over and over again.

 

[Chuckeee]

Yes, Apple has lost 13% of Apple sales year over year.

13%!!!!!

That’s insanity. The 15 line up didn’t do Apple any favors the fine woven didn’t either.

People want folding devices, they want gimmicks and features phones had back in the day. They want unique and they want fancy.

They do not want to keep buying the same iPhone over and over and over again.

Vast portion of that sales drop came from major reduction in market share in China. And those drops were likely primarily motivated by factors that have nothing to do with the features of the phones themselves. This is the inappropriate news forum to go into those details.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Vast portion of that sales drop came from major reduction in market share in China. And those drops were likely primarily motivated by factors that have nothing to do with the features of the phones themselves. This is the inappropriate news forum to go into those details.

Adoption of android in the 16-24 segment, make and female is up 32% year over year.

 

[Jack Burton]

Spatial video support - perhaps if the headset wasn't more expensive than a mac studio with decent specs.

 

[jntdroid]

I again did the side by side comparison on Apple's web site of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and my iPhone 14 Pro Max both with 1TB of memory. There were actually too few changes to justify spending close to $1,800 when including sales taxes and Apple Care Plus.

There needs to be some earth shattering changes in the iPhone 16 Pro top model to justify that cost plus the forecast price increases. One can not even get a real leather case from Apple but for the same price they offer a cheap fabric one.

My current iPhone takes photos and makes and receives calls, messages and emails just fine.

Maybe this could be the year where Apple has iOS perfect from day one, but I doubt that will happen. It takes until the following spring to get the most recent onerous bugs worked out. There are still persistent issues iOS dating from years back still not addressed.

I wonder if the phrase by Sarah Palin of "putting Lip Stick on a pig results in the animal still being a pig" applies here as well.

A side button change is not the carrot for me to upgrade.

"My current iPhone takes photos and makes and receives calls, messages, and emails just fine."

With that thought process (which I completely agree with!), how did you ever end up paying for the 14 Pro Max?

 

[JorgeVR]

...

Design and Displays

The iPhone 16 introduces several design and display upgrades over the iPhone 15. The shift to vertically arranged cameras facilitates spatial video capture and looks more modern. Durability is also improved with the next-generation Ceramic Shield, which is twice as strong as the previous version. Additionally, the customizable Action Button replaces the traditional Ring/Silent switch and a new Camera Control button streamlines photography.

iPhone 15	iPhone 16
Diagonally arranged rear cameras	Vertically arranged rear cameras
~2–4 nits minimum brightness	1 nit minimum brightness
Ceramic Shield front glass	Next-generation Ceramic Shield front glass (2x stronger)
	Improved thermal design for better heat dissipation
Ring/Silent switch	Action Button
	Camera Control capacitive button with sapphire crystal cover
Available in Green, Blue, Pink, Black, and Yellow finishes	Available in Teal, Ultramarine, Pink, Black, and White finishes

...

Apple said it was 50% stronger. That is 1.5x stronger I think, not 2x.

 

[Naraxus]

Only conjecture non-annual releases would be better for the product. At any rate apple isnt changing their iPhone cadence.

Me personally I wouldn't mind Apple going back to a "When it's ready" release schedule. What I mean is that if it takes a couple years to get it right then so be it. Do I think Apple will do that? Not at all but for me give it the necessary time to polish it before gm.

 

[Velin]

A18 is such an awful name... Just say it out loud. But I don't see a way they could get around it. Sigh.

A18 is so much better than the naming garbage used by Intel and AMD. I especially like how Intel’s i9-14900K and i7-14700k were called “14th Gen,” which was total BS. They are carbon-copy “13th Gen” processors.

Yeah, please let’s stick with “A” and “M” for Apple CPU/GPU.

 

[one more]

“The most significant advancements come from Apple Intelligence and the introduction of the Action Button and Camera Control, both of which provide new ways to interact with the device.”

A sum up from someone in the EU with iPhone 15:

1) No Apple Intelligence here, so the main selling point is off;
2) Don’t care about the Action Button as I can swipe the Home Screen to the left in a sec.

Which means no need to upgrade whatsoever. Will wait for iPhone 17-18, depending on what they bring.

 

[aidler]

If you live in the EU: Apple decided to withhold Apple Intelligence in the EU because the EU dared to pass resonable laws to curb anti-competitive behavior by big companies. What remains without Apple Intelligence is a very marginal update, so if you already own the iPhone 15, don't buy the iPhone 16.

 

[PsykX]

The difference between 15 non-pro and 16 non-pro is kind of amazing IMO.
I would never really want to upgrade year over year, but this was a solid update.

 

[ghanwani]

The 15 is a lousy deal with a 2 year old processor.

 

[klasma]

As someone who has a XS Max, I love the subtle camera cutout.

I’m curious as to how cases will work with the flash separated from the camera bump.

They have a hole/cutout for the flash.

 

[No5tromo]

Tim Cook was obviously really firm on slowing down the innovation, next year they might as well relaunch iPhone 15

 

[Moukee]

"Easier battery service" surely means it's cheaper to get the battery replaced by Apple, right? Right..?

 

[macfacts]

What? No support for the Apple Pencil?

That would cannibalize iPad sales.