Apple’s boring hardware updates

<i>... LTE chipset (which currently has coverage almost nowhere)</i><p>Whoa! Marco is beginning to sound more annoying than Gruber.<p>The Apple fanbois make statements like this all the time -- Apple doesn't support something, so therefore it's irrelevant? LTE is available in NYC, LA, and Chicago (and 20 other cities), which are the three biggest markets in the US. That's not "nowhere", that's "a good chunk of the population".<p>Let me know when you can buy a Thunderbolt peripheral :)

It's important to keep in mind that for Apple, hardware and software are not independent products. The software, as great as it often is on its own, exists to sell the hardware. Most of the iPhone's most compelling features, judging from what Apple chooses to promote, come in the form of software that takes advantage of new hardware. Think FaceTime with the iPhone 4, or video recording with the iPhone 3GS. These aren't the kind of big splash features that can typically come with just a software update.<p>Also consider the significant fact that new iPhones come with huge public exposure. Usually glowing stories on The Today Show and Good Morning America, articles in The New York Times, etc. This is publicity you can't buy. Free iOS updates, even if they have major version numbers attached to them, just don't have the same sex appeal with the public.<p>New hardware just seems to focus the customer's mind in a way that I'm not sure software can.

My wager for this summer/fall is an "iPhone 4S" with the A5 processor, with almost no other hardware changes.<p>Plus a launch of iOS 5, with a revamped notification system, more developer API's, and possibly some UI reworks (iOS is looking pretty long in the tooth compared to things like Windows Phone 7)

Apple's events are almost always an hour. With that in mind, it is hard to see how any of these hardware announcements, event LTE, would take up an hour long presentation.

I'm not sure we're at that point yet but it will happen eventually. Once the iPhone gets a multi-core processor, much faster GPU, and 4G what else is really left for a yearly update? I doubt we'll see an octo-core iPhone 6 with 4 cameras, 2K display and 5G radios in 2013. The possible delay for the iPhone 5 seems more about re-aligning the product release schedule. It doesn't really matter when the iPhone is released. Most people only buy a new phone with they are eligible for a subsidized upgrade. The iPad, and iPod Touch, are the items that need a big back-to-school/x-mas production push. It must be difficult (or at least expensive) for Apple to release the iPhone mid-year and 2 months later gear up for the iPad/iPod rush. I think we'll probably see the iPad 2 get an extended shelf life too. The rumors of an iPad release in September were probably correct they just got the year wrong -- it'll be 2012. The last piece of this is they may move to more frequent, but minor, OS updates. This has already started to happen with 4.x where each release brought some significant features. Perhaps all the bundled apps will be updated through the App Store instead of OS updates as part of this.

I was really surprised that Apple chose to unveil thunderbolt in a press release rather than at an event. They'd been working with Intel for years and at the end all it garnered was "oh by the way the new MB pros will have lightpeak I/O ports built in and we're calling it thunderbolt." Couldn't they have waited the few weeks until the iPad announcement and unveiled it then? Apple missed a huge opportunity for free press(they were already there for the iPad, why not tell them about your revolutionary new I/O technology?) but oh well. Guess even Apple drops the ball from time to time.

Moving to a longer cycle also has the benefit of being friendly to people who purchase the iPhone with a service contract. It's tough to be in a two-year deal for a one-year device.

The iPhone doesn't need to get any smaller, and the display won't need any more increases in resolution. That's practically it's only noticeable physical feature. Anything they add to it at this point will be hard to notice unless it adds substantial new functionality.<p>They can always improve on speed, camera resolution, and storage; they could add LTE and NFC, but I can't think of much else that would even <i>need</i> hardware support that they couldn't add in software.

My bet is on a larger screen: resolution is high enough to support larger screen and competition has nice large screens already.

There is still a <i>lot</i> of scope for significant hardware changes in the device space. A couple of my favourites - a) Pen input on iPad category devices (great for schools!) and b) camera embedded within the display (so you can look at the other in the eye).

Apple isn't a hardware vendor: it isn't building its strategy off continually trying to get people to switch to the "latest and greatest." Instead, it's focusing on making it's money off the app store / itunes platform, and doing that makes it more important to keep their existing customers happy and on the phones they've already bought. That's why you see them being so consistent about upgrades, etc and support for the older units than other manufacturers.<p>Continual planned obsolescence is great for hardware sales but tends to make your customers feel a little sour about the product they bought from you last year. If you really want them to be loyal, buying apps and staying with the brand, it seems like a better plan to keep them happy through as much of the product cycle as possible by reducing hardware churn and focusing on software upgrades you can use for marketing but also distribute to your existing base.

&#62; Or an LTE chipset<p>&#62; Would any of those justify an event?<p><i>Yes</i>.<p>LTE would be deserving of an event, especially if the launch of the iPhone coincides with the launch of LTE from ATT.

What a silly person. The hardware is magic! :)