iPhone 16 Pro iPhone launch day used to be

[orangerock]

such a geek out event. The lack of effort to innovate and launch seismic products is staggering. I have a new series 10 watch and the new iPhone 16 Pro in hand. They are the same products I had in a series 7 watch and 15 Pro phone. We buy new from Apple now because the device we have is starting to slow or has been physically worn out, not because of the staggering upgrade.

I miss Steve.

 

[UKapple73]

Yeah I miss Steve too. He was my next door neighbour.

 

[jetlagged]

The collective shrug over Apple's recent updates is real, and you're right in the middle of it. The iPhone and Apple Watch are getting the old 'rinse and repeat' treatment – minor tweaks, slightly better specs, and voila! But is that enough to keep the faithful faithful? Will Apple mix it up with some genuinely groundbreaking releases or stick to their tried-and-true incremental improvement plan?

 

[4sallypat]

I miss those launch days with media doing interviews of people camping outside the Apple stores...

 

[canadianpj]

What exact kind of dark magic are you expecting? It's a slab of glass that can only do so much. Do you want it to do the dishes or clean your house? Year over year it's not meant to be an OMG update, no one does that. Never have year after year. Apple has never in their history innovated frequently.

 

[EdMan]

I'm so over the whole new iPhone thing that this is the first time I've visited the forum in months. No lurking or scouring the launch threads. I have a 15 Pro and will wait until next year. I might get the new black Ultra Watch to replace or add to my current Ultra. I mean its been damn near 20 years. I've had just about every phone and the experience rarely changes very much. Just a new shiny thing.

 

[byron_hinson]

Weirdly there was a small queue outside our UK store at 7am this morning. Surprised that anyone was bothering seeing they could have pre-ordered

 

[redbeard331]

So this morning I checked to see how far out the ship dates were on a 256gb 16 pro max in black, and to my amazement, for the first time ever on launch day, there was still stock available at several stores in the Los Angeles area.

Even last year that didn’t happen until mid October, I checked everyday last year and I think it was about 3 weeks until that happened. Just another sign of what a dud the 16’s are, Apple needs to change.

Just checked again, and wow, there are a few configurations/colors available for walk in pickup right now across LA and Orange County. Maybe I’ll pick one up in the half off Black Friday sales ☺️

 

[Macalway]

The only thing that will jolt Apple into resuming innovation, is a precipitous stock drop. This will happen I think, all the glitzy marketing isn't going to save them from rollouts that result in overstock.

Last year was bad, this year? We shall see.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Steve would be proud of Apple today. Apple silicon is the biggest or one of the if not the biggest innovation in apples existence. Apple launched AW, AirPods and best of all AS Mac’s in last decade. That’s pretty good. Folks complain about iPhone, I upgrade every 6-7 years, my 7 plus was nothing like 13 PM. Smart phones have matured and don’t need upgrades every year or 2 years.

 

[TechnoMonk]

So this morning I checked to see how far out the ship dates were on a 256gb 16 pro max in black, and to my amazement, for the first time ever on launch day, there was still stock available at several stores in the Los Angeles area.

Even last year that didn’t happen until mid October, I checked everyday last year and I think it was about 3 weeks until that happened. Just another sign of what a dud the 16’s are, Apple needs to change.

Just checked again, and wow, there are a few configurations/colors available for walk in pickup right now across LA and Orange County. Maybe I’ll pick one up in the half off Black Friday sales ☺️

I bought 13 PM on launch day at store near me. 13 PM was worse than 14, and 15 with preorders back dated to Oct-Nov.

 

[4sallypat]

Apple has really dropped the ball again.

14+ delivery 3 days later.

16 Pro - nothing delivered on launch day.

Going to call UPS now and yell at them.

 

[Bootleg Gucci]

NGL, Huawei’s trifold phone is more exciting, but for the price and backdoor security risk.

 

[hagjohn]

There isn't enough year over year change in phones (any brand) these days. You can only hope you like the 1 or 2 small things to get you excited about purchasing each year. I think we will still see some jumps in technology, in the future, but it isn't going to be every year.

 

[redbeard331]

NGL, Huawei’s trifold phone is more exciting, but for the price and backdoor security risk.

I’ll wait for a folding phone that uses a glass screen.

 

[Fred Zed]

I also miss having more money in my pockets 😅🤨

 

[Jackbequickly]

The world is far from what it used to be.

 

[webkit]

"They don't make things like they used to..."
"Back in my day..."
"What's wrong with kids today?..."
"Get off my lawn..."

People age, times changes, world keeps moving forward. While the smartphone market has matured, whatever Apple does or doesn't do seems to be working as they have sold over twice as many iPhones per year on average in the last seven years than they did in the first ten.

 

[Apple_Robert]

such a geek out event. The lack of effort to innovate and launch seismic products is staggering. I have a new series 10 watch and the new iPhone 16 Pro in hand. They are the same products I had in a series 7 watch and 15 Pro phone. We buy new from Apple now because the device we have is starting to slow or has been physically worn out, not because of the staggering upgrade.

I miss Steve.

Who are you trying to kid with this post? You didn’t have to update and your 15 Pro wasn’t old or worn out. You upgraded knowing before you purchased what the features of the 16 pro are, and now you are complaining about a specced update. The problem isn’t Apple. The problem is your false expectations in the face of purchase reality.

 

[orangerock]

Who are you trying to kid with this post? You didn’t have to update and your 15 Pro wasn’t old or worn out. You upgraded knowing before you purchased what the features of the 16 pro are, and now you are complaining about a specced update. The problem isn’t Apple. The problem is your false expectations in the face of purchase reality.

No, my company gets me a new one each year. I knew what I was receiving.

I waited until confirming so in hand.

 

[cateye]

But is that enough to keep the faithful faithful?

Maybe, as a counterpoint, we shouldn't be so "faithful," attuned to some kind of dog and pony show where we pack all of our worldly excitement into the ebb and flow of consumer technology products. As someone mentioned upthread, instead of worrying about what's new, buy what you need when you actually need it: When something breaks, when something wears out, when you actually need a new feature or capability. And worry less whether there's still a P.T. Barnum character around to reinforce your FOMO.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

Tell that to my local Apple Store. I went there on Saturday to pick up my S10 watch and it was so busy they had to shut the store to all but those who had a pickup or appointment arranged.

Later on when walk-ins were allowed again the iPhone booths were packed and the Apple rep told me that even for them it was busiest they'd seen in a while.

There's a bit of a disconnect between MacRumors and reality. These forums are often an echo chamber of complaints or disappointments, and I too genuinely thought there was no hype whatsoever for the iPhone 16 until I went to the store myself and saw the opposite.

Also, the time of bi-annual redesigns for smartphones are long gone. They're a mature product now, like the laptop and the desktop computer. To use the Mac as an example, the iMac G3 and the iMac G4 came out 4 years apart from one another - such a massive amount of innovation in such a short space of time. Now, the whole Mac line seem to keep the same design 6, 7 years maybe even longer sometimes.

Half of the people complaining about lack of innovation and stagnant product releases don't even know what it is exactly they want to see.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

such a geek out event. The lack of effort to innovate and launch seismic products is staggering. I have a new series 10 watch and the new iPhone 16 Pro in hand. They are the same products I had in a series 7 watch and 15 Pro phone. We buy new from Apple now because the device we have is starting to slow or has been physically worn out, not because of the staggering upgrade.

I miss Steve.

Your company was replacing the 15Pro because it was slow or worn out?

 

[slippery-pete]

NGL, Huawei’s trifold phone is more exciting, but for the price and backdoor security risk.

Yeah, there aren't going to be issues with the folds...

If Apple put that product out people who still complain "Are we beta testing the hardware for Apple?" or "Steve would never have put out a product with this poor quality" or my favorite "foldgate"

Apple will never win; regardless of what they release.

 

[Big Stevie]

I miss those launch days with media doing interviews of people camping outside the Apple stores...

Rather like when folk would camp out overnight for the launch day of the new Call of Duty game.

Back then phones and gaming were coming on leaps and bounds with major improvements year on year. They have both now reached their potential. Whilst games can improve on graphics I cant see how else they can improve on the scale they did over the last 20yrs. Same with phones, back in the 2000's it felt like there was a race to produce the smallest phone, they where so small they had to make flip phones. Then when phones became capable of playing video their screens needed to get bigger. So we got bigger screens but thinner phones, and thinner bezels.

We now have what we have, and like gaming I can't see how phones will improve on the scale they once did.