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Rumor: Apple to take 3 years between full iPhone model changes

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NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Since smartphone tech and features have more or less plateaued, this makes complete sense.

I'm still on my iPhone 5c, and will be on it until it starts physically breaking down on me. There's no new feature that would make me want to "upgrade".
 

Aurongel

Member
A much needed shift for an industry that had a colossal rise and is now seeing their plateau. It happened with desktop computers and it'll happen again here. Then 20 years from now it'll happen with all our cerebral implants.

Less iPhone models sounds like a win to me.
 

dmshaposv

Member
hahaha

So why should I upgrade then if there's no real tradeoff for losing the headphone jack?

Maybe they'll pack in new apple bluetooth earphones as standard?

By not doing much hardware revision, hey could revise the earphones as bluetooth only to push no jack phones.
 
Apple would need to ensure their software continues to run well on phones for an extra year. They're already pretty good with this but I hope they don't fuck it up.

My father is still using his iPhone 5 with no complaints.

I honestly couldn't tell you a feature my iPhone needs to get except more battery life.

I'm telling you: Thicker w/ more battery. I don't know where this obsession with thin came from. Sure 15 years ago when phones were big as shit. But now? Fuck that, gimme 50% more thickness w/ more battery. I can handle the weight.
 

DrEvil

not a medical professional
I don't understand why to this day they haven't included AM/FM radio in their phones.. it's a simple feature that would be a nice extra to have.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Not sure how good it is from a Wall Street perspective, but it seems pretty much in-line with reality, at least.

The iPhone SE selling like gangbusters alongside slowing iPhone sales is a pretty good indication that Apple has effectively tapped the high-end market, and if you're going to get people to frequently upgrade it's going to be either cheaper model to cheaper model, flagship to flagship at an increasingly slow rate, or smaller amounts via trade-in programs.

I hung onto my 4S until I got a 6, and was planning on holding onto that one until the 7S, but I might keep it longer. Really the only major issue I see running into in the next two years is the battery losing its capacity, and the major compelling reason for me to upgrade would be a longer-lasting device from a battery standpoint.


I'm telling you: Thicker w/ more battery. I don't know where this obsession with thin came from. Sure 15 years ago when phones were big as shit. But now? Fuck that, gimme 50% more thickness w/ more battery. I can handle the weight.

Never happening, alongside adding more context-sensitive buttons like you're asking for. You want a longer-lasting phone looks like the SE and its successors are going to be the place to get the best battery life possible.
 

SMattera

Member
I honestly couldn't tell you a feature my iPhone needs to get except more battery life.

Higher resolution screen
More durability
Waterproofing
Better camera
Better fingerprint scanner
Smaller bezels
More internal storage
Long-term: foldable/stretchable display. Physically morphing display, etc.
 
I don't understand why to this day they haven't included AM/FM radio in their phones.. it's a simple feature that would be a nice extra to have.

Fun fact! All iPhones do have radios in them, since they're part of wireless cellular chips by default. They're just disabled on the logic board
 

DrEvil

not a medical professional
are you being serious right now?


Yup, entirely.

I don't place MP3s on my iphone anymore, I stream all my music from spotify thanks to unlimited data.. but what if I'm in a place where there's no data, or if I god forbid want to listen to my favourite radio show while i'm out running or something similar?

It's archaic, sure, but why the fuck not?

Fun fact! All iPhones do have radios in them, since they're part of wireless cellular chips by default. They're just disabled on the logic board



Also this.
 

Dennis

Banned
Higher resolution screen
More durability
Waterproofing
Better camera
Better fingerprint scanner
Smaller bezels
More internal storage
Long-term: foldable/stretchable display. Physically morphing display, etc.

Those all sound nice, sure, but I can't honestly say that any of those things are that big a deal to me. Already, current gen iPhones are pretty damn good in those areas.
 

icespide

Banned
seems like some people are interpreting this as "new iPhone every 3 years" which isn't correct. there will still be a new iPhone every year, what this rumor is saying is that the major design refresh will be happen every 3 years instead of every 2
 

Somnid

Member
Yup, entirely.

I don't place MP3s on my iphone anymore, I stream all my music from spotify thanks to unlimited data.. but what if I'm in a place where there's no data, or if I god forbid want to listen to my favourite radio show while i'm out running or something similar?

It's archaic, sure, but why the fuck not?


Also this.

Because then you're more likely to be happy with OTA and not buy a Apple Music sub to listen to Beats 1. Same reason nobody seems keen on adding TV tuners to these devices.
 
Those all sound nice, sure, but I can't honestly say that any of those things are that big a deal to me. Already, current gen iPhones are pretty damn good in those areas.

Especially the fingerprint sensor. I mean, make it so it works better with a wet finger. Other than that the thing is flawless for me.
 
This is possible, but I think it's more likely that the reason we're getting a "look alike" iPhone this year is because next year is the tenth anniversary of iPhone and they want that one to be the fresh design.

So I'm guessing after next year, we'll go back to the normal "tick tock" cycle.
 
Because then you're more likely to be happy with OTA and not buy a Apple Music sub to listen to Beats 1. Same reason nobody seems keen on adding TV tuners to these devices.

Don't know if I agree. We all have access to apps like Tune-In and can stream OTA music like that. I still would subscribe to a music service as I don't want ads and want on demand playback.

I do want AM/FM in my phone just for emergency situations such as a hurricane where cell towers may be down but I can at least listen for emergency updates.
 

SMattera

Member
Those all sound nice, sure, but I can't honestly say that any of those things are that big a deal to me. Already, current gen iPhones are pretty damn good in those areas.

Not really. I know plenty of people that have ruined their iPhones by spilling water on it. I know even more that have cracked their screens when they didn't use a case. My 6s fingerprint scanner generally works well, but if my hands are even mildly wet, it doesn't work whatsoever. The bezels on the current crop of iPhones are utterly massive compared to many of their Android counterparts. 16GB of internal storage is pathetic in this day and age. The Plus models have solid battery life, but by solid, I mean 1 day of heavy use. 2-3 days would be much better. Everyone forgets to charge overnight every now and then. Quick charging is something I miss from my Galaxy.

The screen resolution and camera are already pretty solid, but those could also be improved.
 

border

Member
You can still get a phone for $0 money down, so I don't see why people continually say "Subsidies are going away". All they did was make the subsidy more explicit and decouple it from your monthly service fees.
 

subrock

Member
I'm planning to hold off the iPhone 7 and this is the first time I've skipped a model in about 6 years, so I think the move is probably wise. I'll probably grab and Apple Watch 2 though.
 
The credit card thick chase needs to end. Even making phones a millimeter or two thicker can give extra hours of battery life.

I just bought a Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and it's 6.6mm thick at 298 grams. I think 7 or 8mm would still be just fine for weight in the interest of battery life.
 

icespide

Banned
You can still get a phone for $0 money down, so I don't see why people continually say "Subsidies are going away". All they did was make the subsidy more explicit and decouple it from your monthly service fees.

thematically its the same, in that it provides smaller up front costs for the phones, but there are actually financial differences between a phone subsidy and actually leasing the phone, there is an actual loan involved
 

Somnid

Member
Don't know if I agree. We all have access to apps like Tune-In and can stream OTA music like that. I still would subscribe to a music service as I don't want ads and want on demand playback.

I do want AM/FM in my phone just for emergency situations such as a hurricane where cell towers may be down but I can at least listen for emergency updates.

I'm in full agreement. I'd like radio too, I'd like radio tuning and streaming APIs so you could do cool things like run the weather channel through speech-to-text and have a fully offline weather app. I'd like to be able to record radio and save for later or integrate into apps in cool ways.

It's not about how you think you might use it, it's about how they think you might use it. Radio was locked for a long time on all phones because carriers wanted you to use your data plans, only recently with campaigns from NPR and co have they started to relax on that. Also, 3G is taken for granted, most apps aren't even designed to work without an internet connection because developers are stupid and lazy. All of this culminates in what I think is the biggest tragedy of modern devices, which is without internet it's a paper-weight.
 

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
My 6S Plus will last me for a few years, I won't be getting the 7 Plus since it'll be the same phone basically. iPhone 8 Plus sounds like it'll be the one to have, glad I can save money.
 

TheMan

Member
easier said than done, but apple has got to put out a new device that doesn't stall like the iwatch did. Their phones are all well and good, but really, how much better can they make the iphone? They can add new gimmicks but it's all bullshit unless they invent new battery tech that significantly improves what we have now.
 
Makes perfect sense.

Nobody NEEDS to buy a new phone every year.
Most phones are perfectly fine for people for 3 years or more.

Not to mention carriers are aiming more for financing phones now, rather than locking in 2-year contracts. So people are keeping their phones at least until they pay off their current phones.

They may as well wait until they have a slew of new features to reveal, not just a couple useless gimmicks.

The whole industry should be doing this.
 

gimmmick

Member
The hardware has matured and people are using their phones longer then the 2 year mark. I applaud apple for this, no need to have a new device every 2 years when the phones we use are still good for every day task. I plan on using my iPhone 6s for as long as I get upgrades. It's the perfect phone for me and do not see any point into upgrading anytime soon .
 

SMattera

Member
You can still get a phone for $0 money down, so I don't see why people continually say "Subsidies are going away". All they did was make the subsidy more explicit and decouple it from your monthly service fees.

Under the old system, if you bought a cheap phone or if you didn't upgrade every two years like clockwork, you were basically an idiot. You were throwing money away. Whether you were a using a (back then) top of the line iPhone 4, or some crappy Pantech, AT&T was going to charge you $100/mo regardless.

Now your bill can vary wildly based on what phone you're using. That's really the fundamental difference.

You can trade in your phone and upgrade more frequently if you desire now, but you can also stick with an older phone, or get a cheaper phone to save money.

There had been a lot of debate over what effect this shift would have. Would people upgrade every single year? Or would they upgrade less to save money? Or would the two cancel eachother out? Anecdotally, it looks like people are using these new plans to upgrade less often, although maybe it's a byproduct of general fatigue, less impressive hardware improvements.
 

border

Member
thematically its the same, in that it provides smaller up front costs for the phones, but there are actually financial differences between a phone subsidy and actually leasing the phone, there is an actual loan involved

What is the difference between contract subsidy and the current monthly payments model? Even with the old subsidy you always needed good credit to get a phone, and failing to stay for your contract's term resulted in a massive termination fee. It was, for all intents and purposes, a loan that you repaid over two years (in the form of bloated service fees) or that you repaid with a $400 ETF.
 
Sounds perfect to me. I have my iPhone at the size I wanted, and it's as fast and as powerful as I need. I could honestly see it lasting 3-4 years barring some unforeseen accident or an upgrade I can't live without. More time between releases will give the engineers more time to cook up substantial improvements too. Have at it.

Too bad for people paying for the AT&T next or whatever it is though! What's the benefit without a new model to upgrade to for 2-3 years?
 

icespide

Banned
Sounds perfect to me. I have my iPhone at the size I wanted, and it's as fast and as powerful as I need. I could honestly see it lasting 3-4 years barring some unforeseen accident or an upgrade I can't live without. More time between releases will give the engineers more time to cook up substantial improvements too. Have at it.

Too bad for people paying for the AT&T next or whatever it is though! What's the benefit without a new model to upgrade to for 2-3 years?

there will still be a new iPhone every year
 

Guevara

Member
I wonder if increased efficiencies would actual make this a more profitable model for Apple, despite the loss of yearly upgrade novelty.
 

Koyuga

Member
This makes me feel even better about probably jumping ship and getting a Galaxy S7 Edge. I'll come back after a bit for the actual iPhone 7.
 
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