Greg Ferro - Work to Live

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My Thoughts on iPhone 7 2016

 

Background: Our household buys one new iPhone a year and then passes them around. This year I get the iPhone and I not really happy. The total cost is much higher than previous years and the headphone arrangements is really poor.

  1. No wireless charging Why not ? No, really, why the HECK not ?
  2. Not cheaper The model I’m planning to purchase is £100 more expensive than equivalent model from last year. (iPhone 7/ 128G). Thats nonsense, it should be cheaper or at the very least same price.
  3. Proprietary Wireless AudioApple has introduced (AFAICT) a proprietary system for wireless audio between handset and headset because Bluetooth is broken. No one is holding the the IEEE to account as a standards organisation. Why isn’t Apple making an open standard that anyone can use ?
  4. Mandatory Wireless headphones I’m not basically opposed to removing the headphone jack. Apple could have seeded the market first by announcing new wireless audio this year. Then remove the socket in a couple of years when wireless headsets exist so I can treat them like a consumable.
  5. Expensive Headphones entry level price on the proprietary wireless headphones is US$159 (AppleAirpods or BeatsX). Thats not cost practical by any measure I have. It also represents 15-25% of the purchase price of the phone.
  6. Accessories sales are hidden costs I see them as consumable items. Quality isn’t a mandatory requirement. Digital music quality is compromised at source, balanced in production and sound is always subjective. Must have cheap headphones that can be treated as consumables.
  7. iPhone colours don’t matter. The majority of people use a case to give some protection these expensively fragile things. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen an iPhone without a case)
  8. Camera improvements meh. Nice but limited value. I don’t take photos to look amazing to other people. (Yes, I know some of people care but I really wonder what your motivations are)
  9. Other hardware better CPUs, force touch, etc etc. All about inline with competitors so expected. Nothing really exciting. No doubt Apple does it better but that is built into the price and its expected.
  10. Extra storage Finally. 128G as the mid-tier option. Sure, power efficient flash storage is hard but this is overdue.