Apple is saying the iPhone 17 line up right now, however I do know one one that will not be watching (clue: it is me). As a recovering model disciple, I’ve sat by means of Apple’s launch keynotes for the final 5 years, typically operating the stay weblog right here at Artistic Bloq. However for 3 very particular causes, in 2025 I am, not shopping for what Apple’s promoting.
As ever, we have now a reasonably watertight thought of what to anticipate from Apple at right now’s occasion. Spoiler alert: the cameras can be higher, and possibly prime our greatest iPhones for pictures roundup. The hearsay mill has churned out each final element, from the system dimensions to the equipment. And for me, all the things factors to the truth that the smartphone’s glory days are over. Here is why.
Fan-made renders of the rumoured iPhone 17 line up (Picture credit score: Future)
01. Massive is not higher
I am undecided when the smartphone trade collectively determined to begin releasing telephones that require three fingers to carry. As anyone who’s digitally challenged (that’s, I’ve pretty small fingers), I rejoiced when Apple launched the iPhone 12 mini in 2020. Alas, after only one successor, 2021’s 13 mini, the road was dropped as gross sales had been apparently smaller than the cellphone itself.
Chances are you’ll like
I believe the iPhone 13 mini was the final nice iPhone, and I am keen to die on that pointless hill. It is a cellphone you’ll be able to put in your pocket and overlook about. It is a cellphone you need to use one handed. It is a cellphone that does not double as an IMAX display screen. It is the final of the iPhones that does not really feel prefer it’s designed to be stared at for each minute of your waking life.
My beloved iPhone 13 mini (Picture credit score: Jeremy Bezanger by way of Unsplash)
There was hope for a second again there that Apple could be bringing the small cellphone again. The a lot rumoured iPhone 17 Air is about to be the thinnest ever launched. However then it emerged that in each different dimension, it will be even greater than the usual iPhone 17, with a 6.6-inch show. Massive telephones are right here to remain, they usually’re solely getting greater.
At the moment, on the day Apple pronounces its new wares, I’ve purchased a refurbished iPhone 13 mini to make use of for the following few years. I’ve little question this act of defiance can be remembered by generations to come back.
02. Pre-recorded bulletins > stay occasions
(Picture credit score: Apple)
Apple was compelled to maneuver away from its conventional stay product reveal occasion on account of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, as an alternative debuting a brand new pre-recorded video model. With heavily-rehearsed piece-to-cameras, slick units and snappy transitions, the entire thing serves as an extremely polished and excessive price range advert. It appears to be like good – and but it is very a lot lacking the human contact and soul of these auditorium-based occasions. Gone is the aspect of threat – no product demo goes to go improper right here.
Sadly, Apple has doggedly caught to this medical model for the final 5 years, to the purpose that it is onerous to really feel enthusiastic about one more super-HD video of Tim Prepare dinner saying “Good morning,” following by a bunch of shiny Apple folks reeling off specs in entrance of imaginary large screens.
It is ironic actually, that Apple itself is emphasising the ‘extra of the identical’ sense of the iPhone by producing virtually similar launch movies yearly. Talking of which…
03. Extra of the identical
The evolution of the iPhone (Picture credit score: Apple Defined)
After the launch of the iPhone 16, I declared in my knowledge that the tech world is floundering. The final ‘iPhone second’, during which a chunk of tech got here and alongside and adjusted all the things, was, arguably, the primary iPhone in 2007. Since then, we have seen tons of makes an attempt at new product classes – most lately Imaginative and prescient Professional, and all these pitiful AI devices, however nothing has actually taken off. And in the meantime the iPhone has been ticking alongside within the background, the updates getting increasingly more incremental.
Let’s be sincere; gone are the times of needing to improve your cellphone yearly. Properly, these days by no means existed – however there was a time when every new iPhone had sufficient options to tempt even homeowners of the earlier mannequin. However that is all modified – except for minor digital camera enhancements, the addition of the odd button right here and there, and the aforementioned ever-growing screens, it actually looks like there is not a lot room for innovation anymore.
However hey, at the least the iPhone 20 sounds prefer it could be fascinating.
