Apple admitted last week that sales of the iPhone 12 exceeded the company’s expectations. But what about the customer’s expectations? After six weeks with the new iPhone, I have some thoughts.
They call it an upgrade, don’t they? When you’re flying, the word automatically fills you with joy because you’re getting something better for free. When you’re buying a phone, on the other hand, the price of an upgrade can be steep and the concomitant joy graph may not enjoy such a sharp upward gradient. Still, Apple CFO Luca Maestri told an analyst call last week that demand for the 12 „exceeded our own internal expectations at the beginning of the quarter.“ That may well be, but when I upgraded from iPhone XR to iPhone 12 six weeks ago, I didn’t have steep internal expectations. Apple’s phones haven’t incited wonder over the last few years. When the XR and XS emerged, I didn’t see the point of paying exalted dollars for the merely pleasant iPhone XS. I chose an iPhone XR to replace my iPhone 6, which should tell you that I don’t need the allegedly instant gratification of every new iPhone. At the time I bought the XR, it was my first time succumbing to Face ID. Going from the iPhone 6 meant accepting greater size and weight. Somehow, I still believed the XR felt like an iPhone. I still wondered whether I’d keep it for as long as I’d had the iPhone 6. I told myself I loved the XR’s battery life. I told myself I adored how sturdy and reliable it was. I often tell myself lies, especially in relationships. Within a year, I became conscious that this was a relationship of convenience.
