From the DOJ lawsuit filed against Apple in 2024:

As Apple’s executives openly acknowledge: “In looking at it with hindsight, I think going forward we need to set a stake in the ground for what features we think are ‘good enough’ for the consumer. I would argue we’re already doing *more* than what would have been good enough. But we find it very hard to regress our product features YOY [year over year].” Existing features “would have been good enough today if we hadn’t introduced [them] already,” and “anything new and especially expensive needs to be rigorously challenged before it’s allowed into the consumer phone.” Thus, it is not surprising that Apple spent more than twice as much on stock buybacks and dividends as it did on research and development.

A huge thank you to my Patrons! I hope you’ll consider joining the crew at:
https://www.patreon.com/SomeGadgetGuy

“Thin” is not a Feature… 

Thin is a lack of other features.

Thin is an impressive engineering and design feat, but thin requires significant compromises like smaller batteries and poorer cameras. It should not be overlooked that the first accessory announced for the iPhone 17 Air is a thinner profile MagSafe battery pack. Immediately after claiming “all day battery life”, we saw this…

I didn’t just put those three slides together to prove a point. That’s the exact order of those slides in Apple’s keynote event launching the phone. Because, you will need an external battery if you run a phone this thin with a powerful chip inside it.

Specs Don’t Matter

I need you to keep the above quotes from the DOJ filing in mind as we detail a few other points on the phone.

Apple has always been nebulous about specs. Battery life is not measured in capacity, but in “all day” run time. That’s nonsensical. MY day with a phone will be different than YOUR day with a phone.

In a phone this thin, we can guess that the idea is to deliver a “basic communicator” style of use, in a device that will need to be charged every night. That means additional charge cycles on a smaller battery capacity, and the battery will wear out faster. The user will need to replace the battery or the phone sooner than if the phone were a little thicker.

[Apple has always delivered a bare minimum “all day” battery claim. It’s been a problem as recently as the iPhone 12, where a tiny battery combined with Apple’s first 5G radio encouraged carriers to recommend people disable 5G on their phones to achieve “all day” battery.]

This “basic” use case isn’t a problem in itself, but this phone’s starting price is $999. Apple is turning up the heat on the lobster pot, trying to get consumers to spend more and more for less actual phone. In this case, LITERALLY less phone.

Goodbye iPhone Plus?

The iPhone 17 Air looks to replace the spot in Apple’s lineup where an iPhone Plus would have existed. This makes perfect sense given the statements made above by Apple Executives.

“How can we get consumers to spend more for less tech.”

Tech influencers are training enthusiasts and consumers to “not judge phones by their specs”, but it’s impossible to ignore the value proposition of what the iPhone 16 Plus offered compared to the 17 Air.

• The 16 Plus has a 50% larger battery than the 17 Air.
• The 16 Plus has the same main camera and an additional Ultra Wide Camera omitted on the 17 Air.
• The 16 Plus has stereo speakers, which the 17 Air lacks.
• The 16 Plus can charge at a faster speed than the 17 Air.

The 17 Air will finally bring 120Hz screen refresh to the “middle spec” iPhones, and the selfie camera is higher resolution. Though, we’re still waiting to see if this new iPhone will support additional features like video output through its USB2 port.

Yes, the A19 chip is a powerful upgrade, but Apple might be restricting further what you can really do with this phone in power user situations. Imagine a MacBook with no support for external displays and only a USB2 port. The iPhone 17 Pro is getting a new vapor chamber to maximize performance of the A19 chip. With a thin phone, we don’t have the room to include better thermal management hardware.

Your phone is a computer.

Apple wants to have this both ways. It’s as “powerful as a macbook”, but it’s also limited to a narrow range of “basic phone experiences”. Is Apple pricing this near the cost of a nice laptop or a “basic” phone?

Given the technological improvements necessary to create a super thin phone, it’s impossible not to imagine what the iPhone experience would have been like with a thicker and more traditional iPhone Plus design. Especially seeing the prices match at $999 for 256GB of storage.

“In looking at it with hindsight, I think going forward we need to set a stake in the ground for what features we think are ‘good enough’ for the consumer. I would argue we’re already doing *more* than what would have been good enough. But we find it very hard to regress our product features YOY [year over year].”

It seems Apple Executives have found a way to regress on product features year over year.

The World’s Favorite Camera?

It’s certainly not the world’s best camera on a phone.

We’re discussing devices in the “premium” to “ultra” tiers of the market. The most expensive daily driver gadgets folks are likely to use.

Similar to Apple’s casual assessment of battery life, Apple’s detailing of camera technology also glosses over practical specifications. Apple just yells about the “megapickle” count. Again, tech influencers are happy to just regurgitate those numbers like they mean anything.

The resolution of a sensor does not matter as much as the size of that sensor.

The sensor on the iPhone 17 Air is fairly unremarkable. It seems little different than the main camera on the iPhone 16 Plus. It’s smaller than the main camera on the iPhone 17 Pro, which is smaller than the main cameras on exotic photography phones like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

The iPhone 17 Air’s sensor size is now consistently found on mid-ranger and some entry level phones sold internationally. It’s the same size camera sensor found on the OnePlus 13R, which sells for an MSRP of  $600 with 256GB of storage.

Many might argue that Apple will likely outperform less expensive phones with similar sensors, either through lens quality or AI processing, but the fact remains. Apple is selling a $1000 phone with a mid-ranger camera sensor.

A larger sensor improves low light and video performance. That’s why Apple uses a larger (but not the largest) sensor on the iPhone Pro. There are numerous larger sensors Apple could have included (many again found on less expensive devices already), but we’re likely running into the limits of “thin”.

The camera bump on the rear of the 17 Air is already a noticeably lump. It would need to be even bigger to allow for the additional depth required to include a better sensor.

Again, this is a fine daily driver “point and shoot” camera sensor to include in a phone, but that kind of consumer experience is now comfortably found well below $1000.

Apple is repackaging the same general camera tech, but cutting an entirely separate sensor from the phone. The iPhone 17 will also include a second Ultra-Wide camera giving that phone more flexibility. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem we’re going to get an iPhone 17 Plus for folks who want a bigger screen AND a bigger battery. Those people need to be “not poor” enough to spend up to an iPhone 17 Pro Max now.

Without making this article too much of a “specs on paper” comparison, I do like to point out international markets. I could import a Vivo X200 Pro with 512GB of storage, which would go toe to toe (and win several camera fights) against the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but arrive shipped to my door for $900.

Regression is the name of the game… 

Thus, it is not surprising that Apple spent more than twice as much on stock buybacks and dividends as it did on research and development.

Apple’s current market dominance has arrived in the form of a phone that asks consumers to pay more for less. It’s the dream of Apple executives, finding those ways to squeeze their consumer base for even more “retail value” in every interaction.

I of course can’t come to any conclusion on the phone, just having watched the keynote and looking up specs, but I find this to be a concerning trend.

I’m sure we’re going to hear a chorus of folks who are “fine” with the performance, and the battery “wont bother them”, and they’re OK spending another $100 to “fix” the battery Apple skimped on, and the camera is “great” for their needs.

But free of the Apple marketing machine, when you ask your family and friends around you, do they opine for a monster improvement in compute power for their “average consumer” needs?

Or contrastly, do they complain about battery life, charging, and stuttering performance from degraded batteries?

Please don’t let your family and friends buy this JUST because it’s the newest phone to show off that they spent a lot of money on a new phone. Please listen to the needs of those around you, and give them better (more complete) information than Apple’s nebulous “feel good” marketing.

Now is the perfect time to point out, a battery replacement on their two or three year old phone will bring them a “like new” experience again at a FRACTION of the price of a new phone.

This stuff is getting too expensive to roll over for Apple executives’ greed.