Becky Hansmeyer, talking about her feelings on the recent iPhone event, and not being as excited as in previous years:
I’ve always thought of the “S” models as being inherently cooler than their number-only counterparts. Every time I upgraded my phone, it got dramatically better. The iPhone 4s had an 8 megapixel camera, took 1080p video, and came with Siri. The 5s got the A7 chip and TouchID, and the 6s brought 3D Touch, a 12 megapixel camera, 4K video, and Live Photos. There was something exciting about being on that particular cycle and I find myself feeling the loss of that this year. I’m upgrading my phone, but I’m not pumped about it.
I had a similar experience. Maybe it was a big feature, or the annoying focus on 5G, but it just felt like there was no peak.
But, it could also be due to the fact that there's not that much more exciting things that can be done in a phone. Just like Becky mentions:
I will say, it’s getting harder and harder for me to imagine where cellular phones even go from here. If the new iPhones had gotten ProMotion displays and Touch ID sensors this year…like…what is even next? Maybe I’m just out of the loop, but I can’t even begin to envision the “next” thing.
Very true. It just doesn't look like there's a clear next step for phones. Some manufacturers are going with folding phones, but I still think this is a bit of a gimmick.
Maybe what we need is some real innovation. And I mean actual innovation, not adding a known technology to a phone, coming up with something different in order to change the game completely. And it doesn't look like anyone in the industry is really trying to do that.