I've been living with my iPhone 4S for the past two years or so, and if I was living in a world where I wasn't bombarded with new phone announcements and people of the general public caring enough to upgrade constantly, I wouldn't think my phone was obsolete. It's a great feeling phone that does everything I want it to - plus a lot of stuff I don't care to do. It's not perfect, but neither are iOS 8, the iPhone 6, or the iPhone 6 Plus, so why spend the hundreds of dollars every year or two?

I'm not even going to attempt to answer that question. I'm merely using it as a rhetorical device to illustrate that the past two years of announcements of Apple hardware and services have not moved me to throw money at them, and here are a few reasons why.

  • I like a one-handed device - The 3.5" screen of the iPhone 4S is a fantastic form factor for the things I use my phone for, plus it fits easily in my pocket. In the past two years we've seen increases in phone sizes, and they just seem unnecessary. Sure the added real estate can make things like video and visually dense games easier to see and enjoy, but I don't necessarily need my phone to become a home theater, and I definitely don't want that functionality it if it involves making it less portable, harder to use one-handed, and less battery efficient.

  • I have figured out iOS already - By all accounts iOS isn't some flawless operating system, but I personally think it's pretty great for phones. There are things that people gripe about it not having, or things it could do better, but I've found that nowadays (in general) there literally is "an app for that." There are some new system level features that iOS 8 adds that cannot be imitated by apps on un-upgraded phones of course, but generally speaking, I've already figured out how to manage my battery, tweak location services, pay for stuff with my phone, manage share sheets, and so on. I don't need to re-learn it on a new OS.

  • There isn't a $200 reason to upgrade - Unless I missed something like a battery that can last through 24 hours of use, location-based workflow automations, or the ability to have 3rd party apps truly work in tandem with one another, Apple's latest announcements feel shallow and gimmicky. Like an attempt to sell me on something I don't need and don't want.

All this being said, I am due for a phone upgrade in November and will most likely upgrade to something higher than the 4S. The only reason I'm considering this is because developers are moving on to iOS 8 (which basically kills the 4S), and will likely drop active support for everything I currently use on iOS 7. If it weren't for everyone feeling they had to move forward with Apple's vision, I'd continue to stare happily at my 3.5" screen for the foreseeable future.

Posted in: News, Opinion
Tagged With: Apple, Iphone, Ios, IPhone 4S, IOS 8
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