Can I be the first to admit that I’m lost? I’ve been reviewing the announcements from the Apple event yesterday and by and large they seem interesting. The Watch with built in LTE seems cool enough. The AR while in my estimation rather useless is still curious from a technical angle. I guess the iPhone X looks good enough. I’m not going to buy one, but I wouldn’t disparage anyone that wanted to. My issue is with the sheer NUMBER of iPhone models at this point.
They are now selling:
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7+
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 8+
- iPhone X
I’m just not sure what to do with that… I figure they’ll kill a couple of models, but even so that will leave four or five to figure out.
The problem for me as a customer who actually likes Apple products is that I don’t know what to buy. It seemed simpler before. If you want something small go for the iPhone SE, if you didn’t need the latest and greatest the 6s, and then there were well defined differences between the 7 and 7+. Frankly last night I got lost in the specs between all of the iPhones. I’m thankful that I’m happy with my SE because I’d hate to have to make a buying decision now. You don’t want to over spend, but you also don’t want buyers remorse.
One thing I liked about the Apple ecosystem is the lack of choices. This may sound odd, but a lack of options makes the decision on what to buy easier. If you need this then buy that, if not buy the other. Now I see a slate of only slightly different devices at wildly divergent price points trying to decide if a feature is actually useful or a gimmick.
I’ll be curious to see how this lineup goes for them. Back in the day Steve Jobs specifically only wanted one type of iPhone and iPad. The idea being create the best product, and people will buy it. With this lineup I think it tries to placate the folks that want lots of options and price points, but flies in the face of the people that buy Apple products because they “just work”. Before you could go into an Apple Store see one or two products and make a decision. It is easier and more comfortable for many people that way. The Android ecosystem has so many options you get to a point of paralysis trying to figure out what you want. I think this was a valuable differentiator for Apple and am sad to see it go.
SmartPhones are no longer new products that you must buy. We all have them in our pockets, and I think most would agree that what they already have is fine. Show me ONE whiz bang awesome phone and I might be persuaded to upgrade. Show me 7 mildly different phones that don’t really do much more than what I’ve got and I’ll wait on buying until destroy the iPhone I already own.
Well, that’s easy, I can’t! I’m also an Apple fan girl, but I can’t give any pro nor contra why the iPhone8 is better than the iPhone7. I also can’t give any reason why the latest iPhone model should be better than the latest Android variant. Maybe that’s the reason why I still have an iPhone4S, believe it or not. Though, the main reason probably is that this thing survived the past 6 years.
I am an android user but like you, I respect the iPhone for what it offered, an experience that just worked. I must say though I am severely disappointed in the iPhone X. It seems to have gimmicks implemented to simply garner a $1k price tag as compared to the iPhone 8/+.
The problem I see is that once Apple breaks the $1k price barrier, I don’t ever see them going back and of course other flagship makers will follow suit (HTC, Samsung, LG, etc). Right now I am in a buy and hold mentality because even if someone wants the iPhone X and can’t afford it outright, the carriers are offering $50/mo for 24-36 months. That’s a scary prospect for such a personal and often used device.
I actually search after a iphone 5