What time to be alive! Technology has been spurring for the last couple of decades, and many old inventions have seen a recalibration of size, efficiency and – with the world becoming smaller every day – distribution.
Perhaps one of the things that people a hundred years from now will talk about when recollecting our time is how it seems to be characterized by our use of smartphones. Many can’t imagine how life would be without their phone, and not necessarily because of what phones in their true purpose is supposed to be. With added functions through apps, and with most people carrying a smartphone, modern life seems to become harder to live without.
Maybe the most prominent of smartphones is the iPhone. Many would verbally assault me for making that claim, but perhaps not for entirely wrong reasons. As applications are largely available on all kinds of smartphones, most have cameras and they all do what phones always have done (phoning), the differences shines through design and performance. Myself I have been an iPhone-user since 2014, when my old selfiecameraless HTC needed replacing.
My opinion is that each iPhone always have been simple, clean, and elegant for their respective generations, both speaking about physical design and user interface. This is speaking in terms of “less is more”; both physical design and user interface is largely uncomplicated. Of course, many criticize iPhones for being overpriced, seeing that other phones are superior in some aspects of performance, and that you could get more for your moneys worth if you choose another market player. But this simplicity has still been able to grab hold of a large share of smartphone users. Many use their iPhone for a year, before buying the new, upgraded next generation after.
But this have not always been a good thing, as Apple faced a lawsuit in 2017. The court found Apple guilty of slowing down older phones with software updates that were better tailored for the new generation, perhaps forcing loyal customers to buy this one, seeing as users were not warned about this when their phones prompted the updates. I don’t think anyone would be wrong claiming that this unethical move severely damaged how many people viewed apple, as long-term customers felt betrayed by a company they trusted.
The case resulted in that Apple naturally had to stop doing this, as they would face more fines and bad customer relations. The new software might have worked perfectly on the newer phones, but simply was not made for the older ones. This is a dishonest way of business that raises questions about if the next generation is even worth buying. Is the responsible team not competent enough to sell their product without tricking their customers into doing so?
Making sense of art and design industries 