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Is there a whole lot of difference between “iPhone 15” and “iPhone (2023)”? Aside from the fact that relegating the version number to parentheses makes it more

by jl6 4y ago

Is there a whole lot of difference between “iPhone 15” and “iPhone (2023)”? Aside from the fact that relegating the version number to parentheses makes it more likely to be omitted and thus more likely to cause confusion for users trying to troubleshoot. I like the version number being explicit and visible. You know what you’re getting. Pretending versions don’t exist just reminds me of OEMs swapping out components but keeping the same model number, making it impossible to know whether you are buying one built to the original design or to a cheaper design.

its_ethan 4y ago
For what it's worth, swapping out material/ updating parts and not changing model numbers already happens a lot in consumer tech. Making changes after launch and initial mass production runs in order to average down cost or fix known issues is a fairly common practice at large hardware companies (Apple/Google/Samsung/Tesla). It's seldom changing the display or battery size or anything immediately customer facing, but there's hundreds of components that each act as a knob for performance and cost that get tweaked over time.