3 ms·

The iPhone without then apps that run on it is somewhat interesting, but is largely a novelty Others might have a different perspective. For example, personall

The iPhone without then apps that run on it is somewhat interesting, but is largely a novelty Others might have a different perspective. For example, personally I use an iPhone because the following are my requirements in descending order of priority: 1. I now need a smartphone running one of the two major platforms. 2. I do not want anything to do with Google, ever. 3. I don't like a lot of what Apple do but they aren't as bad as Google. I do use a small number of third party apps on my iPhone, because they are now a practical necessity to function as part of society without extreme restrictions. For example, I do not want to spend 20 minutes trying to navigate a phone system with bad voice recognition in a noisy environment just to pay for 30 minutes of parking, nor do I want to break the law, and that leaves exactly one other option in many of the places I visit: use one of the well-known parking apps. Other than using those few essential apps when I have to, I mostly use my phone as it was when it came out of the box: for communications, as a poor-but-present web browsing device, and as a general tool with a useful camera, mic and light.

Apocryphon 5y ago
Ask yourself this, then. Would you be content to replace your iPhone with an older iPhone that fulfills the same needs? Maybe an iPhone 6S for a half-decent camera by today's standards? Or even an iPhone 5c? If you only need it for essential needs, how basic should an iPhone be?
- oarsinsync 5y ago
  I'd gladly go back to my iPhone SE (2016) if I could downgrade it back to iOS 13, where it was able to do both turn-by-turn navigation and music playback when using wired CarPlay. The only reason I bought a new iPhone was because that functionality stopped working reliably under iOS 14, and it effectively became and either/or proposition, which wasn't acceptable.
- r00fus 5y ago
  Absolutely - till this year I was rocking an iPhone 7+ as my daily driver. If the screen didn’t crack I’d have kept it for another year. I put on a screen protector, gave it away to a friends kid, and I hear he still uses it.
- Silhouette 5y ago
  No, I wouldn't use a much older Apple phone. One of the things I really dislike about Apple is that they don't give clear statements of how long they will provide software updates and in particular security updates for on each product. For a device like a phone that is inherently connecting to external networks all the time, I regard those updates as essential. There also seem to be some vulnerabilities inherent in the design of older iPhones that have been addressed in newer models. Another thing I really dislike about Apple is that iOS Safari lags behind everyone else in the industry when it comes to new features and supporting high performance pages. Regardless of why you believe this is the case, again an older device that either no longer gets updates or is unlikely to get many more is a liability. Finally, while the camera on older iPhones might be half-decent by today's standards, I prefer one that is actually decent.
salamandersauce 5y ago
Why do you need one of the two major platforms if not for apps? Without your parking app available for example on iOS would you still pick the iPhone? Or would you settle for Google and Android? Without third party apps the iPhone would just be a feature phone with a very nice web browser. Now there's probably people that get away entirely with just the built in set of apps but I bet that's eroding day by day as more and more things require or are greatly simplified by apps, like banking, parking,eetc .
- Silhouette 5y ago
  Yes, the small number of essential apps are why I need a smartphone on one of the two dominant platforms. As you say, it's mostly for "official business", and those apps are invariably free and typically provided by or used with some "official" organisation. I don't need them often, but when I do, there may be no sensible alternative any more. If it weren't for those, I think personally I would be quite happy to have more of a "dumbphone". A digital Swiss army knife is a very useful device. A poor imitation of general purpose computing is not, and something like a laptop or a desktop workstation is a more suitable tool in that case.

Apocryphon 5y ago

Ask yourself this, then. Would you be content to replace your iPhone with an older iPhone that fulfills the same needs? Maybe an iPhone 6S for a half-decent camera by today's standards? Or even an iPhone 5c? If you only need it for essential needs, how basic should an iPhone be?

oarsinsync 5y ago
I'd gladly go back to my iPhone SE (2016) if I could downgrade it back to iOS 13, where it was able to do both turn-by-turn navigation and music playback when using wired CarPlay. The only reason I bought a new iPhone was because that functionality stopped working reliably under iOS 14, and it effectively became and either/or proposition, which wasn't acceptable.
r00fus 5y ago
Absolutely - till this year I was rocking an iPhone 7+ as my daily driver. If the screen didn’t crack I’d have kept it for another year. I put on a screen protector, gave it away to a friends kid, and I hear he still uses it.
Silhouette 5y ago
No, I wouldn't use a much older Apple phone. One of the things I really dislike about Apple is that they don't give clear statements of how long they will provide software updates and in particular security updates for on each product. For a device like a phone that is inherently connecting to external networks all the time, I regard those updates as essential. There also seem to be some vulnerabilities inherent in the design of older iPhones that have been addressed in newer models. Another thing I really dislike about Apple is that iOS Safari lags behind everyone else in the industry when it comes to new features and supporting high performance pages. Regardless of why you believe this is the case, again an older device that either no longer gets updates or is unlikely to get many more is a liability. Finally, while the camera on older iPhones might be half-decent by today's standards, I prefer one that is actually decent.

salamandersauce 5y ago

Why do you need one of the two major platforms if not for apps? Without your parking app available for example on iOS would you still pick the iPhone? Or would you settle for Google and Android? Without third party apps the iPhone would just be a feature phone with a very nice web browser. Now there's probably people that get away entirely with just the built in set of apps but I bet that's eroding day by day as more and more things require or are greatly simplified by apps, like banking, parking,eetc .

Silhouette 5y ago
Yes, the small number of essential apps are why I need a smartphone on one of the two dominant platforms. As you say, it's mostly for "official business", and those apps are invariably free and typically provided by or used with some "official" organisation. I don't need them often, but when I do, there may be no sensible alternative any more. If it weren't for those, I think personally I would be quite happy to have more of a "dumbphone". A digital Swiss army knife is a very useful device. A poor imitation of general purpose computing is not, and something like a laptop or a desktop workstation is a more suitable tool in that case.