from Hacker News

your current iOS hardware is obsolete

by htk on 6/9/25, 3:26 PM with 5 comments

The iPhone 4 was the first iPhone to sport a retina display. Beautifully animated at 60 frames per second. Then iOS 7 came out with transparency effects and the whole came crashing down to stutters, bugs and whatnot. It was clear you needed a new phone and your current one just became a lot worse for everyday tasks.

I predict the same is going to happen in the new version of iOS being announced today. Apple needs a reason to sell new phones but the current ones are plenty enough. So why not throw some computationally expensive bells and whistles to make everyone unhappy with their current hardware?

by taylodl on 6/9/25, 3:43 PM
Apple's real problem is that people have stopped caring about keeping up with the latest iPhone. No matter which model you have, you have a solid camera, reliable connectivity, good music features, and an extensive app ecosystem. In short, your current phone is good enough.
There’s no compelling reason to upgrade. Recent "innovations" like emoji avatars and Apple Intelligence feel superficial - Siri is still as underwhelming as it was a decade ago.
Meanwhile, HomeKit is stagnant, iWork remains irrelevant, and new iPhones offer little meaningful improvement over older ones. Most users are hanging onto their devices until they physically break - and that’s a serious problem for Apple’s bottom line.
by coldtea on 6/9/25, 3:52 PM
>It was clear you needed a new phone and your current one just became a lot worse for everyday tasks.
Not, it wasn't clear at all. In fact, gadget freaks aside most people don't care, and update after when the device is all battered and battery has had too many cycles, or in some 2 year schedule or so, based on what funding they get from their carrier.
What's more, iPhones hold their resale second hand value just fine (better than any Android phone), which means lots of people also buy older models, and don't see the "latest and greatest" as a necessity.