Watching what iPhone photo quality I believe the low end is done. I really am starting to believe Apples iphones now and in future with AI photo software, instant cloud storage, 3 protected lenses you don't need to care about, learn to use, attach, detach, clean with special cloth, and all other esoteric factors will take over the low end completely. Especially since anybody even children with easy human interface software can use them with zero photography experience. The phone camera sensors and AI software will eventually be much smarter at taking photos than most adult humans if not already.
Whatever low end sales are left will be low volume niche users like myself that want faster lenses, convenience, inexpensive, light weight, small and understands FOV, F numbers, DOF, Bokeh, and all other limitations and photo nomenclature gibberish.
Whereas the average person buying a $700-$1200 phone device gets all sorts of benefits like instant messages and calling in live video phone all in addition to taking photos and cares only about posting facebook snapshots of their latte or breakfast to impress their superficial online followers. Sounds pessimistic, but that's what I see and perhaps why they are dropping the M line, as I bet sales volume numbers have been really dwindling. But I am no Apple fan.
"It just works" = 5 years, lol.
Sweat shops are always profitable with high margins from slave labor building their products that are designed to be replaced every 5 years has been quite a good business. The cult followers help also, some people are so monagamous to their product line, yet FOMO on the latest model religious fervor cause them to replace every other year. They gather smiling as they are waiting with Visa card in hand in the changing September weather overnight for 2 days in a line outside to buy the latest phone. If you look from a distance, it is hilarious.
I admit, I have owned their junk the first iPod (still operates), (3) iphones (Worthless now, one took excellent photos), ipad failed, 2 imac's failed and macbook keyboard failed. All of these have been sitting on desks, not transported, well taken care of, used only by me with no accidents like dropping them or children spilling drinks on them, etc. yet all died within 5-7 years for various reasons from crappy keyboard hardware, failing buttons, and components. Power connector with the magnet was nice though.
No support for newer OS's which eventually block your browser operating to log into the bank.... that's the best excuse to upgrade. Not me, instead of tossing them out as junk, I rescued them with external SSD's and Linux. Linux really saved them from the landfill, just wish decent Linux phones were available. So crippling along, the 12 year old large iMac screen is really nice- hence why I fixed it, surprised with the design flaw of overheating with the internal HDD it hasn't killed the CPU thermal paste.
Not only that low MTBF on their junk, now the phones (always non-removeable battery) cannot be completely turned off. ICYMI, both Goofball Android and Rotten Apple surveillance capitalism spying with BLE tracking AFTER you turn off the phone is ridiculous. I will not buy any more Apple or Non de-googled Android phones.
No more Dell either, no long term support and the incessant pushing unwanted "You are eligible for upgrading" messages daily after a stupid Windows 10 update killed the wifi and HDMI a few months ago. Suspicious timing. Product lifespans have really decreased this past decade, by design.
But fortunately the good news is unlike computer industry products, my 16 year old Canon powershot camera, Canon 20D, Canon lenses, and the rest still work fine and never had issues other than battery failures. But it remains to be seen if the latest camera body products might not survive as long, if they decide to cut corners for profit pressure and move away from their past emphasis on excellent Japanese quality.
Nice rant, thanks for sharing.
I’ve owned or used (work-provided) a few dozen Macs since my first one (a Macintosh SE with the optional ‘massive, never-to-be-filled’ 20 MB hard drive bought in 1987, and I always lol at that because one R3 CR3 file is bigger). I gave that Mac to the lab where I did my postdoc, and it was still in the lab running a spectrophotometer until at least 2004 (well after I left), happily acquiring data.
My 12 year old MacBook Pro (Mid-2010 17”) is still used daily by my son (it’s older than him). It was my main personal computer until 3 years ago. My wife’s 14 year old MacBook (Late 2008 13” Aluminum) still boots and runs, and it was her main computer until 2 years ago. Her 2004 12”PowerBook G4 still boots and runs, it’s the oldest computer in our house and I keep meaning to pull the HDD and recycle it.
I’ve only ever had one Mac fail, a 2019 16” MacBook Pro (work-provided) that had a bad RAM module and started glitching. That happened during the warranty period.
My experience on the PC side is more limited. Only one company I’ve worked for was PC-only (at first). I was there for 10 years, and in the first 7 years I went through 5 Windows laptops, mostly HP. Only one made it to the 3-year EOL policy replacement, the other 4 failed for various hardware reasons. Then they started a pilot program for Mac use, and I had that laptop for the 3 years until I left.
I’m definitely an Apple fan. I’m on my 5th iPhone, the first was a 3G in 2008 (but I didn’t wait in a line, and never have). My current is a 14 Pro, which I’ll keep for at least 3 years as I’ve done with all my others. None have stopped working, although I did drop one and break the back glass, a $30 fix at the Apple Store.
We have a 2003 iPod (15 GB, the first one with the dock connector), it’s connected to the TV soundbar/subwoofer system in our basement. Has our current music on it because those 12-14 year old still-functional MacBooks have the necessary FireWire ports. We have a bunch of other iPods as well (Shuffles, a Nano, a Mini and a Touch, many I received free as promotional gifts over the years), none of them failed while we were using them.
I also have a really old Apple TV (first or second generation, I think) that still works (for mirroring computers, at least). I did just buy 3 of the recently released 128 GB model, I have not gotten around to connecting them yet. The reason for that is that several of the streaming apps we use are no longer supported on our Samsung TVs, and connecting an Apple TV is a cheaper way to continue accessing that content, than replacing otherwise perfectly functional TVs.
That speaks to the issue of software/OS obsolescence about which you are complaining, but it’s definitely not just an Apple problem as you imply. A five year old Mac can still run the current version of macOS, but my five year old Samsung TVs could never stream Disney+ or HBO-Max and now can no longer stream Hulu.
So basically, over a 35 year period I’ve had 60-70 Apple products, only one of which failed due to a hardware fault. That’s less than 2% failure rate.
Canon for me has a substantially worse track record. I bought my first Canon camera in 2009, a T1i/500D. Including that one, I’ve owned 4 DSLRs, 3 Ms, 2 Rs and 3 PowerShots. The lens extension mechanism on the PowerShot S100 broke (recycled the camera), the original M just died post-warranty (buying an M2 was only $20 more than Canon’s flat repair charge, so the M was recycled), and the PCB in my 1D X failed (a $200 repair). So for Canon, that’s a 25% failure rate. For bodies, that is…I’ve never had a lens fail, and I own/have owned a whole bunch of them so overall, the Canon hardware failure rate is probably about the same as Apple for me.