Today at 20:00, technology and media lovers desperate for happy items will gather in what has become an annual ritual in the last decade: the launch event of Apple’s new iPhone model. Whatever will be there – a new iPhone, of course, maybe even one with support for satellite communication, upgraded AirPods Pro headphones, Apple Watch Pro with a larger and more expensive screen. Everyone from Apple will get on stage, present the products and get excited about the new features that are really, really, revolutionary. Apple fans will go crazy with enthusiasm, the media (yes, we at Calcalist too) will report with excitement. The television channels will provide a video of the event and the products, and the technology reporter will report how the important upgrades are expected to change our lives. No one will stop for a moment and ask a simple question: why?.
Why do we need all this? True, the iPhone is a revolutionary and necessary product, the AirPods are comfortable and useful headphones, and even the Apple Watch has its uses, but the question is not why do we need the products themselves, but why do we need new versions of them every year? Why go through this annual ritual again and again, year after year? Who is it good for? Who does it serve?
If you look at the iPhone models over the years (or models from other manufacturers like Samsung, for that matter), you see that, except for a few specific cases, the new models only brought minor updates compared to last year’s models. A faster processor and a better camera in general, which is very nice, but among us, the processors and cameras have already made such a leap in the last decade, and even those existing on a device that is two years old or even older do an excellent job. The most significant updates often come at the software level, and then they are also available for older models, not just the latest one.
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iPhone 13. Type of iPhone 12
(Apple website)
Sometimes there are substantial upgrades at the hardware level, such as support for an updated generation of mobile internet, the improved screen sizes of the iPhone X, or the support for satellite communication and the updated design of the model that will be revealed tonight, but these do not happen every year, not even every two years. Usually, if you bought a new device in the last year or two, the model that will be revealed will not offer enough innovations to justify an upgrade.
There is a claim that Apple and other companies are designing the devices with a planned mechanism, a kind of joke designed to disrupt and spoil the activity of the device after a year or two of activity in order to force customers to replace the old junk with a new one, therefore a new model has to be introduced every year, to have something to sell, but this is In an urban legend. From personal experience, Apple devices, especially iPhones and Macs, work fine into their fifth and sixth years, and even beyond, when Apple continues to provide them with software and security updates.
Blumenthal’s words explain beautifully why we stand every year for this ceremony – and also what is so wrong with it. There are a few points to delve into here. First, completely esoteric: if you dropped your iPhone in the toilet, take it out carefully and wash it thoroughly. This. The latest devices are waterproof. There is no reason for it not to work properly, unless you pushed it down (in which case you should call a plumber, because the device must be stuck in the S-bend of the toilet). Second, even those who bought a smartphone two years ago do not necessarily need to upgrade it.
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iPhone 12. Type of iPhone 11
(Photo: Itamar Zigelman)
But the most obvious reason that emerges is the need to present a new model to potential customers. We are trapped in a consumer spiral in which every time we go out to buy a new product, we must not only have this product be new (that is, not refurbished or second-hand), but also the latest available. It doesn’t matter if the difference compared to the previous model is minor, it doesn’t matter that the new model can be tens or even many dollars more expensive, it doesn’t even matter that the model from this year or two years will often be relevant even in two or three years – we want the newest. Why? Because it’s the newest, the best. And that’s what we’ve been taught to think: if it’s not the newest, it’s no longer worth anything.
The technology corporations have a clear interest in encouraging this mindset. They make money selling devices and there is a limited number of people to sell to. So you sell more devices to the same people and one of the ways to do that is to launch a new model every year, convince the public (with the encouragement of the media) that this is the most revolutionary thing since sliced bread, and increase the pressure on consumers to change a device even if the one they have is excellent and fully meets their needs, And the new one will not provide them with significantly improved capabilities.
Cnet noted that sometimes the consumer simply feels that he wants to upgrade the phone even if he doesn’t really need to. It’s a feeling we can all relate to, but it wasn’t born out of thin air. It is abetted and encouraged by some of the richest corporations in human history, who know exactly which buttons to push to trigger it. They manipulate and direct us to want to upgrade even when we don’t really need to and the annual unveiling ceremony – the annual update of devices with minor and marginal improvements – is a central part of this.
You can say “Well, what’s wrong? People buy consumer goods, the GDP increases, the economy grows and everything works as it should. Capitalism at its best.” But capitalism at its best has very tangible harms. Increased consumption means greater production resources, which lead to increased emissions of greenhouse gases and worsen the climate crisis. This is true for the iPhone, but also for every new consumer product we buy. On the way from the raw materials to us, it emits several tons of greenhouse gases and sometimes also produces additional environmental damage (such as, for example, as a result of operating mines to mine all the rare metals and elements needed to manufacture an iPhone). Then there is also the damage caused by throwing away our old device, in case it is not returned properly – that is, in most cases.
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iPhone 11. Kind of iPhone X
(Photo: Mobile Fun)
Companies like Apple do invest significant resources in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, but the best way to reduce emissions is to reduce consumption – which, of course, is out of the question in a capitalist economy. You can also think about less tangible effects. For example: you need a significant and expensive development force to engineer and produce a new device every year. Is the best use for humanity of Apple’s talented engineers to create a better camera and faster processor for the iPhone? Not sure if the answer is yes.
Of course, none of this matters at the end of the day. The goal of continuing to grow, always increasing revenues and profits, grasping the concept that a company that does not grow is a dying company – all of these create a system of pressures that oblige companies to invest considerable resources in the production and marketing of products that no one really needs in order to please the controlling owners and shareholders. We, whether we like it or not, are locked in a cycle of annual upgrades that we have no real need for and that no body has an interest in breaking.