Well, I guess it’s this time of year again – when the old models start glitching and shutting down, when you’re forced to buy a “new and improved” phone, when another mere number gets added to the list of devices for sale. AKA; Apple is coming out with a new phone (what number are we on now?). I remember when the iPhone 11 was announced and everyone was excited because it had two cameras. That was 2019. Since then, Apple has released the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max; regular, Pro, Pro Max, and Mini or Plus versions for the iPhone 12, 13, 14, and 15; and two new generations of the iPhone SE. That’s 20 new phones in the last five years.
Now that Apple has announced the new iPhone 16 and its Plus and Pro/ProMax versions, the older models are bound to start malfunctioning any day now, with my iPhone 13 already beginning to black out and crash. On top of this, Apple has also decided to discontinue the iPhone 13 and iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max. The strategy of shutting down older phones while releasing newer, more expensive phones and getting rid of cheaper previous options isn’t new to the technology industry. You buy a new phone, have it last for a few years, and then replace it with a better phone that you’ll only finish paying off right when a new one comes out.
“I was thinking … what are developers trying to do now with phones? Is there disappointment about the new iPhone 16? Is it revolutionary? I feel like these next iterations of phones are just incremental steps. They’re just maybe a faster processor, maybe more memory, and maybe a slightly better camera,” said David Chan, the Director of Instructional Technology at ETHS. “They’ll keep saying ‘this is the best iPhone ever,’ and Apple loves doing that, right? They’re saying this is the most magical device ever, [but] I think we will see that in the sales [that] people aren’t rushing to buy the next generation when it comes out.”
On March 21, 2024, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. According to Tech Target, a technology marketing company, the DOJ claimed that the company had “unlawfully exercised monopoly power with the iPhone in the smartphone market”. The lawsuit argues that Apple has been using “anticompetitive conduct that harms both consumers and developers”. This technique is how Apple (and various other tech companies) can charge so much for the bare minimum of products.
“It’s nothing new. They add another button and that’s it,” said Junior Ash Castanien when asked about the new iPhone 16. “It is not worth the hundreds of dollars. Nowadays, it tends to be that Apple only releases products for cash grabs and less of something that would improve people’s lives.”
Even with the high cost of production, Apple is one of the leading technology companies across the globe. The company reported a total of $89.5 billion was earned during 2023’s fourth quarter and according to Statista, Apple produced over 231 million phones in 2023. With all of Apple’s profits and success, there comes a point when it becomes too much. According to Global Data, there were over 50,000 tonnes of generated waste from Apple in 2021. In 2013, Apple set up its “trade-in” policy that allows you to get money off a new phone for your old damaged one and has claimed to have started to focus on recycled materials in their phones and use low-carbon shipping, but is that enough to combat years of overproduction and environmental damage?
“It’s nice knowing that if I open something on one area and one device, then I can open something on the other ones and they’re going to be in sync,” voiced Chan. “If you’re familiar with how an iPhone looks, then the iPad is just a bigger iPhone, yet you somehow need both devices. That’s the other thing with Apple, right? They want to try to make sure that they’re not cannibalizing their product lineup, so they want to make sure that you, the user, feel like you have to have the phone, the iPad, now the watch, and then the computer, and you need to have AirPods because you need to talk to Siri when you’re on your phone.”
As the arrival of the iPhone 16 draws near, it’s important to understand Apple’s influences within the tech industry and the rest of the world. Does anybody need a new phone or are they adding to the overconsumption of technology? The new iPhone isn’t life-changing or astounding, it just reiterates Apple’s need for monopolization of the tech market. Year after year they come out with their “best iPhone yet” when it’s the same thing they advertised twelve months ago but with a slightly better camera and battery life. Apple needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a product with practical and efficient uses and not another block of titanium worth over five hundred dollars with an extra button on the side.
