iPhone 7/Plus The iPhone 7 is “good enough”

[KOTN91]

Upgrade cycles are getting longer nowadays, it certainly isn’t what it used to be like back in the 2010-13 period when you really had to have the latest iPhone or at the very least one that was only a generation old.

Now, probably starting with the 6S and especially with the 7, there seems very little incentive to upgrade as these phones are essentially “good enough”, which must be why fewer people are upgrading as often. We are way past the point of an iPhone being a status symbol now

If the upcoming 6.1 inch iPhone turns out to be an updated 5C, then surely that is cool with all the new colours. But apart from that there is ultimately very little reason to upgrade, not to mention the huge elephant in the room that all the new iPhones will be giant, completely impractical phablets and this will surely make people hold onto their 6S or 7 longer

 

[eyoungren]

Not really understanding the "you really had to have the latest iPhone or at the very least one that was only a generation old" part here.

From 2009 to 2012 I used an HTC Touch Pro. That was Windows Mobile. And I was laughing at my iPhone friends because I had cut and paste and MMS and they didn't.

From 2012 to 2015 I had an iPhone 5.

For nine months in 2015 I had a 6+. I only upgraded because we left our carrier so I took the opportunity to upgrade since I was turning my 6+ in.

From 2015 to now (now being current and ongoing) I have a 6s+.

Nothing I do has changed since 2009. I don't need a bigger camera with more megapixels. I don't need a faster processor. I don't need mega amounts of ram - all the things presumably that are included in that statement of yours about really having to have the latest iPhone.

Hell, I did very well with phone calls, email, SMS and light web browsing on my old Sanyo Katana. And that's what I used my Touch Pro, my 5, my 6+ and my 6s+ for. Calls, email, texts and light web browsing.

So having to have the latest has never been a thing for me.

PS. I've had zero incentive to upgrade beyond my 6+ in 2015 due to that fugly camera bump on every iPhone (except the SE) made since then.

 

[KOTN91]

I’m pretty sure the iPhone had copy and paste back in 2010

 

[eyoungren]

I’m pretty sure the iPhone had copy and paste back in 2010

2010 sure. I believe it was midsummer when AT&T and Apple finally started allowing that stuff. But not in 2009 when I got my Touch Pro.

The Touch Pro by the way was advertised as the iPhone killer. If you have no idea what a Touch Pro is then you can reasonably assume HTC failed at that messaging.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I would of still been using my 6S but, I was tired of the form factor and the X checked all the boxes for me as far as features and design. My good old 6S is still with me as a backup phone in case my X ever takes a dump.. I really do wish the 6S had the OIS that was on the 6S+ as the camera was hard to keep steady(for me at least). The 7 seems to be the perfect combination of performance and features and will be an excellent phone for quite awhile

 

[I7guy]

There are a lot of things that are "good enough". It all depends on what you want to hold on to or not. For some people an iphone 5 is "good enough".

 

[now i see it]

The OS "upgrades" will eventually kill off the older phones. I'm still using a 6+ on iOS 9.3.5 and it's as fast and stable as day one. But more and more of my apps refuse to let me use them unless I upgrade to a newer OS, so the usability of the phone goes down one way or another. You lose your favorite apps or the newer OS turns your phone into a slug. Choice is yours and you lose $ either way.

If you want to use an iPhone, eventually you'll need to buy a newer model every few years. Maybe 5 max.

 

[mikzn]

We are way past the point of an iPhone being a status symbol now
If the upcoming 6.1 inch iPhone turns out to be an updated 5C, then surely that is cool with all the new colours. But apart from that there is ultimately very little reason to upgrade, not to mention the huge elephant in the room that all the new iPhones will be giant, completely impractical phablets and this will surely make people hold onto their 6S or 7 longer

I was happy with my iPhone 6 (with iOS 10.3) and all the apps I had purchased and / or downloaded for free. I tried iOS 11 and decided to stay at 10.3

But, then I dropped my phone (cracked screen) and I got it replaced by a 3rd party because they did it in 20 min while I had a coffee (awesome IMHO) all was good again.

Next - several months later - my battery started quitting at 45% battery level - phone would turn off and would take an hour of recharging (or more) to turn on again.

Checked with local apple store about the battery throttling issues - was told that the phone did not qualify since it was tampered with by a non-apple repair service - I expected that and complained a bit and was told since they were busy I could make an appointment with an "Apple Genius" to discuss it further - "lucky me" - no thanks!

Anyway I was at the end of my 2 year contract and was able to get a new iPhone 8 for $130 - not a hard decision = new iPhone 8 - because I am pre-paying for an upgrade in my carrier phone plan.

My point is that is it is very difficult to avoid upgrading - on may levels -

1) the OS keeps moving on and intentionally excludes older models
2) apple suggests security updates that are only offered to new hardware and OS versions
3) individual 3rd party apps keep updating to keep up and to add new features - which tax older hardware and iOS
4) Apple has a massive effort in place to discredit 3rd party services - repairs and parts etc.
5) Carriers build an upgrade incentive into your monthly fee
6) Customer Service - Make an appointment to visit a Apple Genius? - no thanks!

Apple could change most of this by allowing users to choose "at their own risk" - to revert to older OS versions and to use local repair services.

 

[44267547]

Basically what the OP is saying what we already know, is everyone has a different reason to upgrade or not. Some prefer to retain older iPhone models because they’re not interested in the newest ones or vice versa, you have those who want the latest iPhone every year for XYZ reasons. You’re never going to find a consistent answer of the demographic of what somebody chooses to do with upgrading or not.

Also, on a tech forum, you’re going to have those who are more willing upgrade annually because they are generally interested and follow Apple more closely than does the average consumer, where they likely are more content with the phone that meets their needs and expectations for the time being. Again, another example of a mixed variety of everyone that has different expectations for smart phones.

 

[DNichter]

Not sure what your point is. People will upgrade if they have the means and find value in the product. Pretty simple.

 

[comptr]

Not sure what your point is. People will upgrade if they have the means and find value in the product. Pretty simple.

Bingo, Some people will upgrade Yearly. Some will upgrade Every Other Year. There is no right or wrong answer.

 

[profets]

2010 sure. I believe it was midsummer when AT&T and Apple finally started allowing that stuff. But not in 2009 when I got my Touch Pro.

The Touch Pro by the way was advertised as the iPhone killer. If you have no idea what a Touch Pro is then you can reasonably assume HTC failed at that messaging.

Lol, not to get off topic, but the HTC Tytn was my first smartphone. And the best part was I bought it in July 2007 when the iPhone had launched (though not in my country). I loved following HTC those days.

 

[ST0NE]

Not sure what your point is. People will upgrade if they have the means and find value in the product. Pretty simple.

...and don’t forget if they have spare money to spend,

 

[tl01]

Different strokes for different people. I never understand these threads that make these odd generalities. Some people like the latest iPhones some don’t care...some people like fancy shoes and for others Walmart shoes are good enough. Some people like fancy handbags...others don’t. I don’t know about you but I live in the US where you decide what you want to spend your money on and you can even spend more if you want even if something else is good enough.

 

[m0sher]

I gave my youngest son my 6S with a new battery when I upgraded to the X 6 months ago.

It’s running like it did on day one and it’s fast enough for a teenagers needs, surfing, streaming video and music.

He games on a console or computer so no problems to this day.

 

[throAU]

iPhones have been good enough to hold onto for 2-3 years since the 3G-S or 4.

The two big jumps have been retina and touchID.

Everything else has been incremental fiddling that you don't need to keep up with every single upgrade.

2c.

 

[Adelphos33]

I’ve been saying this for a while, but iPhones used to add serious use cases that were only available on newer phones. Siri, TouchID, Apple Pay, Optical zoom on the camera, etc. Screen size growth also allowed for more immersive content

The latest iPhones haven’t really added use cases. Podcasts, Apple Pay, Uber, Podcasts, Instagram, Tinder, whatever else you use work just as well on an iPhone 6S as it does on an X. FaceID is really just a replacement for an already good solution as opposed to a new feature or use case.

Some of this is lack of software innovation. But Apple (or a competitor) needs to find a new way to use the smartphone.

Another issue is that such innovation is as likely to come from a third party app developer, or Google, or Amazon, and those app makers will deliver the app across a wide range of iPhones.

 

[Sensamic]

Upgrade cycles are getting longer nowadays, it certainly isn’t what it used to be like back in the 2010-13 period when you really had to have the latest iPhone or at the very least one that was only a generation old.

Now, probably starting with the 6S and especially with the 7, there seems very little incentive to upgrade as these phones are essentially “good enough”, which must be why fewer people are upgrading as often. We are way past the point of an iPhone being a status symbol now

If the upcoming 6.1 inch iPhone turns out to be an updated 5C, then surely that is cool with all the new colours. But apart from that there is ultimately very little reason to upgrade, not to mention the huge elephant in the room that all the new iPhones will be giant, completely impractical phablets and this will surely make people hold onto their 6S or 7 longer

Agreed!

But that's why Apple and every manufacturer makes your phone lag and have worse performance through updates, to force you to upgrade!

 

[tonybarnaby]

Agreed!

But that's why Apple and every manufacturer makes your phone lag and have worse performance through updates, to force you to upgrade!

That’s not how it works. The new updates are made for the new phones, yes. The old phones can’t keep up as well, due to older hardware. It’s the nature of the beast. A computer graphics card that’s top of the line today will be worthless in 3-4 years. Not because of planned obsolescence, but because of how technology improves in all phases.

 

[Sackofnickels]

The need to update/upgrade depends on your needs and/or your need to upgrade.

My wife has the iPhone7 plus. Was happy when she got it, and is still happy now. Does everything she wants it to do. I liked mine and it was affordable with 128gb of storage. So did my wife who likes to take photos. So much so that I gave her my 7 plus and got the 8 plus with 64gb of storage. Except for wireless charging the 7 plus did everything well. Still does. I don't see much difference to be honest. My desire to upgrade to the X is minimal at best. Apple is going to have to do something truly new and innovative before I upgrade. That or when they plan the obsolescence of my phone, in which case I won't have a choice.
[doublepost=1532925258][/doublepost]

That’s not how it works. The new updates are made for the new phones, yes. The old phones can’t keep up as well, due to older hardware. It’s the nature of the beast. A computer graphics card that’s top of the line today will be worthless in 3-4 years. Not because of planned obsolescence, but because of how technology improves in all phases.

So why does Apple force a user to update a new or older phone ("Upgrade will take place when you plug in", or later tonight.. etc) and then make it impossible to downgrade? The security excuse is disingenuous at best.

 

[Radon87000]

There is nothing new in the industry nowadays. Even the iPhone X was just jumping on the bezelless bandwagon Android had started long before.

 

[eyoungren]

Agreed!

But that's why Apple and every manufacturer makes your phone lag and have worse performance through updates, to force you to upgrade!

Should I be concerned that my iPhone 5 running iOS 10.3.3 doesn't have any problems?

Any suggestion on how best to force all this to happen to my phone since it refuses to do anything but just work?
[doublepost=1532928079][/doublepost]

So why does Apple force a user to update a new or older phone ("Upgrade will take place when you plug in", or later tonight.. etc) and then make it impossible to downgrade? The security excuse is disingenuous at best.

Oh that's an easy one!!!

Apple wants to prevent you from jailbreaking. Nagging you to update and preventing you from downgrading means you stay on firmware that hasn't been jailbroken yet.

Whether or not you WOULD jailbreak isn't relevant. Apple wants to remove all possibility of it occuring.

 

[throAU]

Apple wants to prevent you from jailbreaking. Nagging you to update and preventing you from downgrading means you stay on firmware that hasn't been jailbroken yet.

Whether or not you WOULD jailbreak isn't relevant. Apple wants to remove all possibility of it occuring.

You YOU can jailbreak your device, so can malware on your PC, the NSA, etc.

It's a security risk.

 

[eyoungren]

You YOU can jailbreak your device, so can malware on your PC, the NSA, etc.

It's a security risk.

It's always been so. But risk can be mitigated and managed. Taking a risk doesn't automatically mean failure or compromise.

But whatever you believe it is also true that Apple wants to control the entirety of the experience on your device. Jailbreaking shifts that control to the user and out of Apple's control - which Apple doesn't like.

Scaring people is a method Apple uses to prevent that. Fear is a great motivator especially when there is an element of truth involved.

 

[brofkand]

It was much easier to upgrade more often back then when you could sell an iPhone for $400 and a new one only cost $200 on contract. Nowadays you have to pay the full price of the phone, or rent it for near the full cost of the phone (broken up into monthly payments of course!), to upgrade more often.