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.
