Other Giving up on Apple for iPhone

[tagsaid]

I don’t know if I’m alone and I very well may be in the minority here but Apple is getting really lazy to me.

Here’s my thought, let’s only go back as iPhone X- when a “new iPhone era was born”. Now grant every year there’s a better camera, better cup and potentially better battery life - but that aside:

iPhone X - truly a worthy upgrade from any other iPhone including iPhone 8
iPhone XS - bigger screen - yay!
iPhone 11 - slightly larger screen, better camera - ultra wide, and CPU (same upgrades every year)
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
iPhone 13 - smaller notch (improvement, but nothing mind blowing)
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
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

And now 16… AI (mainly powered by ChatGPT), and adding yet another camera feature with the new button, again nothing mind blowing.

iPhone X to iPhone 16 you can see incremental upgrades which are nice, but nothing is “revolutionary”. And I feel Apple has embraced the fact that they will sell no matter what and gave up on trying to innovate.

Of course this is pure subjective speculation but am I the only one who feels like Apple just stopped caring because they know they will sell?

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

There are plenty of people feeling disenfranchised with Apple. There are many threads here, of people arguing about why Apple is so boring, and dreaming of what they'd like to see.

If I upgraded every year, maybe I'd be more disappointed with the incremental approach, but I seem to be on a 5 year cycle now, so it suits me just fine. I liked my old 8 Plus, but I was really happy to get the flat sided 14. I expect the iPhone 19 will be an excellent upgrade from the 14! Also, to me, changing the design every couple of years, just because, feels tacky and cheap. Build up a good design language, then refine it!

And I just want to point out that Apple's AI has nothing to do with ChatGPT. If it's going to hand off a task to ChatGPT, it will ask you. Apple's AI is their own.

 

[ShadowJamie]

There’s less and less room for big changes in iPhones these days. Take the screen, for example. Ever since the iPhone 4 with its Retina display, we haven’t seen any game-changing upgrades. Sure, the quality is better, and they use less battery, but nothing that makes you say “wow” like when we first went from non-Retina to Retina. The same goes for the battery, CPU, GPU, and everything else — it’s all just incremental improvements. After a few generations, you kind of get a feel for how much something, like the camera, has been changed, upgraded.

 

[WRXiceman]

I think we find this with most phone makers nowadays.
The stage we’re at in this era, I don’t know what else I truly want my phone to be able to do.
So I can’t imagine it’s an easy job trying to innovate every 12 months on a product that already does pretty much everything possible, in something so small it fits and can be operated in one hand.

These small improvements each year aren’t surprising to me, and in some ways are expected.

If Apple, or any other phone maker for that matter only launched a new flagship device once every 4-8 years, you’d notice huge leaps and features, obviously.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Apple is constantly working on new tech behind the consumer scenes. Apple has also been consistent with updates every year.

Ask Apple to release unfinished tech early because you are tired of waiting on them, because you think they are lazy.

Your argument is very weak and you shouldn’t need any validation from forum members if you truly believed what you wrote.

 

[Diorama]

The counter argument of course is that smartphones are essentially a ‘mature technology’ - look at laptops from 1989 to say 2010 compared to 2010-2024; sure, they keep getting faster with improvements in display quality and storage etc, but there’s not much ‘innovation’. It almost seems that people don’t particularly want too much innovation on their laptops (touchbar, anyone?), you might even argue that the switch to ARM led by the M1 has been the biggest change.

Smartphones are smartphones now, and a lot of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked; it’s not going to be like 2013 or so when even a two-year-old smartphone would feel like the Stone Age compared to that year’s model.

A lot of the things people are wishing for require genuine technological advancement and the solving of hard science problems, like doubling current battery densities, or creating materials significantly stronger than literal titanium while being lighter and economical enough to use on a phone.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Smartphones matured several years ago and each year it’s incremental updates and I think that’s a good thing.

I’ve never understood the appeal of upgrading every year like some do here, that must be so boring. Leave it two or three years and at least you notice a difference. That’s my advice for people who are bored with how unimpressive they find current iPhones.

 

[Nozuka]

I mean.... what do you want them to add or improve? If you are having a hard time to come up with a list, you'll see what the problem is.

Display, camera, SoC and battery will continue to get better. Other than that is is hard to find things to improve. Even if they remove the camera hole, how much does that really change? And not much bezel left to remove.

But we should be happy that there is no need to get a new device as often. Try to find new things to care about. Buying things is always just a very temporary fix for boredom.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Only advances we are going to see is in software until there is a giant leap in technology. AI is going to be mainly from remote sources and little will be actually run on your device. We have hit a ceiling in advancements for now.

 

[matryska]

I mean.... what do you want them to add or improve? If you are having a hard time to come up with a list, you'll see what the problem is.

Display, camera, SoC and battery will continue to get better. Other than that is is hard to find things to improve. Even if they remove the camera hole, how much does that really change? And not much bezel left to remove.

But we should be happy that there is no need to get a new device as often. Try to find new things to care about. Buying things is always just a very temporary fix for boredom.

Good question, not much left for me - I'll let the creative minds think of novel uses.

• Significantly increased battery life - seeing the Apple Watch compared to competitors, I don't see this happening anytime soon
• Nano anti-reflective screen like the iPad
• USB-C docked mode like the iPad

 

[teohyc]

The two reasons why I use iPhone:

1. iCloud would backup EVERYTHING. If I lose the phone, I can buy a new phone and restore it within and hour with minimal downtime.

2. iPhone has the 25FPS and 50FPS recording options and many Android phones don't.

Other features are just nice to have which can be found in Android phones for years.

If anyone knows of any Android phones that have these 2 features, let me know.

 

[macfacts]

Outsourced. Tim has made end users do software QC, and now has made you have to come up with reasons to buy a new iPhone. It is better to just buy a new battery from apple.

 

[Diorama]

Outsourced. Tim has made end users do software QC, and now has made you have to come up with reasons to buy a new iPhone. It is better to just buy a new battery from apple.

You could have 5,000 salaried software testers working 40 hours a week testing the new iOS, and after 6 months they will have done 5 million hours of testing. If they are earning even $30,000p.a., it would cost Apple $75 million dollars.

How many people download the new iOS on day one? Maybe 200 million? If so, after ONE HOUR of use each, the users will have been ‘testing’ the software a combined FORTY TIMES longer than you have in the last six months.

At this scale there will always be QA issues that don’t show up until the software is out there.

 

[xxFoxtail]

I get that they're playing it safe, keeping things from both a hardware and software side relatively the same every year. That keeps it kind of boring. I'd like to see a Dex-like feature come to my iPhone, but that will probably incentivize me to get rid of my MacBook. Or a foldable iPhone and then I won't need an iPad anymore.

I'm not sure if merging features of existing devices is the answer. If Apple is still making millions every year on these devices, then why change anything? Don't fix what isn't broken. I'm sure they have new devices and form factors planned and probably almost ready to go as soon as they start seeing numbers plummeting - a touch screen MacBook/iPad hybrid, a flip phone, circular Apple Watch, etc.

 

[Darren.h]

wait for the iPhone 17. or when then go from 3nm to 2nm chips.

I am willing to bet they will have a very hard time going smaller or better with Apple silicon.

then trying to come out with a new iPhone every year with a new faster processor will be a thing of the past.

with Macs they can stack or connect multiple CPU's A phone you cant do that. no space.

 

[Diorama]

with Macs they can stack or connect multiple CPU's A phone you cant do that. no space.

To be fair, the die size on the chips is similar to the iPhone 4S days - there’s definitely more space in a 16 Pro Max!
Not that anyone needs two A18s mind you…

 

[Parowdy]

I think you're far away from being the only one feeling there is some arbitrary innovation curve that Apple has strayed away from. I disagree tho, because you can't blame Apple for the market and the industry, let me explain a bit.
The iPhone X was not supposed to be released when it was. Apple planned of revealing the X in 2018 and not 2017, but found themselves in a situation where they could simply not just release and get away with the 7s, or as its better known, the iPhone 8. They rushed the iPhone X through development and production to make it at least available the same year, if not the same day or month. The X was a big step, but not what it was supposed to be, that would have been the Xs, coming in two sizes, with actually better cameras and stereo recording in videos. In essence, the X was what Apple could get away with while Xs is what the X was supposed to be.
Going forward a couple of years, rumours mounted that Apple will finally introduce Pro Motion to the iPhone with the iPhone 11 (Pro), which didn't happen. Then it was rumoured the 12 Pro must come with it, but it didn't. Because Apple cheap-ed out and thought 5G and the new design would be enough for people, right? Well, turns out, maybe, but one definite reason why the 12 Pro only came with a 120hz touch sample rate instead of a 120 hz refresh rate was because Apple couldn't source the amount of displays they wanted with the specs and quality they wanted. Even if they wanted Pro Motion, they could simply not have done it. Until next year that is.
So, what happened then? Well, the X was in fact the big step Apple thought they'd make, as the general design didn't change to much from then, and how could it? How many times can you remove the home button and the chin and forehead from a smartphone design? How many times can you revert to glass on the back? How many times can you introduce more cameras? How often can you rearrange technology on the front of the phone that can't be put behind the display (as of yet)? So what can you actually expect? Because it seems like there isn't much room for anything but refinements. Even the 15 Pro is just a refined X despite Pro Motion, AOD, three cameras with one having 4x the resolution, an actual high quality OLED screen with far less inconsistency, an actually somewhat useful notch, an actually almost user friendly repairable design, a bigger screen despite a not much bigger frame, new frame materials and a new internal design to improve the felt weight, USB C, a user mappable solid state button!, dual e sim support and a SOC made for AI that wouldn't see the light of day for another one and a half years, meaning its still not out.
In my honest opinion the 15 Pro might be a contender for best iPhone in a couple of years because it is the best and most refined version of the iPhone ever, together with iOS 18 which brings features that finally make the iPhone feel mature (mainly customisation options because that's the main thing missing from iPhone since day one).
So, what can you expect from the 16? Just more refinements after the perhaps most solid iPhone release since the X ? Because what is it that was missing from the 15 Pro? IMO, nothing really. In fact, it has AI in mind, a feature we didn't even know would come to the iPhone until this year.
What's left for the 16? Well, apparently 1 button from last years Pro phone and 1 completely new button for new camera controls from this years Pro phone, a "new" camera system with last years Pro phones 48 MP camera and improved zoom capabilities including a new arrangement enabling spatial videos (yeah yeah Vision aint for everyone but its a future proofing thing), a SOC with AI in mind and overall almost the same feature set as the Pro models without the Pro Motion screen. The 16 Pro on the other hand, yeah that's more like the jump from the 11 Pro to the 12 Pro, with 5G being the camera button, but ey, what else is there to be improved, literally? Apple has no incentive to break the mould the way they did with the X, because there is no place for another X. Foldables, sure, different story. But to expect more than what we got, eh, that just shows to me how little people understand the industry, the market, innovation in technology and supply chains. Is the 16 Pro the 15 Pro S? Yes, is it just as much of an improvement as the 4s was for the 4, no, id say its considerably bigger.
Really, Apple added another button to their Pro phones and 2 to their non Pro phones and still people say they are giving up on the iPhone, I find that funny. I mean, Apple makes an obvious commitment to invest even more time and resources into the cameras on their phones, signalling their commitment to cameras going way into the future.

I think the 16 is just as exciting as the 15 Pro was and see no problem with Apples rate of introducing new features to their one ups. Having (potentially) the Rabbit R One/Humane.AI pin in your pocket, with a camera that strives to replace dedicated cameras, that's big and exciting. I acknowledge over peoples opinions on this matter, I just think they are wrong. This year is bigger technically bigger than last years but ey, wait a couple years and you see why I mean.

senseless rant over

Edit: sorry for the typos but my screen is broken and I can’t be bothered to deal with correcting anything

 

[ArchEtech]

I think the product is getting to the point that there can’t be any huge changes anymore until they have some kind of huge redesign of paradigm shift in the project of which I can imagine what it could be.

They already got rid of the home button which is in my option the last real major change. Some new crazy battery tech, magnesium case for weight, and a folding version is about all I can think of. What else is there?

If you’re giving up on Apple where are you going? Samsung Flip or Fold? Other than finding phone there isn’t a single other smart phone out there that offers anything much differnt from an iPhone.

 

[Rob198612]

The 16 pro and the max looks the same I agree with that.

But look at the inside the new battery, A18 pro, this capture button. All of that takes time and R&D to perfect.

We will start seeing android phones in a couple years copying this capture button.

I buy a phone for the overall performance and ecosystem. Something that android is lacking.

 

[Kronsteen]

I can completely sympathise with the view that the changes from year to year are incremental rather than revolutionary and, indeed, I think that is probably inevitable, given that the smartphone market is now relatively mature. (And, yes, I appreciate that, in some respects, Samsung, Google et al do more, but nothing Earth-shattering enough to make me change.)

I also appreciate that some people still like to upgrade (if that’s the right word) every year, and that’s fine. It’s their money to spend how they wish. From my perspective — and I stress, this is just my perspective — I see no point in doing that. I have been very happy using an iPhone X for five years (a hand-me-down from my wife) and, prior to that, a 6. I am now upgrading to the 16 Pro, but only for two main reasons: satellite connectivity (which is of genuine value to me, given where I spend a certain amount of time) and the most recent security updates and capabilities (in iOS 17 and 18). There are other things, most notably the much improved camera capabilities, which I will be pleased to have, but none of these, on their own or together, would have persuaded me to upgrade.

 

[Pandyone]

What you actually do with your iPhone should point at what changes are important.
You don't mention any huge changes between the models that seems "personal" to you, you are just listing some specs. So I would guess the apps you use daily stays the same and then it really does not matter if it's new hardware or older devices.

To me, the macro capabilities in 13 Pro was really exiting since I'm in to photography, and the updated sensor along side with the camera-control button this year I hope will make a difference in creativity etc.

Otherwise the updates on other manufacturers devices every year is not that huge either, just FYI.

 

[ArchEtech]

That is a good way to look at it. If we need a major change to the phone, what is it, that we need it to do, that it doesn't already do? Currently we've just wanted it to be better and doing what it already does, hence iterative improvements - battery life, efficiency, faster processors, more storage, better screens, lighter weight, but really other than the home button the iphone 16 is still basically the original iphone with improvements.

Flip phones were the thing to have for quite a while, then it became slim slab phones as they got smarter. Now we are seeing flip and folding phones make a come back.

 

[Knowimagination]

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.

As a side note I have seen several people claim that Apple Intelligence is powered “mainly by ChatGPT”, where are people getting this from? I didn’t get this feeling at all from any of the AI talks by apple.

 

[dmr727]

I have a feeling I'll have my 15 Pro for another few years, throwing a new battery in when the time comes. And I'm okay with that - as others have said it's a pretty mature technology at this point. I don't see any manufacturer doing anything that's super interesting these days.

 

[Nikhil72]

I’m just incredibly curious to know exactly what changes Apple needs to make for people to not post inane things like this. It’s not like it’s the only manufacturer evolving rather than revolutionizing models. Even the Pixel 9 Pro everyone is raving about? Half of it is finesse. A modem that doesn’t suck, somewhat improved battery that still underperforms Samsung and Apple flagships, camera hardware that’s identical to last year’s model, a camera bump that looks nice but doesn’t allow for smooth camera jumping from lens to lens because of the physics placement of the lenses themselves, resulting in jumping, premature replacement of Google Assistant with Gemini (which is less useful than ChatGPT imo; Gemini still can’t really control music playback, Home device support is mediocre, but it’s good at trivia I guess?); and most google functionality ultimately comes to iOS as well because they ultimately care about the platform and data harvesting rather than amping up hardware sales. The pixel watch just came out with a bigger model but without a premium option (finishes, battery, durability).

And foldables arent it. Regular folks aren’t buying them in droves and they have durability issues plus they cost quite a bit. I also think they make for mediocre tablets. Apple being being behind in foldables? No different than Apple being behind in xyz for decades now. They’ve never really been up first, nor will they ever. And clearly techies are ready to make a jump and are fickle. Regular consumers? Not so much.