Why I won’t buy the new iPhone 6s?

I don’t think Apple would care if one guy did not buy their iPhone. The latest most advanced iPhone yet, from the leading smartphone seller. Why just a seller? Because they stopped innovating some years ago, and that is a big statement to make, against the child of a man who in some circles is hailed as the greatest inventor of the 21st century. But then as of now, this is how matters rest, and yes i firmly believe now that Apple does not care if one person does not buy their latest offering. Their vision is no more about making simpler and exemplary products for that one customer. They are now in to the business of making what they think would work better at gaining a larger market share. Bigger phones and copied features, and that is why i won’t be buying the new iPhone.

“New”, is a relative term. By new now, Apple doesn’t mean new in the market, it just means its a first on the iPhone.

So what is new then, this time around? Lets talk one elephant in the room, at a time.

Hardware

The new A9 chip, which is again 70% more faster and power efficient than the A8 found on the iPhone 6. As far as a user is concerned, that shouldn’t hang on him, and that the iPhone seldom does, so i don’t care what numeral is that A inside the iPhone followed with. 

Unless of course i’m a technogeek or gadget showoff. Hell the only “A” followed by numbers i would be interested in is the model of my next Audi upgrade. That’s what the class of most iPhone buyers in India already is. They buy it for the status symbol, “gold ki warak wala”. And now they have one more color to show off, the Rose Gold, actually pink is not pink anymore because Apple said so. The phones of such a market went smarter than their owner, just when they could connect to the internet and search something up on google.

The next hardware change is the new iSight camera. Now with more megapixels and further improved sensor. So gone are the rumours of the three prism light reflectors, and dslr mimicking technology, all went suddenly kaput. I won’t even get the image stabilisation unless of course i go for the plus model, but why would i? I already have an iPad, why would i like to buy such a huge phone? And of course the updated selfie camera for the new generation of people buying smartphones just to capture better moments on themselves awkwardly posing with or without friends. The new 5 megapixel Facetime Camera as they call it. 5 megapixels worth of smiles.

Is this the famous Apple innovation? The Apple touch, much like midas’ was? Where is the “new”, that is the only question which “pops” into the mind.  Popping brings to conversation, the new touch technology on the new iPhone 6s. Coming to the touch therapy then. 3d Touch. A bold new interaction method. What Apple invented for the watch, has been now ported on a larger canvas, namely force touch, oh no, 3D touch. So this is a new way in which you can interact with your iPhone. Press the screen. I am sure many will agree we have already tried that every now and then, when the frigging phone betrays our well placed confidence, we do want to strangle it at times and many of us have even tried tapping harder and harder as if it would make any difference. Well being the innovators Apple are, they actually listened to your frustration. They realised they did not want to make you any less exasperated, but they could make the iPhones do something now, in this hard pressed situation. Now the new iPhone has the capability to react to such violence.

Software

iOS 9. The most advanced mobile operating system since iOS. So what’s new in this? On the face of it, Apple had to add something in lieu of the most wasteful interaction added on the phone. So how the iPhone now reacts when you use 3D touch? It opens context menus on home screen app icons. Within apps it does what could easly have been done by long taps. But then where is that Appleness in that? Let’s face it. All mobile OS were so good at touch experience because they did not have windows like features of nested menu based navigations, which are good with a pointing device but a nuisance with finger touch. Android brought them into being on it, with long presses way back, as a way to provide shortcut to frequently used actions. But iOS never had context menus. That was the simplicity, that was the novelty. Why is that being lost with each new iteration? But then they are there only to have some use for the 3D touch. That’s an excellent piece of hardware and software integration, i must say.

Live Photos - A feature, of which when i heard, i didn’t know to laugh or cry. I was eventually doing both simultaneously. i had an HTC One a couple of years back, the M7, first one of the One series. HTC back then came out with the revolutionary UltraPixel camera. That was innovation. Then they had Zoe. A photographers dream come true. What did Zoe do? It would take small 3 second videos with still shots. These videos could be then edited, much like burst shots, you could take out objects accidentally captured in the frame, merge a couple of pics to make on perfect group shot. Live photos has none of these features. And this was a good two years back. Not just this, Zoe would also create events based on time and location of captured photos, these then would be automatically compiled in a short 30 sec video with music mixed at the background. True delight to quickly review a nice episode in life. Moreover you could also edit these videos. And of course share them at will. iOS 9 has none of there features but has highlighted Live Photos, coupled with 3D touch again, if you press hard enough on the lock screen, the wallpaper would show the live photo version. That’s it. Maybe we have to wait till iOS 11 for more of the above features to be ripped off and Appled. Highly Innovative yet again.

Some of the other greater less marketed features are the Low Power Mode. Apple is losing on the user convenience side largely. While on most android phones the low power mode was present since long, it would automatically go off once the set level of charging is reached. For iOS 9, you have to specifically go into Settings -> Battery to disable it. Slight inconvenience, but not at all characteristic Apple of two years back. Speaking of battery we also have now the detailed battery usage shown, app wise, finally. Yet another never seen before on iOS kind of new feature.

Some actually good changes are like the new system font, San Francisco. It makes viewing all the more clear and spacious. Even the keyboard looks a lot more neat, all thanks to the letter now visible in small as well, rather than all caps. There is also a native new transliteration keyboard for Hindi. It is crappy at times with transliteration but is better than having to install third party solutions. There is even an updated notes app. It does have some drawing features, options to create lists easily, so that another small improvement. You can do away with the “Evernote” installation now, if you only used to note down things you were afraid you would forget if you didn’t. They could still do with some native image markup features.

The smallest yet the best addition that Apple did to iOS is the one least mentioned, and to go likely unnoticed by many. The small option to go back to the previous application from which you came in to the current one following the notification that distracted you.

So now you don’t need to double tap the home button to go into the multitasking menu to select the app you were previously in. iOS 9 takes you right back you were with one tap. That is the user experience Apple is know for. Finding beauty in the simplest of interactions. It was this thinking that they used when they started making bigger phones but thought of one handed operations as well. A gentle double tap on the home button and the whole screen comes half way down. That was the Apple i knew of. We need more of that from Apple, not some fancy new useless tech like 3D touch.

It’s was in the small things that users found delight while using Apple products.

Now my reaction with my iPhone and maybe the next one is going to be like a abusive bad girlfriend, to whom i keep returning for reasons better not mentioned on this page. There is still nothing on offer outside the Apple Universe to make me go back to android if i want to buy a new phone. Even with all the copying and crappy innovations, iPhone is still the best user experience by far. Their hardware and software integration is till by far the best in the market, but till when? It’s like any relation in life, when the pros would eventually be far less than the abuse i face.

It’s been two days since i decided i won’t buy the new iPhone 6s. And how do i feel? Tormented. It’s like a breaking up. Like telling myself i won’t be seeing her ever again, because we have had a bad fight. That’s what Apple has done to the world. It has created a relations between humans and their products like a real life relation. We may hate, we may love, we may have mixed feelings for it, but feel we shall. In a nutshell it has become like another situation in life. Apple isn’t selling a phone, it’s selling life and hope. It is selling experiences, i trade in my last one in the hope of a better experience with the new iPhone. Hope and dreams. That is some marketing machinery.

And even in between all this rant, i went ahead and booked the new iPhone 6s. Eventually i too am buying the new iPhone. The most advanced iPhone since iPhone.