The Current Innovation Landscape
Apple’s relentless pursuit of ‘impossibly thin’ hardware is a marvel of engineering, but a recent discussion reveals a stark disconnect: what if the feature nobody was asking for is the one getting all the attention? While the tech world buzzes about a slimmer profile, the real story might be what users are willing to trade for it.
- Apple continues its trend of incremental hardware refinements, with the latest focus being on creating an extremely thin device, a move one user sees as an attempt to keep things fresh.
- Beneath the surface, significant technological leaps are being made, such as chips with powerful local LLM acceleration, which many see as the real prize.
If the M5 generation gets this GPU upgrade… then the era of viable local LLM inferencing is upon us. That’s the most exciting thing from this Apple’s event in my opinion.
- This push for difficult-to-manufacture designs may also be a strategic moat. The goal could be to create engineering challenges that competitors can’t easily replicate, gaining Apple an estimated 6-month headway.
…the main reason for Apple’s designs is to keep imitators at bay by introducing manufacturing challenges that only they can meet. Indeed impossible at the time of release.
- Still, many users feel that Apple’s product line is mature, and the need for radical new designs is questionable.
My iPhone 11 still feels very much good enough (which I imagine must be terrible for Apple). Perhaps their idea is that you can’t just refine the 15-16-17 every year. You need to try _something_ else…
The Problem with ‘Thin’
Despite the engineering prowess, the concept of an ultra-thin phone has been met with widespread skepticism. The community points to several fundamental flaws in the logic, suggesting a disconnect between the design studio and the end-user.
- The most glaring issue is the massive camera bump, which makes the device’s thinness a moot point. It can’t lie flat and often requires a case, defeating the entire purpose.
Thin on its own I get but thin with a giant bump 100% defeats the whole point for me. Seems clear at this point there is little hope of them engineering their way into thin cameras.
- There’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘smaller’ means to users. The community largely clamors for reduced width and height, not thickness.
I guess Apple finally listened to all the people saying they want a smaller phone, and totally misunderstood what that meant
- Many users would happily trade thinness for more practical benefits, especially longer battery life, which remains a top priority.
Just do not understand the market for this one. The current size of phones is a solved problem. Nobody is asking for these things to be thinner. Most people use cases and are happy to add some thickness for battery life.
What a Better iPhone Looks Like
Instead of chasing a thinner profile, the community has a clear vision for what they’d rather see. The suggestions aren’t just complaints; they are blueprints for products that solve real-world problems.
- Embrace thickness for function. A thicker ‘Ultra’ or ‘Travel’ model could house a multi-day battery and make the camera system flush with the body.
I want an extra thick model instead… Just thick enough so the cameras are no longer sticking out. Give me an all-week battery instead of an all-day one.
- Revive the truly compact phone. There is a clear and vocal demand for a modern ‘mini’ model that prioritizes a smaller overall footprint for better one-handed use.
If you want my money, give me an iPhone 17 mini with small width and height, I don’t care about it being thinner like the Air.
- Shift focus from industrial design gimmicks to powerful software features. Leveraging new hardware for private, on-device AI could be a true game-changer.
It’s about time they use that to become the dominant phone and personal device maker. Instead of focusing on anorexic phones.
- Offer choice beyond camera quality. Some users would prefer a flatter phone with a less powerful camera, but this niche remains unserved.
I sincerely hope that apple will consider making a phone with a worse camera that is flatter. As someone who rarely takes photos… the bump is just a dead weight to me.
