I can only speak for myself, but there was definitely a point in the iPhone's evolution and lifecycle where it finally did everything I ever could have imagined needing it to do, and did it very well. For me. The iPhone 6 Plus was the first iPhone to reach critical mass for me. There wasn't anything lacking in the iPhone 6 Plus other than normal wear-out stuff like having to replace the battery.
Every iPhone since the iPhone 6 Plus is obviously better in most every way than the iPhone 6 Plus, as well as being better than all of its predecessors. But each release was only incrementally better for the things that really matter to me. This pattern was a clear sign that the iPhone 6 Plus, with its slab-o-glass, home button equipped, thick bezel design had reached a high level of maturity. Subsequent releases that held to that same formula were all about incrementally refining what was already very good. This was not a bad thing at all, it just meant that they got it right. The iPhone 6 Plus set the bar pretty high.
The iPhone 10 brought some new ideas to the table and started to pique my interest. The iPhone 10s brought all of the accumulated incremental improvements from the iPhone 6s and later buttoned phones, refined versions of new-design iPhone 10 functionality, and the gorgeous iPhone 10s Max design. The combination of all of those things compelled me to jump. The iPhone 10s Max got over the bar set by the iPhone 6 Plus - handily. I'm as happy with my iPhone 10s Max today as I was the day I bought it.
Just like all of the iPhones that came after the 6 Plus were better than the 6 Plus, every iPhone that has come after the 10s Max is better than the 10s Max. It's just that for the basic "supercomputer in your pocket" stuff the 10s Max still delivers in spades. No, I can't zoom the camera to perfectly image the baby nose hairs that are growing to replace the ones that I clipped out last week, but for everything I need it to do, it still rocks. I'm not a gamer and I'm not running benchmarks as a hobby. If I were, my perspective would be much different and I'd be rocking an iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max - yesterday.
They'll definitely come a time when I'll jump to a new iPhone. Maybe it will be a folding or rolling screen or perhaps some incredible new battery technology or satellite communication capability, or maybe my 10s Max will buy the farm or get dropped into a porta-potty honey bucket, but the day will come. If that day was today, I'd be all over the iPhone 13 Pro Max with zero hesitancy.
You're describing the normal experience with iPhones for the vast majority of people who use them. Yearly updates are incremental. They have been since the second one dropped. That's intentional. Nobody wants to spend that kind of money on a phone only to have it be obsolete the next year. So they add new things, and over several years the new things accumulate and make it worth upgrading. Everybody's interest level and budget varies, but most people are probably at a three to five year cycle on iPhones.
So all the ho-hum about the 13 being so incrementally improved from the 12 is just that. Ho hum. The question is whether it's a good jump from a 10 or 10s. That's where the bulk of the upgrade customers for a 13 come from.
This is a dumb click-bait headline. The same survey also says that 25% of current iPhone users plan to upgrade anyway, with a ridiculously high brand loyalty.
That’s a lot of of upgrades to new iPhones, and it suggests a roughly four-year upgrade cycle, which sounds about right.
Also, the percentage who are “exited” about the newest line would only be meaningful if compared to the same question posed shortly after the releases of several past years’ iPhones.
Comparing to a survey earlier this year asking if (highly brand loyal) customers are “excited” about the future release of a device that includes whatever features they can imagine is meaningless.
Ask a bunch of kids how excited they are about Christmas presents before Christmas and then ask them again the day after, and I guarantee you’ll see a drop in those registering excitement.
The average age of an iPhone is around 4 years. Given that there are something on the order of a billion iPhone users, 25% of those upgrading is 250 million unit sales per year, which is about the number of unit sales for 2021.
What's notably impressive is that the number of iPhone users continues to grow.
Just wondering how many returned their iPhone 13/pro after realizing it is not impressive.
A very small number of units returned for "buyers remorse" to be sure.
There are the usual reports of manufacturing issues in the initial release, but otherwise, the 13 has notable improvements over the 12. If current iPhone owners don't need those improvements, then they'll wait for a future model, same as they ever have.
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So all the ho-hum about the 13 being so incrementally improved from the 12 is just that. Ho hum. The question is whether it's a good jump from a 10 or 10s. That's where the bulk of the upgrade customers for a 13 come from.
What's notably impressive is that the number of iPhone users continues to grow.
Bebe said:
A very small number of units returned for "buyers remorse" to be sure.
There are the usual reports of manufacturing issues in the initial release, but otherwise, the 13 has notable improvements over the 12. If current iPhone owners don't need those improvements, then they'll wait for a future model, same as they ever have.