When it comes to the iPhone, it took me a few years to get on board. Due to the lack of availability on my provider's network at the time it first came out, I was not an early adopter of the iPhone but whoooey did I want one badly.
That said, I was one of the masses who pre-ordered the iPhone 4 when Verizon first started carrying it in early 2011. Fast forward to October 2013 and that very same phone is still with me. I'm well past my available 18-month upgrade pricing to get a new phone but have yet to feel the need to upgrade to the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 5. My phone works fine, has a decent camera, and aside from slowing down because I've clogged it up with apps and photos, there is no reason to get a new one.
Recently, Apple unveiled iOS7 and the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
What does any of this have to do with the premise of this blog, you're asking? At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I'll continue.
That said, I was one of the masses who pre-ordered the iPhone 4 when Verizon first started carrying it in early 2011. Fast forward to October 2013 and that very same phone is still with me. I'm well past my available 18-month upgrade pricing to get a new phone but have yet to feel the need to upgrade to the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 5. My phone works fine, has a decent camera, and aside from slowing down because I've clogged it up with apps and photos, there is no reason to get a new one.
Recently, Apple unveiled iOS7 and the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
What does any of this have to do with the premise of this blog, you're asking? At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I'll continue.
When iOS7 was announced as a free upgrade, and supported on the iPhone 4, of course I was excited. As an Apple diehard, I'd followed one of the live bloggers from the Apple event and was intrigued by all the new bells and whistles.
Fast forward to a month after upgrading and I wish I could pay to downgrade. If you have an iPhone 4 and have not upgraded to iOS7, don't.
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| Today is 10/24/13 and "Today" has been clicked. The date is selected but is off the screen on my iPhone 4. Clearly designed for the larger screen of the iPhone 5. |
Does it run? Sure. Does it have all the new bells and whistles? I guess. It's hard to tell when I'm waiting longer for apps to open, have all kinds of problems with iMessage, Facebook won't even load anything, and sometimes my phone just decides not to be connected to the internet anymore. It looks like it is, but it's not. I've even noticed a view of the Calendar that is clearly designed for the larger screen of the iPhone 5 (see photo at right). IOS7 is plagued by bad UI/UX and my experience thus far with it on my device that's a few years old really tells me something, and this is what ties this post back to this blog.
Amidst Apple discontinuing the iPhone 4 and 5, leaving just the 4S (free with upgrade pricing), 5C (new) and 5S (new), they had to find a way to get people like me to upgrade their hardware. I fall into the category of people (in Apple's eyes) who can afford to upgrade and they need me to because they are losing market share to the plethora of Android devices. The problem they face is that I didn't (key word) NEED to upgrade. As I stated before my iPhone 4 is in perfect working condition.
Heck I still have (among about 5 other iPods that have come and gone from my life) an original iPod Touch that is perfectly serviceable as a music and video playing device, for Pandora, etc. what Apple never did to me with that device was to offer an iOS upgrade that rendered it useless - instead whatever iOS version that came out at that time was simply not supported on the device and it would not let me upgrade if I tried. Thank you for that, Apple!
Long story short, I believe that Apple intentionally allowed the iPhone 4 to run iOS7 so that enough of us suckers would upgrade (for FREE! aren't they nice?!) and have a bad enough experience with it that we would finally give in and buy a new phone. It's been well established on this blog how I feel about waste in today's society, and this whole theory of mine highlights the mindset that seemingly will never stop... That we have to constantly upgrade our stuff for the purpose of keeping the economy going, at the expense of the environmental implications of all these iPhone 4 devices that were otherwise perfectly fine and the environmental and personal cost of all these iPhone 5 devices that will offset them. It's the whole concept of buying a car, maintaining it, and keeping it for years and years until it won't run anymore vs. leasing and getting a new car every few years. There are so many implications of the production of that new car every 3 years that far outweigh any slight gain in fuel economy.
I'm a 'buy it, care for it, and use it for a long time' kinda guy. And I don't appreciate my friends at Apple forcing me into a different mindset with my now sluggish iPhone 4.
