I'll take an iPhone X mini ...someday. As for now, I'll stick with my SE. Just don't like bigger devices (although I am tempted to upgrade my 9.7" iPad Pro to the 10.5", but I'll wait to see how well iOS 11 runs).
Hmm that might happen, but in like 3-4 years, its seems like this iteration of the iPhone X will take the place of the iPhone 6,7,8 then Apple will make a bigger iPhone with a 6.6" or bigger screen to replace the plus models.
The iPhone 8 is the iPhone 7s, and that's not a bad thing.
At the end of the day smartphones are now mature, just like MacBooks.
Sure they'll get speed bumps and slightly better this or that, but for me at least, the general excitement of new models is gone.
And to those who say they want a new design/form factor because the iPhone is 'stale'... what exactly are you expecting? Look at other failed attempts at 'new' like the Moto modular phone. I swear some people can't find anything to be satisfied with, especially if it's Apple.
Maybe not a completely different form factor, just a more modern version of it. The 8+ has a smaller screen than the Galaxy S8 and a bigger footprint
Hmm yeah if only Apple had created a new form factor with just that sort of thing in mind...
That doesn't mean they need to leave their other models getting stale. Are you honestly arguing that 8 buyers would rather have a 3yo design than something with a better screen/body ratio?
Design isn’t just how a thing looks, it’s also how it works. And the 8 works very, very well. Apple also doesn’t do change for change’s sake, so they’re not going to reshape it unless there’s reason to. Thus it now has a glass back. If you feel Apple should change their phones in order to keep you entertained, you’ll always been disappointed. That’s a fact.
The screen:body ratio change you are interested in is in their other iphone product, the X. Seems pretty clear. So there are now four (4) iphone form factors on the menu: SE, 8, 8+, X. Which form factor are you more interested in? Plenty of choices.
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
The chin of the device is constrained by the Home button. That’s why it’s there. Complaining about that, while there exists a model without it, doesn’t make sense.
For those that say Apple shouldn't call it the 8, but rather 7s: - It is simply a name. The "s" line has always had solid updates internally (usually equal to, or better, than the first number version), but not case/design change. - For those who want to be nit-picky, the 8 does have a case design change (all glass design), along with all new colours that make the 8 visibly different than 6/6s/7. That it looks "similar" from the front doesn't change those facts.
What does the 8 series have over the 7 series? - That all new glass design, new colours - Wireless charging (solving what many people here moaned about was the inability to charge phone and use the lightning port for audio) - Quick charging - Upgraded, True Tone, Retina HD display, wider viewing angle - Improved camera in almost all areas (photos: low lighting and HDR, autofocus, noise reduction, QLED and slow sync flash; improved video capture for 4K@60fps and slowmo 1080p@240fps, real-time processing to better encode the video; 8+ gets portrait lighting) - Significant improvements in CPU/GPU which provides solid future capability for AR, ML. This is a bigger improvement over 7, than 7 was over 6s - Better stereo speakers - Base model of 64GB vs. 32GB
Sure, lots of people will look at that list and say "not enough for me to upgrade from my 7", and that is fine for them. But it is disingenuous (or idiotic, moronic) to say the least to say the iPhone 8 is pretty much the same as the 7.
And for those keeping score, what were the improvements of the Samsung S8 over the S7? - All new, larger design, with infinity display (more pixels that S7, but slightly lower density). - New Iris Scanner (which rarely works), and face recognition scanner (which might as well be turned off for the security it provides) - Moved the finger print scanner to high on the back (less accessible by all reviews I read) - CPU/GPU which is 10% faster - Base model of 64GB vs. 32GB
So to summarize, the Samsung S8 had rave reviews (with actual poor features glossed over), and the iPhone 8 is considered "meh".
The iPhone 8 is the iPhone 7s, and that's not a bad thing.
At the end of the day smartphones are now mature, just like MacBooks.
Sure they'll get speed bumps and slightly better this or that, but for me at least, the general excitement of new models is gone.
And to those who say they want a new design/form factor because the iPhone is 'stale'... what exactly are you expecting? Look at other failed attempts at 'new' like the Moto modular phone. I swear some people can't find anything to be satisfied with, especially if it's Apple.
Maybe not a completely different form factor, just a more modern version of it. The 8+ has a smaller screen than the Galaxy S8 and a bigger footprint
Hmm yeah if only Apple had created a new form factor with just that sort of thing in mind...
That doesn't mean they need to leave their other models getting stale. Are you honestly arguing that 8 buyers would rather have a 3yo design than something with a better screen/body ratio?
Design isn’t just how a thing looks, it’s also how it works. And the 8 works very, very well. Apple also doesn’t do change for change’s sake, so they’re not going to reshape it unless there’s reason to. Thus it now has a glass back. If you feel Apple should change their phones in order to keep you entertained, you’ll always been disappointed. That’s a fact.
The screen:body ratio change you are interested in is in their other iphone product, the X. Seems pretty clear. So there are now four (4) iphone form factors on the menu: SE, 8, 8+, X. Which form factor are you more interested in? Plenty of choices.
The topic was form factor not how the phone works. Redesigning the form factor is not change for the sake of it. We know this because: iPhone X. The 8 has a tiny screen in a big body and the 8+ an average screen in a giant body that most people would prefer was improved. I'm guessing a large proportion of iPhone buyers won't shell out $1k for a phone so they are then stuck with a not-cheap 8/8+ that has the form factor of a cheap knock-off from a few years ago. I have no intention of buying an 8 or 8+ but I can still give my opinion that it's a dated form factor. People are buying it for the brand, the performance, the ease-of-use or whatever but the iPhone 8/8+ are behind the pack when it comes to what is in your hand
The iPhone 8 is the iPhone 7s, and that's not a bad thing.
At the end of the day smartphones are now mature, just like MacBooks.
Sure they'll get speed bumps and slightly better this or that, but for me at least, the general excitement of new models is gone.
And to those who say they want a new design/form factor because the iPhone is 'stale'... what exactly are you expecting? Look at other failed attempts at 'new' like the Moto modular phone. I swear some people can't find anything to be satisfied with, especially if it's Apple.
Maybe not a completely different form factor, just a more modern version of it. The 8+ has a smaller screen than the Galaxy S8 and a bigger footprint
Hmm yeah if only Apple had created a new form factor with just that sort of thing in mind...
That doesn't mean they need to leave their other models getting stale. Are you honestly arguing that 8 buyers would rather have a 3yo design than something with a better screen/body ratio?
Design isn’t just how a thing looks, it’s also how it works. And the 8 works very, very well. Apple also doesn’t do change for change’s sake, so they’re not going to reshape it unless there’s reason to. Thus it now has a glass back. If you feel Apple should change their phones in order to keep you entertained, you’ll always been disappointed. That’s a fact.
The screen:body ratio change you are interested in is in their other iphone product, the X. Seems pretty clear. So there are now four (4) iphone form factors on the menu: SE, 8, 8+, X. Which form factor are you more interested in? Plenty of choices.
The topic was form factor not how the phone works. Redesigning the form factor is not change for the sake of it. We know this because: iPhone X. The 8 has a tiny screen in a big body and the 8+ an average screen in a giant body that most people would prefer was improved. I'm guessing a large proportion of iPhone buyers won't shell out $1k for a phone so they are then stuck with a not-cheap 8/8+ that has the form factor of a cheap knock-off from a few years ago. I have no intention of buying an 8 or 8+ but I can still give my opinion that it's a dated form factor. People are buying it for the brand, the performance, the ease-of-use or whatever but the iPhone 8/8+ are behind the pack when it comes to what is in your hand
Sure, if all you care about is how a phone looks (if it is different from last year), and the screen-to-bezel ratio, I suppose that is true. You should really get an S8 I would say - it likely is near the top with those criteria. It is a bit more than the iPhone 8 at $750 USD, but well under the coming iPhone X.
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
if they keep touch ID it has to stay. And they will.
Nah.
Look at your iPhone. There is alot of room that could be saved making the home button closer to the edge or even making the home button a bit smaller.
I think they could have decreased the top/bottom bezel by 30-40% by making a smaller home button or making it a tighter fit closer to the edge of the screen and phone.
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
Um Touch ID? Unless you think they should’ve moved it to the back (horrible UX) or put Face ID in the 8 (then what’s the point of the X)?
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
if they keep touch ID it has to stay. And they will.
Nah.
Look at your iPhone. There is alot of room that could be saved making the home button closer to the edge or even making the home button a bit smaller.
I think they could have decreased the top/bottom bezel by 30-40% by making a smaller home button or making it a tighter fit closer to the edge of the screen and phone.
For what reason? So the bezels are slightly smaller and tech geeks can’t complain that the design looks dated? GTFO. Also how do you know Apple could even do what you say? I’ll trust the hardware engineers t Apple over random posters on an Apple fan site.
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
if they keep touch ID it has to stay. And they will.
Nah.
Look at your iPhone. There is alot of room that could be saved making the home button closer to the edge or even making the home button a bit smaller.
I think they could have decreased the top/bottom bezel by 30-40% by making a smaller home button or making it a tighter fit closer to the edge of the screen and phone.
For what reason? So the bezels are slightly smaller and tech geeks can’t complain that the design looks dated? GTFO. Also how do you know Apple could even do what you say? I’ll trust the hardware engineers t Apple over random posters on an Apple fan site.
For what reason? The EXACT same reason they shrank the bezel for the X.
1. It looks better.
2. It shrinks the footprint so the phone is more mobile
Apple could EASILY shrink the bezel about 25-30% and shrink the home button about 10% for the 8 Plus. Not sure about the 8.
But the 8 Plus would be so much more pocketable with smaller bezels.
And it looks MUCH BETTER.
I'm hoping next year Apple releases the iPhone9 which will still have the home button but a smaller bezels like below.
The iPhone 8 is the iPhone 7s, and that's not a bad thing.
At the end of the day smartphones are now mature, just like MacBooks.
Sure they'll get speed bumps and slightly better this or that, but for me at least, the general excitement of new models is gone.
And to those who say they want a new design/form factor because the iPhone is 'stale'... what exactly are you expecting? Look at other failed attempts at 'new' like the Moto modular phone. I swear some people can't find anything to be satisfied with, especially if it's Apple.
In a word: change.
In a world where the smartphone industry has reached virtual maturity (and saturation in the developed world) if you stand still on the design side of things, you are playing into the hands of your competitors.
If you think that keeping the same general design for three years won't impact your competitive edge, then that's fine but you run the risk nevertheless.
Mobile phones are fashion statements in the premium band whether you accept it or not.
Of course, it could be argued that the iPhone 8 has a similar design to the 7 and 6 to make the iPhone X stand out against it.
It could also be argued that, for most of its base, Apple is only competing with itself so it doesn't really lose anyway. Although that should be something that concerns them as it would mean they are basically treading water and not achieving any notable growth. My take is that the reasons for the new price spread are two fold. Retain existing users and attract new ones.
That doesn't mean its current users are necessarily happy to see the same basic design cues for so many models.
The Verge is still complaining about the headphone jack! What a joke. And the design? It's not just the phone man most of the time you have to turn it on right? This is where Apple shines, it just looks realy nice.
Take a look at some of the screens of the Galaxy 8. They are so poorly designed it's not even funny. I mean the layout of the login screen, calculator, timer with badly spaced type, etc. So you might think you have a nice looking phone but when you turn it on it just looks really bad. For that reason alone i will never ever buy a Samsung or any Android device.
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
if they keep touch ID it has to stay. And they will.
Nah.
Look at your iPhone. There is alot of room that could be saved making the home button closer to the edge or even making the home button a bit smaller.
I think they could have decreased the top/bottom bezel by 30-40% by making a smaller home button or making it a tighter fit closer to the edge of the screen and phone.
For what reason? So the bezels are slightly smaller and tech geeks can’t complain that the design looks dated? GTFO. Also how do you know Apple could even do what you say? I’ll trust the hardware engineers t Apple over random posters on an Apple fan site.
For what reason? The EXACT same reason they shrank the bezel for the X.
1. It looks better.
2. It shrinks the footprint so the phone is more mobile
Apple could EASILY shrink the bezel about 25-30% and shrink the home button about 10% for the 8 Plus. Not sure about the 8.
But the 8 Plus would be so much more pocketable with smaller bezels.
And it looks MUCH BETTER.
I'm hoping next year Apple releases the iPhone9 which will still have the home button but a smaller bezels like below.
You screwed up the corners...
of course.
I just did this in MS Paint in 1 minute.
The point is having smaller bezels with a slightly smaller home button would do wonders for the look and pocketability of the iPhone 8 Plus.
OK what about corners? Thanks to your homework, we understand that the height of those bezels is actually deeply related to the roundness of corners. And the roundness of the corners is related to the ease of use, overall Apple product appearance and you name it... You excellently proved that the height of those bezels are not haphazardly chosen,they are the result of some deep relationships. Apparently everything is related to some other thing in design...
iPhone 6,7 and 8 look all the same to me. It's just......boring!
Maybe Apple should make the phone triangular or something? It wouldn't make any fucking sense and it would be a usability nightmare, but at least people like you would be entertained by it for a few seconds/minutes.
a decent sized bezel could be a start.
The top and bottom bezel on the iPhone 8 is ridiculously huge. There literally isn't another premium phone ( $600+) that has such huge bezel's on the market except the awful Google phone.
But of course Apple does not want the 8 to steal any thunder from the X. So large bezel had to stay on the 8.
if they keep touch ID it has to stay. And they will.
Nah.
Look at your iPhone. There is alot of room that could be saved making the home button closer to the edge or even making the home button a bit smaller.
I think they could have decreased the top/bottom bezel by 30-40% by making a smaller home button or making it a tighter fit closer to the edge of the screen and phone.
For what reason? So the bezels are slightly smaller and tech geeks can’t complain that the design looks dated? GTFO. Also how do you know Apple could even do what you say? I’ll trust the hardware engineers t Apple over random posters on an Apple fan site.
For what reason? The EXACT same reason they shrank the bezel for the X.
1. It looks better.
2. It shrinks the footprint so the phone is more mobile
Apple could EASILY shrink the bezel about 25-30% and shrink the home button about 10% for the 8 Plus. Not sure about the 8.
But the 8 Plus would be so much more pocketable with smaller bezels.
And it looks MUCH BETTER.
I'm hoping next year Apple releases the iPhone9 which will still have the home button but a smaller bezels like below.
You screwed up the corners...
of course.
I just did this in MS Paint in 1 minute.
The point is having smaller bezels with a slightly smaller home button would do wonders for the look and pocketability of the iPhone 8 Plus.
OK what about corners? Thanks to your homework, we understand that the height of those bezels is actually deeply related to the roundness of corners. And the roundness of the corners is related to the ease of use, overall Apple product appearance and you name it... You excellently proved that the height of those bezels are not haphazardly chosen,they are the result of some deep relationships. Apparently everything is related to some other thing in design...
use the same corners as the X or something else.
Come on bro.
Apple has the best designers in the world, they would figure it out.
Samsung, and all those shitty Android brands figured out how to make smaller bezels with a home button.
Yet the Plus iPhones sell much more than Samsung and all those shitty Android brands, despite their "huge" bezels... What about this?
Unless you are one of them who must have iPhone X, LTE watch, etc I would upgrade to iPhone 8/Plus. and use savings for LTE watch 3. Next year when all iPhones evolve into iPhone X type, I would consider it. That time who knows there may be lower price due to falling components price and possibility of Plus version iPhone X. Than, we have iPhone 8s, 8s Plus, Xs, Xs Plus..
The newest iPhones (8, 8+, X) show that Apple is almost in a league of its own when it comes to smartphones. Apple's second tier products are easily blowing away the current crop of Android flagship (top tier) phones. Perhaps the soon-to-be-announced Google Pixel 2 will narrow the gap - we'll see. This is the same phenomena that we've seen with tablets and smart watches. Nothing out there today remotely compares to the iPad Pro and Apple Watch Series 3. Some trade rags and tech sites have started to accuse Apple of "showing off" because they've been consistently widening the gaps between Apple's products and their nearest competitors products in each category. To that I'd counter that Apple isn't in the same category as it's competitors anymore. Apple is setting new standards and defining new categories that many competitors will never even attempt to get into. This isn't totally driven by competitive influences either, it's a consequence of Apple maintaining extremely high product value and R&D investment while holding the line against dropping down into the trenches to compete on price like so many other vendors do. When companies consistently race to the bottom on price they end up eating their own babies and selling out their future potential. Apple hasn't done that despite constantly getting dinged for their pay-for-value pricing (e.g., the $1000 iPhone X). I believe that Apple has always been making the right decisions under Jobs and Cook and is now seeing the overwhelmingly positive consequences of those decisions.
I find complaints about the form factor of the 8 as coming from people preferring form over function.
In my opinion, Apple was at a cross-roads where they had a clear vision of the future of the iPhone, but not the real-world technology to enable it in the numbers they needed.
What they have done, releasing the 8 & the X, is probably the best thing they could do right now.
It doesn't make sense to only release the X and then see iPhone sales tank just because supply is so much lower than demand.
It also doesn't make sense to radically change the 7 if it meant moving resources away from the X to accomplish it.
The 8 is a solid device, worthy of not having the stigma of an S release (though I personally think the S stigma is stupid). Apple knew that it would still have the stigma of being the "lesser" release. But it is a compromise worth making.
Would complaints be more muted if it was called the 7S instead of the 8? Would that have also negatively impacted sales? No idea.
The only fail I see in this year's launch is the name for the iPhone X. Had Apple gone with "iPhone Anniversary Edition", it would be a lot easier to release a 9 next year.
Maybe next year they do away with the numbers finally. Or they release the iPhone 9 and iPhone XS!!
The iPhone 8 is the iPhone 7s, and that's not a bad thing.
At the end of the day smartphones are now mature, just like MacBooks.
Sure they'll get speed bumps and slightly better this or that, but for me at least, the general excitement of new models is gone.
And to those who say they want a new design/form factor because the iPhone is 'stale'... what exactly are you expecting? Look at other failed attempts at 'new' like the Moto modular phone. I swear some people can't find anything to be satisfied with, especially if it's Apple.
In a word: change.
In a world where the smartphone industry has reached virtual maturity (and saturation in the developed world) if you stand still on the design side of things, you are playing into the hands of your competitors.
If you think that keeping the same general design for three years won't impact your competitive edge, then that's fine but you run the risk nevertheless.
Mobile phones are fashion statements in the premium band whether you accept it or not.
Of course, it could be argued that the iPhone 8 has a similar design to the 7 and 6 to make the iPhone X stand out against it.
It could also be argued that, for most of its base, Apple is only competing with itself so it doesn't really lose anyway. Although that should be something that concerns them as it would mean they are basically treading water and not achieving any notable growth. My take is that the reasons for the new price spread are two fold. Retain existing users and attract new ones.
That doesn't mean its current users are necessarily happy to see the same basic design cues for so many models.
There’s only so many ways you can design a smartphone. Look at the Galaxy line and you’ll see mostly minor changes form factor wise until they added the curved screen. What’s Samsung going to do now that they’ve shaved bezels and curved the screen?
An iPhone with Touch ID isn’t the future according to Apple so why would they radically redesign the 8 when the X also exists? The 8 is there because the X will be supply constrained and not everyone wants to pay $999+ for a phone. They switched from aluminum to glass so they could incorporate wireless charging and it does give the phone a bit of an updated look. If the 8 lost Touch ID and bezels there would be no reason for the X. No one is going to pay $200+ more for an OLED screen.
Comments
Hmm that might happen, but in like 3-4 years, its seems like this iteration of the iPhone X will take the place of the iPhone 6,7,8 then Apple will make a bigger iPhone with a 6.6" or bigger screen to replace the plus models.
The screen:body ratio change you are interested in is in their other iphone product, the X. Seems pretty clear. So there are now four (4) iphone form factors on the menu: SE, 8, 8+, X. Which form factor are you more interested in? Plenty of choices.
The chin of the device is constrained by the Home button. That’s why it’s there. Complaining about that, while there exists a model without it, doesn’t make sense.
For those that say Apple shouldn't call it the 8, but rather 7s:
- It is simply a name. The "s" line has always had solid updates internally (usually equal to, or better, than the first number version), but not case/design change.
- For those who want to be nit-picky, the 8 does have a case design change (all glass design), along with all new colours that make the 8 visibly different than 6/6s/7. That it looks "similar" from the front doesn't change those facts.
What does the 8 series have over the 7 series?
- That all new glass design, new colours
- Wireless charging (solving what many people here moaned about was the inability to charge phone and use the lightning port for audio)
- Quick charging
- Upgraded, True Tone, Retina HD display, wider viewing angle
- Improved camera in almost all areas (photos: low lighting and HDR, autofocus, noise reduction, QLED and slow sync flash; improved video capture for 4K@60fps and slowmo 1080p@240fps, real-time processing to better encode the video; 8+ gets portrait lighting)
- Significant improvements in CPU/GPU which provides solid future capability for AR, ML. This is a bigger improvement over 7, than 7 was over 6s
- Better stereo speakers
- Base model of 64GB vs. 32GB
Sure, lots of people will look at that list and say "not enough for me to upgrade from my 7", and that is fine for them. But it is disingenuous (or idiotic, moronic) to say the least to say the iPhone 8 is pretty much the same as the 7.
And for those keeping score, what were the improvements of the Samsung S8 over the S7?
- All new, larger design, with infinity display (more pixels that S7, but slightly lower density).
- New Iris Scanner (which rarely works), and face recognition scanner (which might as well be turned off for the security it provides)
- Moved the finger print scanner to high on the back (less accessible by all reviews I read)
- CPU/GPU which is 10% faster
- Base model of 64GB vs. 32GB
So to summarize, the Samsung S8 had rave reviews (with actual poor features glossed over), and the iPhone 8 is considered "meh".
And that folks is the world that we live in...
In a world where the smartphone industry has reached virtual maturity (and saturation in the developed world) if you stand still on the design side of things, you are playing into the hands of your competitors.
If you think that keeping the same general design for three years won't impact your competitive edge, then that's fine but you run the risk nevertheless.
Mobile phones are fashion statements in the premium band whether you accept it or not.
Of course, it could be argued that the iPhone 8 has a similar design to the 7 and 6 to make the iPhone X stand out against it.
It could also be argued that, for most of its base, Apple is only competing with itself so it doesn't really lose anyway. Although that should be something that concerns them as it would mean they are basically treading water and not achieving any notable growth. My take is that the reasons for the new price spread are two fold. Retain existing users and attract new ones.
That doesn't mean its current users are necessarily happy to see the same basic design cues for so many models.
Take a look at some of the screens of the Galaxy 8. They are so poorly designed it's not even funny. I mean the layout of the login screen, calculator, timer with badly spaced type, etc. So you might think you have a nice looking phone but when you turn it on it just looks really bad. For that reason alone i will never ever buy a Samsung or any Android device.
I find complaints about the form factor of the 8 as coming from people preferring form over function.
In my opinion, Apple was at a cross-roads where they had a clear vision of the future of the iPhone, but not the real-world technology to enable it in the numbers they needed.
What they have done, releasing the 8 & the X, is probably the best thing they could do right now.
It doesn't make sense to only release the X and then see iPhone sales tank just because supply is so much lower than demand.
It also doesn't make sense to radically change the 7 if it meant moving resources away from the X to accomplish it.
The 8 is a solid device, worthy of not having the stigma of an S release (though I personally think the S stigma is stupid). Apple knew that it would still have the stigma of being the "lesser" release. But it is a compromise worth making.
Would complaints be more muted if it was called the 7S instead of the 8? Would that have also negatively impacted sales? No idea.
The only fail I see in this year's launch is the name for the iPhone X. Had Apple gone with "iPhone Anniversary Edition", it would be a lot easier to release a 9 next year.
Maybe next year they do away with the numbers finally. Or they release the iPhone 9 and iPhone XS!!
An iPhone with Touch ID isn’t the future according to Apple so why would they radically redesign the 8 when the X also exists? The 8 is there because the X will be supply constrained and not everyone wants to pay $999+ for a phone. They switched from aluminum to glass so they could incorporate wireless charging and it does give the phone a bit of an updated look. If the 8 lost Touch ID and bezels there would be no reason for the X. No one is going to pay $200+ more for an OLED screen.