That's All You Got Apple?

What a disappointment

Well, WWDC is here with Apple’s yearly release of new iPhones. As usual, almost every feature leaked in the months and weeks beforehand so there was little to no actual surprises in the announcement.

And what can I say? We should just call these new phones the iPhone 12 Mark 5.

There was already a tiny difference between the 14 and 15 last year. This year, there seems to be almost no new features beyond a dedicated camera button and some niche video features. It’s incredibly disappointing that the most valuable and arguably most successful company in the world has so little new to show after a year. I really wonder where those tens of billions of dollars in R&D go every year beyond faster processors.

It was interesting to see the general public’s reaction be a resounding “meh.” I followed a popular live comment thread during the presentation. Almost every comment was about how bored they were, making fun of Apple’s over the top and ridiculous marketing claims, and wishing for something (anything) exciting.

Perhaps what makes me most annoyed is that Apple used to believe that hardware should sell hardware and software is universal across devices. The iPhone 15 was the first iPhone ever to have a pure software feature restricted to a new generation of devices. On the 15 Pro, you could take a portrait and then refocus on a different spot. As a photographer, this was my primary reason for upgrading and a feature I use frequently. However, there was absolutely nothing preventing Apple from implementing this feature on earlier devices. It was artificially restricted to new devices to force people to upgrade. There’s another feature this year, some new camera capabilities with filters (I frequently use black and white) that seem to again be artificially restricted via software to the 16. Apple seems to realize the hardware changes aren’t enough to make people buy new iPhones so they are falling back on BS marketing tricks to do it. It’s very disappointing.

None of it is enough to make me want to upgrade, except it would essentially cost me nothing to do so and my battery life is at 87% which causes noticeable problems daily.

What a dull, lifeless presentation that revealed nothing of value or interest. Shame.