I guess I’ve been a computer geek all my life. I started out watching my brothers (who are 10 and 12 years older than I am) buy and use the latest computers back in the day.
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-81 (Google that) and all the other computers at that time (Commodore 64, Acorn Electron, BBC A and BBC B) etc etc
Then when I got older I was fascinated by PC’s. From the older IBM XT’s to newer desktop devices, I loved them all. I could take apart a PC and replace the motherboard and everything connected to it, chips, drivers, sound cards etc. I loved overclocking processors, hyper-threading and all that good stuff and it was all really exciting until one simple thing happened.
PC processors hit the magic benchmark – the 3Ghz clock speed.
You see after all that, it didn’t really matter anymore – it was the point of diminishing returns where every computer was fast enough. After all, how much speed and power did you REALLY need to open up an Excel spreadsheet, a PowerPoint doc or even a Photoshop document?
My friends, we have hit that moment again with Apple’s new iPhone X or iPhone Ten.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must have heard that Apple recently released a trio of phones – the iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X.
They are all beautiful devices and if you want more details, feel free to check out the Verge’s obligatory annual ode to Cupertino.
I get it, Apple has made a bunch of beautiful phones and the new one is really big, uses an OLED screen and has facial recognition.
The dirty little secret about Apple’s iPhone X? – it’s not substantially more useful than my iPhone 7 Plus.
I have an Apple iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB of storage and portrait mode. It takes AMAZING photos day or night and it does a real novel thing as well – it lets me make and receive phone calls really well.
I watched the Apple crew present the iPhone X and apart from it being a really cool new gadget, I didn’t hear one substantive reason I HAD to buy it.
Facial detection – nice to have, what about law enforcement and privacy?
Faster processing – my phone’s plenty fast thanks
OLED screen – if that was a must have, I would have a Samsung
Wider screen – once again, nice but…
New Snapchat filters with facial recognition – what am I, 12 years old?
Augmented Reality – No killer apps yet
And here’s what makes it even worse – iOS 11 is going to make me LOVE my current iPhone even more.
A lot of naysayers said that once Steve Jobs died, Apple would run out of ideas and as we can see, that hasn’t been true. It’s a great company led by an able steward (TC).
The truth is, it’s not Apple’s fault – we have simply run out of things to do with a phone and unfortunately, these publicly traded companies can’t afford to admit that. So the race continues and Samsung will have to focus on a new phone with a trillion transistors on a super bionic chip and on and one we go.
I suspect both Apple and Samsung are fighting the last war. Phones are good enough, fast enough and powerful enough. Companies fighting this battle are becoming dinosaurs, looking up and patiently waiting for innovation meteorites to wipe them out.
If you are on an iPhone 6, you should upgrade to an iPhone 8, it’s time. If you’re on an iPhone 7 and higher, I suspect it’s going to be a much harder sell.
BONUS – check out this article from Digital Trends that shows how “innovative” these new features are.