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Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

I’m not really paying attention so I’m likely about to put my foot in my mouth:

Aren’t phones kind of a mature product? What left is there other than just making the various numbers bigger?

Of course investors and companies want to sell you a phone every year. And they need compelling reasons to convince you too. But sometimes there just aren’t?

This is the part where I think corporations often screw themselves. They’re at the top of the mountain but they only know how to climb.

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I think this is the right way to think about it. Still a lot of value in making the various numbers bigger...if you don't do that, competitors will, and then you'll lose market share way faster than you did before.

But if Apple is looking for a step change in revenue or tech dominance, they'll have to rely more on other innovative/step-change product lines like the VR headset...I'm sure they're doing that, just not sure if investors are all seeing it that way

I kind of wonder how much of this is driven by weird retail investor behaviour. Like, I don't think there were any surprises for the analysts in this event. Apple does _not_ sell you a phone a year, never has, never will. The buyers of this phone will be, overwhelmingly, at least two generations behind, like with all iPhones; the "upgrades phone every year" market is tiny and completely irrelevant.

Two things that I think are quietly brewing and will erupt:

1. Gaming scene. Apple could make new profits if they figured out a way to make most existing games playable on most of their efficient hardware. Seems like they are taking steps in this direction.

2. Private AI. Apple has been building their neural engine into every device, but is yet to fully unleash its potential. Rumors say they are working on this as well.

Apple's problem with games isn't compatibility, not really. It's their complete lack of consistency and commitment to the market. They keep doing things which seem kind of steps in the right direction (that old controller standard, Apple Arcade, some really fairly decent hardware in low-cost devices like the Apple TV), but they've never been committed enough to get the ecosystem to work.

(I'm still a bit surprised they haven't made some sort of first-party stick-on controller a la Nintendo Switch; that might finally jump-start the market.)

It seems like they often work this way. Line up individual pieces, then release a product that ties them together. I.e. the Apple Silicon transition, the VR headset.

People thought mobile phones were a mature market before the iPhone.

You're right but what is left is to make it Cheaper, Faster, and Stronger. That's what we need but Apple is not really fulfilling that.

They’re making it cheaper by not raising the price given inflation. Stronger… titanium maybe does that? Faster? I wasn’t paying attention. I assume each generation chip is faster per watt.

my dumb comment was dumb

Huh? iPhones have clearly gotten cheaper year over year as inflation reduces the value of $999.

+ thinner. Even though I prefer iPhones, most Samsung phones look much cooler these days.

This is going to seem snarky but I'm genuinely curious. As someone who is about as anti-Apple as anyone can reasonably be, I've never understood why anyone would prefer the iPhone for any serious reason. I don't use Samsung (Google Nexus/Pixel only for a decade) for clarity. Can you elaborate about why you prefer iPhones? My assumption, as dangerous as those may be, would be integration into the ecosystem. Kindly, please and thank you.

Yep, due to the whole ecosystem - apps, operating systems plus other devices (iPad, iMac etc.) that are lightyears ahead of the competitors, easy to use and sync nicely across the board.

Samsung phones looks nice but Android is a pain. Also, I somehow feel more comfortable putting my data into the hands of Apple than Google - even though privacy is an illusion of course. ;)

Some Huawei products look cool too, but who wants to trust China?

Windows (and any other Microsoft product) has been a pain ever since. Unless you're into gaming, I don't see a reason to use these products.

The ecosystem “just works”. I don’t have to fight and configure things to work. I haven’t used an Android device since 2015 but is there any compelling feature (on either side) to sway someone one way or another.

I’ve never understood why anyone would prefer to live in the ecosystem of the world’s largest advertiser.

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