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Apple's Risky Balancing Act With the Next iPhone (macworld.com)
Long time columnist Jason Snell: As there always are at this time of year, there are lots of rumors out there about what the next iPhone will be. This year we're hearing that Apple is going to release a high-priced, next-generation phone in addition to the expected iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus models. [...] By most accounts, Apple's next-generation iPhone will offer a similar design. But also, by many accounts, Apple is struggling to create that product -- and when it arrives, it may be expensive, late to ship, and supply constrained. This is one of those areas where Apple may be the victim of its own success. The iPhone is so popular a product that Apple can't include any technology or source any part if it can't be made more than 200 million times a year. If the supplier of a cutting-edge part Apple wants can only provide the company with 50 million per year, it simply can't be used in the iPhone. Apple sells too many, too fast. Contrast that to Apple's competition. On the smaller end, former Android chief Andy Rubin announced the Essential phone, but even Rubin admitted that he'd only be able to sell in thousands, not millions. Same for the RED Hydrogen One -- groundbreaking phone, hardly likely to sell in any volume. The Google Pixel looks like it's in the one million range. Apple's biggest competitor, Samsung, has to deal with a scale more similar to Apple's -- but it's still only expected to sell 50 or 60 million units of the flagship Galaxy S8.
If anything, the loss of the home button will be a bummer:
They've reached the point where they're just making "courageous" changes which benefit their own assembly & engineering but lack significant user value and don't solve obvious consumer problems with the device. Case in point, the headphone jack.
My guess is they are on the cusp of a "Windows 8 Start Menu" kind of change where the fuck up the design enough to seriously damage their user base.
Artificial scarcity that you can control, is the new hotness. Apple has become a fashion company. In many ways, it already was one. It really became prominent with the Apple Watch and all the band accessories. That's what Apple needs to do with the iPhone. Mass-produce the specs, but limit the case edition to different material. Software (iOS) doesn't give a shit about esthetics and materials. However, it does care about a unified hardware platform. If Apple isn't careful, they could really fuck themselves by creating too many hardware permutations of iPhone.
Life is not for the lazy.
Revert to including headphone jack.
People do not care and the AirPods are the most beloved bluetooth headset ever sold. Even Android owning friends I have love them (I don't have them myself as I still preferred wired headphones, and just use the adaptor that comes with the phone).
For the love of storage include a MicroSD slot.
99.9999999999% of phone users do not use those, so they are basically just a giant security hole waiting to bite you in the ass.
Please revise / update iTunes, it's horrible.
Well yes, it's horrible, but why does that matter in relation to the iPhone? I've not connected to iTunes in years, all backup is handled via iCloud and all app purchases are made on the device.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They've reached the point where they're just making "courageous" changes which benefit their own assembly & engineering
I believe you meant to say "shareholders" there ... elimination of the headphone jack meant add on sales of dongles, AirPods, Beats, etc with each new phone that didn't have a headphone jack. Why have the newest thing when for "just" another $159 you can have these very obvious "I GOT THE NEW THING" headphones? So in effect, Apple sells the $650-750 (or more) iPhone 7, plus then adds on $159 to that sale with the AirPods. Sure some people will just use the dongle and old headphones, but there will be a non-zero attach rate for the other stuff, driven by lack of headphone jack.
FWIW I see bigger stagnation as you discuss in the tablet/notebook space. In the phone space there are fuck ups all over the place, the most recent being exploding phones from Samsung. Convertibles on the Windows side are getting to the point where the line can be extremely blurred between a laptop with an occasionally detached keyboard and a tablet with a add-on typing cover. Apple should be owning this market, with clear leadership in the tablet space -- but instead they are giving half-answers like the touchbar. Plenty of PC notebook designers are doing a fair job of aping aluminum bodies, rugged design and so on. My wife bought a HP Spectre that seems well made, is convertible and stylish. Most of the time she's using it as a PC, but then she "tents" it to watch video, or uses it as a tablet for web browsing. Multiple USB-C ports, one USB-A and accessories that work well with it for driving an external monitor and so on. Why doesn't Apple have a product like this? Are there warring fiefdoms between iPad Land, Mac Book Land and Mac Book Pro Land?
If anything, the loss of the home button will be a bummer:
They've reached the point where they're just making "courageous" changes which benefit their own assembly & engineering but lack significant user value and don't solve obvious consumer problems with the device. Case in point, the headphone jack.
My guess is they are on the cusp of a "Windows 8 Start Menu" kind of change where the fuck up the design enough to seriously damage their user base.
Very doubtful. Unlike MS and Linux/Android, Apple moves VERY slowly and carefully with UI paradigm shifts.
For example, In the computer world, a user familiar with a 1984 Mac would have less difficulty acclimating to macOS 10.12 than a Windows 7 User would have with Windows 8. And in the mobile world, a person familiar with iPhone OS 1.0 for the most part would feel right at home with iOS 10.3. I can't speak for Android, but I think they have far too many "customizations" to say anything close to the same thing.