So after seeing some of the commentary online, I’m trying to rethink the whole iPhone announcement from yesterday. There are a couple of particular things that stick with me as a result of trying to look outside myself and think how other people are using this device, which is something the rest of this Valley could stand to do once in a while. Therefore:
* Yes, $1000 is a crazy price for an iPhone. I’ve been fond of saying “that’s laptop money.” And then, consider this: what do I do at home on a regular basis that happens on the computer rather than on the iPad? Not much. And if I’m doing these things on an 8” iPad, how many could be done just as well on a 6” iPhone? There’s a very real case that for some people, the iPhone X (or other phone) is their home computer in every way that matters. At that point, $1350 for 256 GB of storage and two years of AppleCare for your sole computing device is a number you wouldn’t think twice about if it were a MacBook and not a phone.
* The accessory ecosystem is starting to make a difference. The phone is the hub, you get the audio through your synced AirPods, you get the notifications on your arm, and – at some point, mark my words – you look at the AR world through some sort of glasses that can be lighter and less obtrusive than Google Glass because all the heavy lifting of processing is staffed out to the phone in your pocket rather than balanced on your earpiece. The old argument of the Mac as the hub of your digital life is replaced with the iPhone (and iCloud) as the hub from which everything else runs. And if you have a television and an Apple TV, all you need is a Bluetooth keyboard and you’re able to bang out these very blog posts just the way you’d do it on a laptop. Apple has inadvertently (or not) made the personal computer more personal than ever, and all these various bits contribute to the sublimation of computing into a presence around you rather than a thing you do at a desk.
* In a world where people watch everything on Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime and listen to everything via Spotify and SoundCloud and Apple Music, you don’t need that much storage on the phone. I suspect a lot of folks will be more than happy with the 64 GB option, which is the max available on most of the Android phones in the “good enough” space. So you don’t really need to splash out the extra hundred bucks or more for the sake of carrying more around.
* In a world where everything is streaming – including visual media – you stumble into needing the bigger phone, just for the battery. Yes, a 5.8” screen is better than 4” for watching the new Spider-Man on the plane, but when all your audio is streaming and going over Bluetooth headphones, every extra mAh you can pack into the phone is crucial. So the big battery plus the fast-charging (50% in 30 minutes? For serious?) means you should be able to make it through the day fairly easily.
* If you’re going to pay $800 for an iPhone 8 Plus, may as well splash out the extra $200 for a bigger screen in a smaller package. The counterargument: pay $200 less for the same processor and back camera and charging, better battery life, proven TouchID and let somebody else go first testing Apple’s new hardware. Plenty of people have been arguing for the 8 Plus on those grounds, and given the opportunity to have it from work, I might well consider it knowing I still have the SE to fall back on (but I may also stick $500 back just in case some notional SE2 should ever appear).
So…is there a valid use case for these phone? Yes, yes and yes. I am not in the demographic pool for the lifestyle choices for which they appear to be optimized, but I still have my old man phone, and I love it. As long as Apple stays willing to produce a phone with a screen smaller than 5 inches, I can get by. Once that paradigm goes…things will be more difficult.