Report: Apple to go three years before major iPhone refresh


Nikkei:

Apple will likely take three years between full-model changes of its iPhone devices, a year longer than the current cycle. In a typical two-year term, fall 2016 was supposed to see a major upgrade. But the changes on the model to be launched this autumn will be minor, such as improved camera quality.

The move is largely due to smartphone functions having little room left for major enhancements. A slowing market is another factor.

The rumor mill seems to be heavily pointing to the next iPhone matching the iPhone 6 and 6s physical design. I wonder if this speculation is simply based on the rumor Apple won't do a major redesign until 2017 or if there is a larger change in play? Since the second generation iPhone 3G, Apple has taken a tic-tock schedule of releasing a redesigned device every other year and a significant upgrade with same physical design in off years.

I've always been struck by how important the external appearances are to phone buyers. I've landed on the opinion that phones have a fashion element and people aren't as motivated to upgrade if it doesn't look substantially different. It's a joke, but I think there's some truth to it of why upgrade if no one knows you have the latest tech?

Physical appearances aside, the internals have always had a major upgrade. Camera technology, computing power, graphics power, and in some cases storage and network speeds. With the iPhone 5s and 6s lines, TouchID was introduced and got a major upgrade, for example.

So, I think this will likely hurt Apple's upgrade cycle, but only mostly because people want shiny new toys. The beat will likely continue with new enhancements, although it may look like an existing device.