Tech Breakthroughs Take a Backseat in Upcoming Apple iPhone Launch (reuters.com)

Stephen Nellis, reporting for Reuters: The new iPhone is expected to include new features such as high-resolution displays, wireless charging and 3-D sensors. Rather than representing major breakthroughs, however, most of the innovations have been available in competing phones for several years. Apple's relatively slow adoption of new features both reflects and reinforces the fact smartphone customers are holding onto their phones longer. Timothy Arcuri, an analyst at Cowen & Co, believes upwards of 40 percent of iPhones on the market are more than two years old, a historical high. That is a big reason why investors have driven Apple shares to an all-time high. There is pent-up demand for a new iPhone, even if it does not offer breakthrough technologies. It is not clear whether Apple deliberately held off on packing some of the new features into the current iPhone 7, which has been criticized for a lack of differentiation from its predecessor. Still, the development and roll-out of the anniversary iPhone suggest Apple's product strategy is driven less by technological innovation than by consumer upgrade cycles and Apple's own business and marketing needs.

Comments

The market is saturated

[dugancent]

There is pent-up demand for a new iPhone, even if it does not offer breakthrough technologies

No, not really. As long as it gets security updates and still works, why bother upgrading? I just replaced the battery in my iPhone and expect to get at least a couple more years out of it.

Re:The market is saturated

[avandesande]

Been an apple hater for a while but think I might go for SE... I like small bricky phones and everything else out there looks like junk. At 200$ it is even reasonably priced.

iTunes hasn't been a requirement for years

[sjbe]

Get rid of that awful fucking iTunes software and let me access the phone like any normal USB device.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I opened iTunes on a desktop computer or synced my iPhone with it. That hasn't been a requirement for years.

As for using it as a USB device, I feel you but doubt it is going to happen any time soon.

Re:Well there's a surprise

[bigdady92]

Apple's Marketing is awesome like that.

One thing I will give Apple is that they will take technology that is mostly mature, fix lots of bugs and kinks, then roll it out and proclaim it "New! Exciting! So Pleased to show you!"

Yes Premium Android Smartphones have had everything that the Iphone8 will have for years. Apple will bring that capability to the masses and then the fleet of android handset manufacturers will push those features out till every single phone has it.

Upgrade for the sake of upgrade?

[HalAtWork]

"There is pent-up demand for a new iPhone, even if it does not offer breakthrough technologies"

Why is there demand for a very modest upgrade? It seems like people are holding onto their old phones because the upgrades are insignificant..

Re:Well there's a surprise

[whoever57]

"if you want to know what is coming in the next iPhone, just look at what was new on Android two years ago"

Re:Well there's a surprise

[fred6666]

Turn by turn GPS navigation, WiFi hotspot, contact cloud synchronization, large displays, water resistance all worked just fine on Android before being copied by Apple. I don't mind if it is called "beta" by Google as long as it works.

Headphones

[CohibaVancouver]

My wife's two-year-old iPhone 6 started glitching, so she just replaced it with - An iPhone 6.

She likes the iPhone technology stack (I'm an Android guy), but refuses to buy a phone without a headphone jack. For times when she does want to go wireless, bluetooth works fine for her.