> The less time we spend obsessing over our shiny new devices, the more time we’ll have to use them for stuff that’s interesting, useful, important. Because in the end, what’s a smartphone but another tool? Sure, you can build a slightly better hammer — sturdier wood, stronger metal. But the real power comes in how you swing it.
That's an insight that resonates with me. I am one of those people that will shortly be upgrading to the 5S, but from a 3GS. I don't feel the need to upgrade to each and every new shiny thing, but 3GS to 5S is a worthwhile upgrade for me and I look forward to the new phone becoming 'boring' so that I can get on with using it for the day-to-day interesting, useful and important things, both from a user's and developer's point of view.
I also wonder if this article is conflating incremental improvement too closely with stagnation. Surely it is only the natural way of things for every large technological inflection point to be bracketed by periods of incremental improvement, which serve to fuel the next inflection point.