6 ms·

You aren't forced to buy a new iPhone, better yet the one you have probably doesn't really need to be upgraded at all. Apple will understand you're displeasure

You aren't forced to buy a new iPhone, better yet the one you have probably doesn't really need to be upgraded at all. Apple will understand you're displeasure if you vote w/your wallet; they won't care about your displeasure if you tweet them or complain in the comments section.

treehau5 10y ago
You aren't forced, just coercively "suggested" into it, via updates pushed out by the carrier that inevitably make your phone run slower than a Celeron laptop from the early 2000s
- gambiting 10y ago
  At least you get latest updates, unlike phones from literally any other manufacturer. If it's not the top-range model then you can consider yourself lucky to get even one update before the phone is completely forgotten.
  - fluxquanta 10y ago
    This is one of the two reasons I switched to an iPhone after being a staunch Android supporter since the first Samsung Galaxy device. The other being the fact that I was sick of my carrier installing branded software without my explicit consent. No Sprint, I'm not and never will be interested in your NASCAR app.
    - Godel_unicode 10y ago
      This is a false dichotomy, there are Android phones which are distributed using the Apple model (straight from the vendor with no cruft, activate on whatever carrier you want). Moto X, for instance.
  - smt88 10y ago
    Not true of Nexus and some HTC devices. Moto phones used to be the same way, but I'm not sure what Lenovo's doing with that brand. My original Moto X was my favorite phone ever. Android has a lot of choice, but that also means extra work to find the phone that works for you. I won't even consider a phone that isn't "vanilla" Android and backed by a guarantee of upgrades (so basically I'm stuck on Nexus).
    - treehau5 10y ago
      Sounds like a good place to be stuck at.
- rayiner 10y ago
  You don't have to upgrade your iOS.
  - Volt 10y ago
    At the risk of…?
  - pyre 10y ago
    But... this also means that you don't get security updates.
  - gergles 10y ago
    Eh, you pretty much do. If you want to use any apps to interact with websites, Apple's aggressive upgrade treadmill forces you to upgrade your iOS to upgrade your apps to continue using what you're already happy with.
  - dceddia 10y ago
    It's getting harder and harder to avoid, though. Every single day, my iPhone pops up a box asking if I want to upgrade to the latest 9.whatever. It does this in the morning, when I'm tired... or at other seemingly-random times of the day. It offers 3 options: "Install Now", "Install Tonight", and "Ask me Later". There is no "Stop asking me" option. One of these days I will slip up and hit Install Now, and probably lose the use of my phone for the next hour.
  - basch 10y ago
    your apps stop updating, and when web service apis change your app stops working. ios is nothing like your copy of photoshop 5 still working.
dasil003 10y ago
I understand your point: if sales go up then it matters fuck all how many people complain (see: Facebook redesigns and growth from 2004-2011). However, ideally you will both not purchase and complain publicly, preferably with well-reasoned arguments. Not only will this potentially help dissuade far more people from purchasing a new iPhone than your meager 1-person boycott will, but you can bet there are factions inside Apple that fought tooth and nail against this change, and a large amount of press supporting their opinion helps them make the case internally.
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  I take a similar tack when upset with a retail establishment. Rather than angrily claiming "I'm never coming back! And I'm telling my friends to never come here again!" which they've all heard ten million times, I try this: "I've been a customer for years, and this experience disappoints me. I've come to expect more from you folks. I hope in future we can come to a better conclusion. Is there somebody I can talk to about my concerns?" They (sometimes) look alarmed/turn white, and often get a manager. Of course this is just retail outlets, not manufacturers.
  - Grishnakh 10y ago
    Retail stores are much more connected to their local communities, and more worried about individual customers. They also believe more in the old saw that for every 1 person who complains, there's 9 more who just walked away. And finally, there usually is real competition in place for any given retail store. Big global manufacturers don't really see that, and don't care. If people are going to continue to buy from them regardless, they have little incentive to listen to their petty concerns. While there is significant competition for the iPhone (called Android), Apple is extremely profitable, far more so than Android, and there doesn't seem to be any limit to how much Apple can squeeze its customers.
coldtea 10y ago
I've always updated to the latest iOS the very day it appeared, and never had those "slowness" problems. Not sure where people see them, and who objectively measured them.
TillE 10y ago
Ironically, I switched from Android to an iPhone 6 partially due to Apple's high-quality headphone jacks, after having two really bad experiences with expensive Android phones. I'll be happy enough to switch back if Apple really shoots themselves in the foot like this, but despite the rumors, I still think it's extremely unlikely.
deelowe 10y ago
When an industry leader makes decisions that are anti-consumer, other members in the industry have a duty to speak up. Whether we support Apple or not as a consumer is irrelevant. We also don't have to use IE as a browser, windows as an OS, cisco devices for networking, or anything else. That doesn't mean we won't take issue when a market leader makes a decision that will take the industry in a bad direction. Just like how the industry rallied against IE and pushed for open standards on the web, the hardware industry is calling foul on this decision for the very same reason. We need hardware to remain open and standard in the exact same ways and for the exact same reasons we need our browsers to be. Mark my words, this change is about DRM. It's about music, movies and TV. It's about ensuring that the apple store is able to attract and retain more publishers than everyone else. It's about lock-in and not just hardware lock-in but DRM/licensing lock in. The very first thing we'll see after this is implemented is a protocol to secure audio transition similar to what's been implemented in hdmi. This isn't about thinner phones. If it were, they'ed just implement a smaller analog solution. It's not like the phone is pushing 10 amps through that connector. It would be trivial to make it smaller.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  You have to put your money where your mouth is. If you "call foul" on Apple, but continue sending them your money for their new iPhone sans headphone jack, then you're a hypocrite and Apple has no incentive to listen to your complaints. IE (6 mainly, that was what everyone was complaining about the most) finally failed not because of people "calling foul" on it, it failed because people abandoned the thing and used alternatives like Firefox and Chrome. When the marketshare for IE finally dried up enough, web designers stopped targeting it, making it even more useless for web browsing, and MS was forced to attempt to make changes. They still haven't caught up. "Calling foul" on an industry leader is useless, unless you're trying to convince people to abandon that leader and switch to an alternative. You're not going to get the leader to change because it's the "right" thing to do, they'll only change because their profits are in jeopardy. Ditching the headphone jack is the right thing for Apple to do because it'll make them more money: people will buy expensive dongle adapters, or overpriced new Beats headphones. If consumers don't like this, it's their job to not buy the new iPhone, just like Windows users finally wised up and stopped using IE6.

treehau5 10y ago

You aren't forced, just coercively "suggested" into it, via updates pushed out by the carrier that inevitably make your phone run slower than a Celeron laptop from the early 2000s

gambiting 10y ago
At least you get latest updates, unlike phones from literally any other manufacturer. If it's not the top-range model then you can consider yourself lucky to get even one update before the phone is completely forgotten.
- fluxquanta 10y ago
  This is one of the two reasons I switched to an iPhone after being a staunch Android supporter since the first Samsung Galaxy device. The other being the fact that I was sick of my carrier installing branded software without my explicit consent. No Sprint, I'm not and never will be interested in your NASCAR app.
  - Godel_unicode 10y ago
    This is a false dichotomy, there are Android phones which are distributed using the Apple model (straight from the vendor with no cruft, activate on whatever carrier you want). Moto X, for instance.
- smt88 10y ago
  Not true of Nexus and some HTC devices. Moto phones used to be the same way, but I'm not sure what Lenovo's doing with that brand. My original Moto X was my favorite phone ever. Android has a lot of choice, but that also means extra work to find the phone that works for you. I won't even consider a phone that isn't "vanilla" Android and backed by a guarantee of upgrades (so basically I'm stuck on Nexus).
  - treehau5 10y ago
    Sounds like a good place to be stuck at.
rayiner 10y ago
You don't have to upgrade your iOS.
- Volt 10y ago
  At the risk of…?
- pyre 10y ago
  But... this also means that you don't get security updates.
- gergles 10y ago
  Eh, you pretty much do. If you want to use any apps to interact with websites, Apple's aggressive upgrade treadmill forces you to upgrade your iOS to upgrade your apps to continue using what you're already happy with.
- dceddia 10y ago
  It's getting harder and harder to avoid, though. Every single day, my iPhone pops up a box asking if I want to upgrade to the latest 9.whatever. It does this in the morning, when I'm tired... or at other seemingly-random times of the day. It offers 3 options: "Install Now", "Install Tonight", and "Ask me Later". There is no "Stop asking me" option. One of these days I will slip up and hit Install Now, and probably lose the use of my phone for the next hour.
- basch 10y ago
  your apps stop updating, and when web service apis change your app stops working. ios is nothing like your copy of photoshop 5 still working.

dasil003 10y ago

I understand your point: if sales go up then it matters fuck all how many people complain (see: Facebook redesigns and growth from 2004-2011). However, ideally you will both not purchase and complain publicly, preferably with well-reasoned arguments. Not only will this potentially help dissuade far more people from purchasing a new iPhone than your meager 1-person boycott will, but you can bet there are factions inside Apple that fought tooth and nail against this change, and a large amount of press supporting their opinion helps them make the case internally.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
I take a similar tack when upset with a retail establishment. Rather than angrily claiming "I'm never coming back! And I'm telling my friends to never come here again!" which they've all heard ten million times, I try this: "I've been a customer for years, and this experience disappoints me. I've come to expect more from you folks. I hope in future we can come to a better conclusion. Is there somebody I can talk to about my concerns?" They (sometimes) look alarmed/turn white, and often get a manager. Of course this is just retail outlets, not manufacturers.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  Retail stores are much more connected to their local communities, and more worried about individual customers. They also believe more in the old saw that for every 1 person who complains, there's 9 more who just walked away. And finally, there usually is real competition in place for any given retail store. Big global manufacturers don't really see that, and don't care. If people are going to continue to buy from them regardless, they have little incentive to listen to their petty concerns. While there is significant competition for the iPhone (called Android), Apple is extremely profitable, far more so than Android, and there doesn't seem to be any limit to how much Apple can squeeze its customers.

coldtea 10y ago

I've always updated to the latest iOS the very day it appeared, and never had those "slowness" problems. Not sure where people see them, and who objectively measured them.

TillE 10y ago

Ironically, I switched from Android to an iPhone 6 partially due to Apple's high-quality headphone jacks, after having two really bad experiences with expensive Android phones. I'll be happy enough to switch back if Apple really shoots themselves in the foot like this, but despite the rumors, I still think it's extremely unlikely.

deelowe 10y ago

When an industry leader makes decisions that are anti-consumer, other members in the industry have a duty to speak up. Whether we support Apple or not as a consumer is irrelevant. We also don't have to use IE as a browser, windows as an OS, cisco devices for networking, or anything else. That doesn't mean we won't take issue when a market leader makes a decision that will take the industry in a bad direction. Just like how the industry rallied against IE and pushed for open standards on the web, the hardware industry is calling foul on this decision for the very same reason. We need hardware to remain open and standard in the exact same ways and for the exact same reasons we need our browsers to be. Mark my words, this change is about DRM. It's about music, movies and TV. It's about ensuring that the apple store is able to attract and retain more publishers than everyone else. It's about lock-in and not just hardware lock-in but DRM/licensing lock in. The very first thing we'll see after this is implemented is a protocol to secure audio transition similar to what's been implemented in hdmi. This isn't about thinner phones. If it were, they'ed just implement a smaller analog solution. It's not like the phone is pushing 10 amps through that connector. It would be trivial to make it smaller.

Grishnakh 10y ago
You have to put your money where your mouth is. If you "call foul" on Apple, but continue sending them your money for their new iPhone sans headphone jack, then you're a hypocrite and Apple has no incentive to listen to your complaints. IE (6 mainly, that was what everyone was complaining about the most) finally failed not because of people "calling foul" on it, it failed because people abandoned the thing and used alternatives like Firefox and Chrome. When the marketshare for IE finally dried up enough, web designers stopped targeting it, making it even more useless for web browsing, and MS was forced to attempt to make changes. They still haven't caught up. "Calling foul" on an industry leader is useless, unless you're trying to convince people to abandon that leader and switch to an alternative. You're not going to get the leader to change because it's the "right" thing to do, they'll only change because their profits are in jeopardy. Ditching the headphone jack is the right thing for Apple to do because it'll make them more money: people will buy expensive dongle adapters, or overpriced new Beats headphones. If consumers don't like this, it's their job to not buy the new iPhone, just like Windows users finally wised up and stopped using IE6.