Member-only story
Featured
The iPhone and the Illusion of Incremental Progress
Apple’s annual updates only feel minor in a world of exponential change
Each year, a new arsenal of iPhones releases on a neat and orderly schedule. And each year, the reactions follow similar patterns. Some laud the little improvements, fawning over enhanced lenses and heightened storage capacities. Others look at the ground gained and wonder, “Is that it?”
I don’t consider myself much of a tech person. But strangely, I still find myself pulled toward these annual product rollouts. I watch the keynotes and sit with rapt attention as Tim Cook and his entourage explain all of the ways that this new year’s assemblage of products will soar beyond their predecessors. It’s not the higher megapixel counts or enhanced frame rates that excite me. I certainly don’t gawk at the continual reminders that “this iPhone will have the best battery life of any iPhone,” or “the brightest screen,” or “the biggest display.”
What astounds me is that annual change is still possible — still the norm. That through these products, I can see my own evolution. Society’s evolution.
Some changes in my life have been gradual. But others were marked by defined dates on calendars: the first iMac, the first MacBook, and the first iPod. The first iPhone, iPad, and…
