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As the article says: The news is disappointing, but we don't think most people will care too much. Few sync their phones to a computer with iTune

As the article says: The news is disappointing, but we don't think most people will care too much. Few sync their phones to a computer with iTunes these days. I can imagine Apple differentiating models (duh) to entice people to buy the fancier model but I can't imagine this particular thing is part of some strategy to spur upgrades because I can't imagine this being a useful carrot to dangle. I'm trying to think of a use case where I'd even want to plug an iPhone into my computer. I guess if you're doing local backups, or if you have a limited internet connection and you'd like to sync downloaded media from your computer to your phone directly. That cannot even be 1% of users, though, can it? Maybe 0.1%?

tacker2000 3y ago
I for one only do local backups of my iphone every other week to my laptop using a cable because i dont want to pay for extra icloud storage. i also ocasionally sync some songs that way. Im probably in the minority though.
- walthamstow 3y ago
  You are in a tiny minority. One of my favourite things to do when hanging out with normies is ask how many of the iPhone users in the group pay Apple monthly for services. Usually every single one is paying at least £0.99.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    I have been surprised multiple times by people who I know who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, yet complain about not having enough space on their phone or losing data when they break their phone. They have no problem spending an extra $50k on a car, or flying to a destination every other weekend, but ~$240 to $360 per year for online backup or $200 to $300 extra for more capacity is too much.
    - matwood 3y ago
      Almost like humans are not always rational /s
    - ghaff 3y ago
      Paying extra for storage as your collection of Apple devices tend to grow over time always seemed like a bit of nickel and dimeing on Apple's part, but as you say, the amounts involved really aren't all that much in the scheme of things.
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        Given the amount of utility people get from their smartphones, I cannot even see it as nickel and dime-ing. The price to utility ratio is surely among the lowest for what people pay for things in their life.
  - chrischen 3y ago
    Even if we are in the minority Apple makes the local backup a second class citizen so the experience suffers, pushing more people to pay for cloud backups.
layer8 3y ago
> That cannot even be 1% of users, though, can it? It can certainly be, worldwide. There’s people living in rural regions, and people wanting fast transfers from their digital camera, and people not wanting to back up into the cloud, or not wanting to pay for iCloud, and people wanting to quickly sync their music/photo/video collection on their PC or Mac. Several of my relatives fall into that category, despite being non-technical. Incidentally, the current iPad mini 6 supports USB 3 transfer speeds (5 Gbps), although not being a Pro model, so it’d be disappointing if the iPhone 15 doesn’t. There doesn’t seem to be a technical reason why it shouldn’t.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- Terretta 3y ago
  At the same time, the amount of new content in a backup is negligible thanks to making OTA backups viable.
  - layer8 3y ago
    That doesn’t help when switching devices or restoring from a backup. And when you’re working with video or map data or other large data, then the new data isn’t negligible.
kylec 3y ago
As an iOS developer I plug my iPhone into my computer to deploy and run the apps I'm working on onto it. Maybe it's because I work on small apps, but even then I haven't felt limited by the USB 2.0 speed. I really don't think this will be an issue for the vast majority of iPhone customers.
super256 3y ago
> I'm trying to think of a use case where I'd even want to plug an iPhone into my computer Recording ProRes footage on iPhone writes 6GB per Minute to storage. Sounds like you need a Mac with AirDrop to copy this off your phone quickly, as normal cables won’t be viable.
ghaff 3y ago
>I'm trying to think of a use case where I'd even want to plug an iPhone into my computer. I do it periodically to pull photos off my phone to put them into my Lightroom catalog. There are other ways I could do this but this is the most straightforward for me.
- instagib 3y ago
  Same. I have several family members and backup their pictures as well as with a dslr real camera to one location. Then they can pull whatever they want. Or transfer ringtones, music, side loading development apps, and perform backups. One thing I’ve noticed is sometimes when texting that pictures are sent as lower quality. Direct connect bypasses that issue. A group chat with one android phone, low power mode, and some odd phone settings cause poor quality pictures to be sent.

tacker2000 3y ago

I for one only do local backups of my iphone every other week to my laptop using a cable because i dont want to pay for extra icloud storage. i also ocasionally sync some songs that way. Im probably in the minority though.

walthamstow 3y ago
You are in a tiny minority. One of my favourite things to do when hanging out with normies is ask how many of the iPhone users in the group pay Apple monthly for services. Usually every single one is paying at least £0.99.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  I have been surprised multiple times by people who I know who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, yet complain about not having enough space on their phone or losing data when they break their phone. They have no problem spending an extra $50k on a car, or flying to a destination every other weekend, but ~$240 to $360 per year for online backup or $200 to $300 extra for more capacity is too much.
  - matwood 3y ago
    Almost like humans are not always rational /s
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Paying extra for storage as your collection of Apple devices tend to grow over time always seemed like a bit of nickel and dimeing on Apple's part, but as you say, the amounts involved really aren't all that much in the scheme of things.
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      Given the amount of utility people get from their smartphones, I cannot even see it as nickel and dime-ing. The price to utility ratio is surely among the lowest for what people pay for things in their life.
- chrischen 3y ago
  Even if we are in the minority Apple makes the local backup a second class citizen so the experience suffers, pushing more people to pay for cloud backups.

layer8 3y ago

> That cannot even be 1% of users, though, can it? It can certainly be, worldwide. There’s people living in rural regions, and people wanting fast transfers from their digital camera, and people not wanting to back up into the cloud, or not wanting to pay for iCloud, and people wanting to quickly sync their music/photo/video collection on their PC or Mac. Several of my relatives fall into that category, despite being non-technical. Incidentally, the current iPad mini 6 supports USB 3 transfer speeds (5 Gbps), although not being a Pro model, so it’d be disappointing if the iPhone 15 doesn’t. There doesn’t seem to be a technical reason why it shouldn’t.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Terretta 3y ago
At the same time, the amount of new content in a backup is negligible thanks to making OTA backups viable.
- layer8 3y ago
  That doesn’t help when switching devices or restoring from a backup. And when you’re working with video or map data or other large data, then the new data isn’t negligible.

kylec 3y ago

As an iOS developer I plug my iPhone into my computer to deploy and run the apps I'm working on onto it. Maybe it's because I work on small apps, but even then I haven't felt limited by the USB 2.0 speed. I really don't think this will be an issue for the vast majority of iPhone customers.

super256 3y ago

> I'm trying to think of a use case where I'd even want to plug an iPhone into my computer Recording ProRes footage on iPhone writes 6GB per Minute to storage. Sounds like you need a Mac with AirDrop to copy this off your phone quickly, as normal cables won’t be viable.

ghaff 3y ago

>I'm trying to think of a use case where I'd even want to plug an iPhone into my computer. I do it periodically to pull photos off my phone to put them into my Lightroom catalog. There are other ways I could do this but this is the most straightforward for me.

instagib 3y ago
Same. I have several family members and backup their pictures as well as with a dslr real camera to one location. Then they can pull whatever they want. Or transfer ringtones, music, side loading development apps, and perform backups. One thing I’ve noticed is sometimes when texting that pictures are sent as lower quality. Direct connect bypasses that issue. A group chat with one android phone, low power mode, and some odd phone settings cause poor quality pictures to be sent.