"Must have" is in the context of a purchase decision. Some here see 4k as a "must have" but obviously from sales data, 4k is not a "must have" for iPhone 6 buyers, and the sales data seems to indicate that sales of iPhone 6 are very good, very very good indeed.
The "sales data" argument is another commonly-used argument in support of whatever Apple has now. It was part of why "720p was good enough" before Apple embraced 1080p: "Sales of iPhones says that people don't want 1080p".
The only way "sales data" can apply to a question like this is if there was a fair choice. If there was an iPhone 6 "as is" and an iPhone 6 with 4K, and the bulk of the crowd went with one or the other, then "sales data" would tell us something. Otherwise, all sales data tells us is that people want the "whole" bundle of benefits of the iPhone bad enough to tolerate anything it might lack that they also wish it had.
I wanted a 1080p
TV long before Apple rolled one out. But I owned both 720p models because the "whole" of the
TV made it worthwhile to own one. My "sales data" point would have thoroughly argued that 720p was the desired choice. Sure I could have gone with Roku or others that were already 1080p just as there are some Android options with 4K now, but the "whole" bundle of benefits justified putting up with the lack of 1080p in those
TVs.
Another take: just before the launch of the iPhone 6, "sales data" overwhelmingly supported that all iPhone buyers wanted the 5s, 5, 4 or earlier. Per "sales data", apparently no one wanted an iPhone 6 because no one bought one. Apple went against what "sales data" implied and launched a new model anyway.
Still another take: I think OS X is great. But "sales data" shows that Windows computers thoroughly dominates the marketplace at better than 9:1. So per "sales data", it's obvious that Windows is far superior to OS X. Nevertheless, I personally favor OS X. So even though the sales data overwhelmingly implies Windows is better than OS X (certainly >90% of the world's population that own computers can't be wrong), I buck that data myself and choose to own OS X.
All that said, it could be that iPhone buyers don't want 4K in their iPhones... perhaps 1080p is good enough (just as "720p was good enough" when iPhones were capped at 720p). But I bet if Apple rolls out a 4K iPhone, the masses will jump all over it and- much as they did when Apple quit 720p and shifted to 1080p- gush about the greatness of it while dropping all previous arguments in support of the former Apple norm.
One thing that I've noticed in all of these years hanging out around here: when Apple shifts, so shifts the arguments of it's fans. Apple is never called out as wrong for shifting per the piles and piles of logic and illogic slung to support what was Apple's previous stance. Instead, the fans just shift right with Apple. Anything not built into Apple stuff is "abomination", "99% don't want", etc until Apple builds it in and then it's "must have", "I'm already in line", "shut up and take my money".
Doubts? Step back a few months before bigger-screen iPhones were launched and see comments about bigger pants pockets, man purses, fragmentation, and "Apple would never". Step back about a year and read NFC threads: how useless it was, how insecure it was, how much "we" prefer plastic, etc. Step back a few years to
TV threads when it maxed at 720p: "the chart", "streaming 1080p will crash the internet", file size issues, "until everyone everywhere has more bandwidth", etc. Step back to iPad 1 without an iSight camera and learn why having a front-facing camera on an iPad made absolutely no sense. In all of those instances, "sales data" supported such arguments. But when Apple shifted on each, "sales data" was soon supported each shift too... as it will when 4K iPhones come to market.
