Apple indicated 2-3 years ago that it intended M-chips to get updated annually, and it has been keeping to that schedule. You could predict the M6 and M7 release dates right now and probably be right. And as each successive iteration gets better, there are fewer and fewer people who actually need more horsepower than what the latest M-chips can provide, so increased processing speed becomes an increasingly unimportant reason to upgrade. Maybe AI will drive the need for more on-device processing power than is already available, but that's certainly not where we're at now. What becomes far more important is whatever else Apple has up its upgrade sleeve, especially with regard to improved displays and refreshed form factors. I don't know how many people were jonesing for a lighter iPhone--judging from the flopping sales of Samsung's Galaxy Edge, not that many!--but we're getting a lighter iPhone nonetheless. But MANY people would be happy with a lighter laptop if it didn't involve serious compromises to get there. I think the 2 pound weight of the 12" Macbook Retina was the ideal weight for a mainstream consumer laptop, and it would be great to see the 13" Macbook Air actually become that "airy" to carry. 

Nice reporting. You've captured well the conundrum Apple is facing without Chicken Little hysterics. It's behind in AI development and I don't doubt that its existing internal product is inferior to what's available from third parties. So... do you wait for your internal product to get up to speed or do you seek a better, faster third party solution, thus risking mutiny by the AI team you have in place? I can't really criticize Apple's current team because I don't know what kind of sh-tshow it might have inherited. 

M68000 said:

I guess I am biased, as I prefer a real camera and lens compared to tiny sensors and lens that a cellphone has.

You should obviously shoot with whatever makes you happy but great photography has always been about the eye behind the camera, not the hardware. Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh has now shot two feature films entirely on iPhone--not bad for "not a real camera" that doesn't have "real" lenses, huh? And per the phrase popularized by photographer Chase Jarvis for the title of his book, "The Best Camera Is the One That's with You," my iPhone is always with me when I'm out. All of Chase's photos in that now famous book, by the way, were shot with the original iPhone, which had a TWO megapixel camera. Like I said, it's the eye behind the camera that counts most. 

People also wildly underestimate the capabilities of the latest smartphones. I have a number of framed and stunning 13x19 prints in my living room and one 24x30, all enlarged from iPhone jpgs I shot, taken straight from camera, no filters, no post-processing at all, and the first question people ask when they see them is, "Wow, what camera did you use to shoot these?" They're blown away when I say "iPhone" because few people realize how capable it is when you have a decent photographic eye and know something about exposure adjustments, depth of field, choice of lens, etc. 

This is like an SNL satire commercial for iPhone: "And for iPhone 17, after years of research and development, we've even moved the logo!" (Cut to lab scenes of logo being "tested" in ridiculous positions.) So far we've got a "me, too" camera bar and a possible logo move. I'm guessing the iPhone presentation will largely be devoted to all the new technologies in the iPhone Air, blah, blah, which all adds up to a thinner, more expensive phone with the camera system of the 16e. Yay? By the way, here's the headline from a enthusiast site for Samsung phones, but the same story is pretty much everywhere:

Samsung is struggling to sell the Galaxy S25 Edge

Industry sources say that Galaxy S25 Edge sales are below expectations. So far, the phone doesn't seem to have attracted a large enough crowd to satisfy the Korean tech giant. It might be dangerously close to becoming an ambitious experiment that failed to post the expected results.

I would find this really alarming if I were Apple because I think new form factors tend to be a bigger driver of sales in Android world than they do for iPhone buyers, at least judging from the number of different Android form factors that are available. Apple, on the other hand, has had three sales failures in new form factors: the Mini, the Plus and the SE. I just don't see thinner + $$$$ + low end camera system being the formula for success in its fourth try.  

 

chasm said:

but it must be said it's (thus far) the best way to keep in touch with people you want to keep in touch with. 

Yeah, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. How about... Email? Texting? FaceTime? Phone call? Zoom cocktails? Meet ups in person? I ditched all Meta apps years ago and I have zero problem keeping up with the people who are important to me. Don't let "convenience" be your reason for contributing to Zuckerberg's businesses built on abuse of consumer privacy.