Back in 2007 Steve Jobs shook the world by introducing the first revolutionary iPhone. Apple set the bar by simply making everything it touched work better. Although many criticize apple for not being inventive, no one can deny that they have an unparalleled record as an innovator. Throughout the years Apple kept on improving and creating new phones that changed the game for competitors.
On September 16 Apple launched its latest additions to the Apple family – the iPhone7 and iPhone7 Plus. With the announcement of the phones, Apple improved basic features such as its camera and water resistance. It did basically the same as any other competitor in the game. However, one added feature was quite innovative I must say – Apple got rid of his headphone jack, which raised some eyebrows. As a replacement, the company offers a pair of wireless headphones of $159, which will be able to connect to the device via Bluetooth. In addition, the company will include an adaptor for traditional headphones. The CEO of Apple gave a peculiar defense for this decision. The reason of the ‘break through’ was because of courage. “The courage to move on and do something new that betters all of us”. His comment has been scrutinized all over social media, as many people find the innovation rather useless and inconvenient. The wireless headphones are small, expensive and could be lost very easily. This shows that innovative doesn’t always mean good in my opinion.
Although Apple may still claim that the latest additions of the iPhone7 are the best iPhones the company has ever created, they look quite similar to the iPhone6. Besides the removed headphone jack, the biggest change to the former addition is the increase in price.
While there are many reasons not to buy Apple’s latest additions, consumers are still interested as the sales are piling up. The best thing for Apple is that they will know that consumers will still buy their products. They have created a huge brand and people simply love Apple.
Sources used:
http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/iphone-7/
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/7/12838024/apple-iphone-7-plus-headphone-jack-removal-courage
Hi Brenda, thank you for writing this post. I fully agree to the fact that the new iPhone 7 does not seem to be a very innovative model of the Apple iPhone series. Apart from the new wireless headphones (and I’m not sure if this was a good idea at all), nothing has drastically changed. If I’m not mistaken, these new headphones Apple have introduced work with bluetooth technology, which has been known to establish a worse connection between devices compared to the traditional cable connection. Besides this, you will have to pay a seriously high price for headphones which are “easy to lose” since they’re small and not attached to a wire. Having this said, I have doubts if these new headphones will be warmly welcomed by the iPhone fanatics.
The fact that Apple has not changed anything appreciable to the iPhone 7, in my opinion, is a reason to think that smartphone innovation is slowing. The introduction of the wireless headphones is just a distraction from what’s really going on: “Apple could not get a major new iPhone revision in time”. Smartphones aren’t quite exciting as they used to be, as also budget phones are increasing in smartphone-like features. In the absence of great smartphone innovations, I think big players like Apple and Samsung will lose their market share faster to smaller manufacturers.
Source:
http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2016/09/08/the-iphone-7-is-a-confession-smartphones-have-peaked/#gref
Dear Brenda, thank you for your interesting post. I read carefully your arguments, and i fully agree that the iphone released in 2007 was more revolutionary than later iphones. While it is a fact that smartphone innovation is slowing, every new release since 2007 includes some significant innovations. Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition feature which substantially increased user security and Live photos, a camera feature that enables you to see a 3 sec moving image instead of a still image are just a few examples. In my opinion, iphone 7 has also some unique features, which make it one of the best smartphones available to buy today. In addition to water resistance and headphone jack removal, it introduced new stereo speakers, making the audio performance superb. Moreover, A10 chipset undoubtably improved the gaming experience, the speed and the graphical performance. Since smartphones with their extended capabilities have already managed to replace the need of several electronics and increased user dependence on their phone, the question that arises is what else the smartphone industry can offer and what effects will that have on users. I think that, flexible screens and extended use of augmanted reality are just a few to name.
Sources used:
http://www.apple.com/iphone-7/specs/
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/iphone-7-1327947/review/2
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/future-smartphone-features/
Nice article! I totally agree with your opinion about the new iPhone 7. Those new airbuds seem to be a really bad idea and I really wonder if Apple will use this on their future devices too. I wouldn’t dare to go running with those earbuds, scared that they would pop out of my ears. It also doesn’t seem fair to rise the price by $159, since similar headphones on the market sell for much less. I think this is just another strategy of Apple to make a lot of money on their accessories, just like they do with their adapters. To me, the only good thing about this new iPhone is the fact that they dropped the 16 GB model. In my opinion, Apple will never be able to introduce such big innovations as in the year of 2007. I am a big Apple fan, but with small “innovations” like this, I am definitely losing interest in their products.