“A new survey of prospective smartphone owners signals customers are more excited to see what Apple has in store for this year’s ‘iPhone 7’ than they were last year’s iPhone 6s unveiling, though early interest for the 2016 upgrade is still behind hype for the iPhone 6 two years ago,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“The UBS Evidence Lab did a survey of 6,336 smartphone users across the U.S., U.K., Germany, mainland China, and Japan to gauge interest in Apple’s next smartphone,” Hughes reports. “Though nothing is officially known about the so-called “iPhone 7,” the poll found that consumer interest and demand are high.”
“In the U.S. and China, respondents showed more interest in the ‘iPhone 7’ than were interested in the iPhone 6s last year,” Hughes reports. “The data has led UBS analyst Steven Milunovich to predict that iPhone unit growth will reach between 5 and 10 percent in Apple’s fiscal year 2017. He believes many users who have not yet upgraded to a larger display could buy in with the latest product cycle driven by a redesigned ‘iPhone 7.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, so, like we’ve been saying for years: “Death to the ‘S.'”
Apple, enough with the stupid iPhone ‘S’ naming already.
iPhone “S” years usher in hugely significant features, such as oleophobic displays, significant GPU improvements, world phone capability, Siri personal assistant, video stabilization, panorama photos, 64-bit processors, TD-LTE support, Touch ID, and 3D Touch, among other improvements and additions. Each year’s iPhone deserves its own number. By not doing so, Apple is shooting itself in the foot; handicapping iPhones with an “S” every other year. Why Tim Cook or Phil Schiller haven’t put an end to this stupid – yes, stupid – “S” naming is inexplicable. Why don’t you just name it “iPhone No Big Deal This Year,” Tim and Phil?
Here’s what you say onstage and in the press release when there’s no “iPhone 7s” and you jump directly from iPhone 7 to iPhone 8: “The improvements are such that the new iPhone deserves its own number.” Period. Done. Mission accomplished. It’s your naming convention, Apple, and you can correct your stupid mistake at any time. – MacDailyNews, September 9, 2015
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And from last month:
Apple should strive to execute annual iPhone updates, in three display sizes if the SE is successful (which we think it will be), and drop the off-year “S” model concept. Apple is certainly big enough and rich enough to do a new iPhone family each and every year. Apple should have killed the tock year “S” model idea years ago.
What’s happened with iPhone is painfully obvious: Apple was at least a year (more likely two years) late with properly-sized iPhones. When iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus finally, blessedly materialized, buyers quite literally stampeded to get them. Then, when faced with such a “tough compare” this year, Apple was still sticking with their ill-conceived “S” model concept – making the tough compare much, much tougher.
The “iPhone 7” family – three models with the same case design and all with 3D Touch — comprised of the 4-inch iPhone 7 SE, the 4.7-inch iPhone 7, and the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus — should have debuted last September. That would have taken care of the current tough compare with iPhone 6/Plus. Then, this year, the iPhone 8 family, again with a new case design, but now waterproof, with dual cameras, etc. would debut this September. In 2017, perhaps Liquidmetal and AMOLED will be ready go for the iPhone 9. Etcetera. No more “S” years, Apple. Duh.
Had Apple done as we’ve just described, they’d have sold millions more iPhone units this year and millions upon millions more each year going forward.
Apple’s raison d’être is to delight customers. “S” model “tock” year iPhones do not delight customers in the same way as new “tick” year models. Obviously. They’re still the best smartphones on the planet, but they’re just okay. A bit of a meh. We all know that “S” models exist so Apple can wring out nice margins from existing designs and tooling, not expressly to delight customers. When Apple strays from its main goal is when things get wobbly. Just delight customers, Apple, and the world will beat a path to your door.
If we didn’t work for MacDailyNews, we’d have skipped the iPhone 6s Plus and held onto our iPhone 6 Plus units with no qualms – and we’re the most rabid Day One iPhone buyers you’ll ever find.
Why have an annual iPhone upgrade program, if you’re not going to wow us annually with new iPhones?
Well, I’m liking what I read about iPhone 7. Waterproof, etc., just getting better all the time.
I’m liking what I read too. There will be no headphone jack and also a headphone jack.
Maybe I’ll wait and see what actually turns up.
Now that’s radical talk waiting for what actually’s introduced… 🙂
The rumor I don’t appreciate is that there will be a pro version of the iPhone7 for $100 more.
Hm… Apple has trained its customers to expect radical updates to design in their non-s years…
Imagine the disappointment when consumers see a 7 that looks just like a 6.
Imagine having to look at yourself in the mirror, that’s disappointment.
Brilliant retort. Not sure why that offends you so much… The perception from most consumers is going to be that the 7 is a just an incremental update. Shallow, but true… Just like you.
You are a disappointment to every intelligent and rational person on the planet.
You should know, the disappointment club is one you’ve belonged to since birth.
This thread disappoints me.
Threads here in general have decidedly deteriorated with the rabid anti-Tim crowd foaming & spewing their clueless vitriol, and more Apple Hating trolls habituating here than we used to. There goes the neighborhood…
MDN, even if Apple chooses to drop the “s” in the every-other-year naming strategy, that does not automatically translate into improved sales. You are putting too much stock in a name and failing to pay attention to the other factors. For instance, despite Apple’s recent push to enable annual iPhone updates, people have been accustomed to a two-year update cycle and may be reluctant to upgrade more frequently. As a result, the massive 6 release somewhat damped the demand for the 6s, not just because it was an “s”. The greater interest in the 7, despite the fact that people do not know what new features will be included, supports that conclusion. It could be named the 7s and the level of interest would be unchanged. The iPhone SE is selling quite well by all accounts, and it’s naming approach is not consistent with that of its larger siblings.
MDN, you guys are drama divas sometimes. You try to create a bunch of fa base angst about non-issues when the real issues – stale Mac and MacBook designs, slow and long overdue updates to the iMac, Mac Pro, lightning displays, and other products, software issues with its flagship work/life products – are far more important.
“Why have an annual iPhone upgrade program, if you’re not going to wow us annually with new iPhones?” – MacDailyNews
Surveys about rumors. Who cares? I never have time for surveys, and I suspect the only people who do are a poor representation of any market.
Agreed. Shove the “S” Cupertino dummies.
iPhone 7 is the upgrade bus I’ve been waiting for from my 6 Plus though I have to say the 6 Plus is still going strong and never fails to do it’s job very well.
The S convention works just fine. People know what to expect – a substantial upgrade in hardware that makes the device different enough that many (not all) will upgrade every 2 years, even though the form factor remains the same. To change the form factor annually, Apple would have to sacrifice a very large percent of its profit margin, which would drive prices down, and also have to completely redesign the phone each year, which would increase costs, and they’d have to retool all of their manufacturing processes each year, which would lead to product shortages and delays and prevent scaling to meet demand, and finally and maybe even more significantly, they would also have to come up with brand new technology more compelling than a shape change EACH YEAR so that the internet doesn’t complain about the fact that its just the same phone in a different package (which you know is what will happen).
Ask yourselves this: If the 6s had been called an iPhone 7 would it have been a more-compelling phone to buy? Or a major disappointment to the market?
Or this: If the iPhone got a new form factor every year, would people be more satisfied with the one they had longer, since they’re always just one year or less away from the next new one? People who try to upgrade every 2 years for a new form factor are more likely to use their old phone even longer until it dies than increase their upgrade cycle to an annual one, regardless of the new form factor each year – once they have to start skipping form factors, they’ll feel fine skipping several at a time.
And finally, the accessory market would suffer because those companies would have a much harder time retooling new products every year to match the new form factors.
Keep the S convention. It’s the only choice that makes sense for Apple. And AAPL.