Is that not the pattern Apple has followed since the release of the original iPhone? This is an "off" year, the device would have been called the 12S but they stopped that pattern a while back.

This is a mischaracterization of the S models. Even though the non-S models had bigger design changes, the S models were often large technological leaps:

- 4S: single -> dual core

- 5S: first 64-bit iPhone, first Touch ID model

- 6S: twice as much memory, 70% faster CPU than the 6. In contrast to the 6 still supported, probably because it has so much headroom. Also 3D Touch (though it ultimately failed).

If anything, it's the screen tech that could be holding them back, there's supply constraints in that chain as well.

I'm genuinely suprised we even got variable refresh rate; Apple clearly had much higher standards for it or they were concerned they couldn't meet demand, otherwise it should have shipped 2 years ago.

They could also do more innovation on the camera notch (20% smaller is not enough), I'd expect them to solve the under-display camera problem by now given their expertise and funding.

1) Drop the photo scanning BS.

2) Add Touch ID back.

3) Just call it what it is. It's an iPhone 12S.

4) USB-C

5) Put a charger back in the box.

Never gonna happen, though.

- Act as wireless charger

- Dual SIM

- Under-screen fingerprint reader

- Maybe FM radio

- Headphones socket

I get why a few years ago there was a push for this, but in this era, why? There are so many music / news / talk streaming options that traditional radio might as well be dead. You turn on the sports radio shows and they are deliberately advertising and directing you to their podcast over their radio show.

iPhones are Dual SIM. You can use a physical SIM + and eSIM. I have used my iPhone with two different plans/phone numbers for a while.

In recent years they've dealt with some of the pain-points of iOS, e.g. starting to allow default apps, adding an app drawer so you don't need to have every app on your homescreen, etc.

And especially if we want to talk Macs, they recently released a batch of computers with their own silicon that are being rave-reviewed in terms of performance and battery life, and they're backtracking on the design flaws from their last era of laptops (getting rid of the butterfly keyboard that had a pathetic failure rate, giving up on the touchbar, rumors of potentially adding more I/O back, etc).

Most of Apple's updates are boring iterations on previous versions. Periodically, they'll come out with something that captures people's imagination for a while, then it's back to predicting the end of Innovator Apple because whatever is happening now doesn't match the excitement of the big shift.

Edit: I postulate that the disappointment effect crosses product lines

They are for the ones whose phone is so old that the latest iOS stopped supporting it.

Think about the amazing leap you get from an iPhone 6 to iPhone 13? That's not "iterative", it's damn revolutionary.

I'll be forced to update when enough apps (not Apple, but third party) stop working because they no longer support iOS 12. Currently, there are only 7 apps out of over 200 that I have installed that don't support iOS 12. So I have to run an older version of these apps. Eventually there will be many. And the older versions of the apps will eventually stop working as well (if they connect to some web APIs that will be deprecated). This is what forced me to upgrade from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 6 last time.

iPhone 6 had headphone connector, reasonable size and touchid. It had headphones and charger bundled in, for $650 at launch.

iPhone 13 definitely has better camera, display and performance, and it is bit more water resistant and has wireless charging. But it's larger, missing headphone connector, it has faceid (which never works in pandemic world due to masks), has no headphones or charger in the box, and cost $1000 at launch.

So there definitely are improvements (the quality of life from wireless charging, nicer screen and camera) but it comes at almost twice the cost and a lot of stupid choices like faceid. For people not interested in performance and camera, the iPhone 13 can almost seem worse.

I've got so fucking many wired Apple headphones and chargers I don't know what to do with them all.

I'm glad they're not bundling them any more. I use an Anker charger and cable anyway.

After that you just won't care and barely notice it.

With the supply chain situation being what it is, essentially extending the 12 for a year is the smart move. They’ve already slipped the laptops to the point that they missed back to school and likely Christmas.