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I'm just surprised that people need devices. I have an iPhone and no desire to replace it -- it's basically perfect at this point. To some extent, I wonder wh

I'm just surprised that people need devices. I have an iPhone and no desire to replace it -- it's basically perfect at this point. To some extent, I wonder what the future looks like for Apple. It's like some God gave them the golden goose, the iPhone, and I just wonder what happens when people are done buying those. (It's hard to imagine a world where people aren't buying $1200 phones, but it was also hard to imagine the world in 1990 where people weren't buying $1200 personal computers. So what does 2050 look like for Apple?)

fartcannon 5y ago
The future looks like what youve already seen. They'll degrade the battery/performance with every upgrade. When they get caught they'll claim it was for your benefit, someone will defend them, someone will accuse that person of shilling, and the discussion will fade into down voted history.
- darkteflon 5y ago
  Every time I read comments like this, I look around me at the plethora of Apple products that are 4, 5, 6 (mostly) trouble-free years old, mostly still receiving software updates to this day, and I think to myself: this comment does not at all accord with my lived experience.
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    And there it is, the defence. Now for the flamewar: The iPhone 6s.
  - SilverRed 5y ago
    Also apple does very reasonable battery replacements and has stores in many locations to do this.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    Well there are a lot of people on HN so there is bound to be someone who gets a lemon and then extrapolates that to the entirety of apple products.
- eevilspock 5y ago
  fartcannon indeed
- AnonC 5y ago
  You’re really, really poorly informed on the battery issues. Apple didn’t slow phones down. It’s a basic fact of physics and chemistry that all rechargeable batteries will lose capacity over time, even if they’re not used. Once the capacity loss is high enough, the battery cannot supply enough current for demanding times and the phone would just shutdown without warning. All that Apple did was slow down the processor to avoid shutdowns so that phones with older and aged batteries could be usable for longer. This is contrary to ignorant allegations like yours. What I’ve said above is not new. IIRC, Android also followed in the same footsteps much later.
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    You know what would fix that? Replaceable batteries. And they lost the lawsuit.
    - andylynch 5y ago
      I can think of 8-10 places in walking distance of my house where I can get a new iPhone battery installed. Although it’s more fun to do it yourself!
JKCalhoun 5y ago
Cameras get better with each phone iteration. So there's that. Several years ago I would have had no idea that I would be able to hand-hold a 2-second low light shot with my iPhone camera. What next?
- cronix 5y ago
  The camera is literally the only reason I upgraded my 5 year old phone. There isn't really an app I use that runs better on the new phone vs the old, except the camera app of course, so it was an expensive camera upgrade (with new battery!).
boardwaalk 5y ago
AR glasses to beam what used to be on your iPhone straight into your eyeballs at all times, is what Apple thinks, according to rumours.
thesausageking 5y ago
I upgrade every 2 years. The processors and cameras get better every cycle and I use my phone so much that it's worth it to have a better experience. While $1200 seems like a lot, that's ~$40 /mo over 2 years (including the trade in value) for something I use for hours every day.
- lmm 5y ago
  Do the new processors and cameras actually give you a better experience though? I used to upgrade regularly, but I'm still using my S10+ and I'm honestly not sure I'd've replaced my S8+ if it hadn't been stolen, I don't really notice a whole lot of difference. (If anything I miss the coloured notification light from the S7+).
  - tikkabhuna 5y ago
    I've found diminishing returns with upgrades recently. Since I got my iPhone XS I haven't seen anything pushing me to upgrade. I'll probably upgrade this year just to give my XS to my partner who is on a 6 and no longer receives updates.
    - stjohnswarts 5y ago
      Yeah, it's funny when people talk about workloads on their phone lol. I use it to text, make calls, slack for work, watch the occassional video and take some pictures. I'm not exactly batch processing 3d renderings on my phone and I suspect that 99% of the people out there aren't either. My 3 year old iphone is doing fine. as long as it gets security updates and isn't laggy it gets to live.
  - thesausageking 5y ago
    Yes. It's not that the old phone is unusable, but the new one will be noticeably faster and that's worth it to me. My most recent upgrade was going from an XR to an iPhone 12. If you compare the benchmarks, the 12 is ~30-50% faster for most workloads. And you can feel the difference when you switch between them.
adrianN 5y ago
I recently bought a used iPhone 7 because it will probably still receive software updates in two years. I had to retire a Samsung Nexus because SSL stopped working. Apple currently provides updates for fairly old phones, I hope they keep it up.

fartcannon 5y ago

The future looks like what youve already seen. They'll degrade the battery/performance with every upgrade. When they get caught they'll claim it was for your benefit, someone will defend them, someone will accuse that person of shilling, and the discussion will fade into down voted history.

darkteflon 5y ago
Every time I read comments like this, I look around me at the plethora of Apple products that are 4, 5, 6 (mostly) trouble-free years old, mostly still receiving software updates to this day, and I think to myself: this comment does not at all accord with my lived experience.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  And there it is, the defence. Now for the flamewar: The iPhone 6s.
- SilverRed 5y ago
  Also apple does very reasonable battery replacements and has stores in many locations to do this.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Well there are a lot of people on HN so there is bound to be someone who gets a lemon and then extrapolates that to the entirety of apple products.
eevilspock 5y ago
fartcannon indeed
AnonC 5y ago
You’re really, really poorly informed on the battery issues. Apple didn’t slow phones down. It’s a basic fact of physics and chemistry that all rechargeable batteries will lose capacity over time, even if they’re not used. Once the capacity loss is high enough, the battery cannot supply enough current for demanding times and the phone would just shutdown without warning. All that Apple did was slow down the processor to avoid shutdowns so that phones with older and aged batteries could be usable for longer. This is contrary to ignorant allegations like yours. What I’ve said above is not new. IIRC, Android also followed in the same footsteps much later.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  You know what would fix that? Replaceable batteries. And they lost the lawsuit.
  - andylynch 5y ago
    I can think of 8-10 places in walking distance of my house where I can get a new iPhone battery installed. Although it’s more fun to do it yourself!

JKCalhoun 5y ago

Cameras get better with each phone iteration. So there's that. Several years ago I would have had no idea that I would be able to hand-hold a 2-second low light shot with my iPhone camera. What next?

cronix 5y ago
The camera is literally the only reason I upgraded my 5 year old phone. There isn't really an app I use that runs better on the new phone vs the old, except the camera app of course, so it was an expensive camera upgrade (with new battery!).

boardwaalk 5y ago

AR glasses to beam what used to be on your iPhone straight into your eyeballs at all times, is what Apple thinks, according to rumours.

thesausageking 5y ago

I upgrade every 2 years. The processors and cameras get better every cycle and I use my phone so much that it's worth it to have a better experience. While $1200 seems like a lot, that's ~$40 /mo over 2 years (including the trade in value) for something I use for hours every day.

lmm 5y ago
Do the new processors and cameras actually give you a better experience though? I used to upgrade regularly, but I'm still using my S10+ and I'm honestly not sure I'd've replaced my S8+ if it hadn't been stolen, I don't really notice a whole lot of difference. (If anything I miss the coloured notification light from the S7+).
- tikkabhuna 5y ago
  I've found diminishing returns with upgrades recently. Since I got my iPhone XS I haven't seen anything pushing me to upgrade. I'll probably upgrade this year just to give my XS to my partner who is on a 6 and no longer receives updates.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    Yeah, it's funny when people talk about workloads on their phone lol. I use it to text, make calls, slack for work, watch the occassional video and take some pictures. I'm not exactly batch processing 3d renderings on my phone and I suspect that 99% of the people out there aren't either. My 3 year old iphone is doing fine. as long as it gets security updates and isn't laggy it gets to live.
- thesausageking 5y ago
  Yes. It's not that the old phone is unusable, but the new one will be noticeably faster and that's worth it to me. My most recent upgrade was going from an XR to an iPhone 12. If you compare the benchmarks, the 12 is ~30-50% faster for most workloads. And you can feel the difference when you switch between them.

adrianN 5y ago

I recently bought a used iPhone 7 because it will probably still receive software updates in two years. I had to retire a Samsung Nexus because SSL stopped working. Apple currently provides updates for fairly old phones, I hope they keep it up.