The growth of innovation in phones has slowed over the years.
Companies like Apple release phones every year and the result is smaller upgrades with fewer reasons to buy into the next generation of iPhone products.
With a lack of design variation, features, and bold ideas in the iPhone 13, there is no reason to upgrade, especially when one compares the specs of the new iPhone model to the previous one.
The iPhone 13 has the A15 chip, which is a modest step up from the iPhone 12’s A14 chip. One new feature the 13 boasts is “cinematic mode” for video recording, something a niche group of people would consider when buying a phone. The iPhone 13 also has an improved 800 nit brightness display, a measure of synthetic lighting, that is a half step brighter than the previous iPhone 12.
The 13 beats out the 12 with an additional two hours of video playback compares to the iPhone 12. These features shouldn’t convince a buyer into purchasing these new products considering the compare tool Apple has on its website, shows there isn’t any differences to the glass, casing, charging and other aspects of the phone that would make a user consider the upgrade.
One reason to upgrade is the ongoing value a consumer receives with an Apple product. Buying into the 12 at launch and maintaining the phone means a consumer could trade the product in for upwards of $685 CAD. The iPhone 12 costs $949 CAD, so the potential trade-in equals better savings. This makes the digestion of the $1099 CAD price tag of an iPhone 13 a better buy because the cost ends up being of $414 CAD without tax and shipping.
This is where the iPhone can feel like a subscription service instead of a one-time purchase so it is easier to justify getting the latest model of the iPhone every year.
The only thing that makes the iPhone 13 worth the cost is the ability to shoot high quality video. The iPhone 13 uses gimmicks that the previous model had. The only difference? Micro improvements make the 13 look better.
Apple’s biggest innovations happen every three to four years, this can been seen with the iPhone 4S, to the iPhone 6 to the iPhone XR. Each carrying massive changes to the user interface, physical design, and feature upgrades, with the 4S, it was the first iPhone selling well over 50 million units, it featured the the first 1080P HD display, to the iPhone 6 having the first generation of Touch ID, to the iPhone XR coming in with the largest display of its time at a cost effective price point.
Upgrading can be challenging with flashy marketing and so many options now, but to narrow the pathway consider what you need and not fall to gimmick tactics Apple uses.