Apple, please cease excusing your self out of primary iPhone options

Abstract

The rationale for conserving MagSafe off the iPhone 16e does not maintain as much as scrutiny, and is disappointing on a number of ranges.
Apple has a historical past of giving unhealthy excuses for withholding or breaking options.
For itself and its clients, the corporate ought to be dwelling as much as a better customary it units elsewhere.

One thing reviewers had been fast to level out with Apple’s new iPhone 16e is that regardless of maintaining with the iPhone 16 in some methods, it is lacking a function frequent to most iPhones because the iPhone 12 — MagSafe. There’s wi-fi charging on the 16e, however crippled to a torpid 7.5W, half of what MagSafe can ship. By extension, you may’t use any MagSafe mounts or stands and not using a particular case, and also you may get lower than 7.5W in case your 16e’s charging coils aren’t completely aligned.

All of this might be comprehensible, given the iPhone 16e’s entry-level market, besides that Apple determined to cost $599 — $170 greater than the iPhone SE — and claims that most individuals in that market don’t use wireless charging, so it does not actually care a lot if MagSafe is lacking. Even when there are statistics to again that up, it is plainly apparent that it was both a profit-driven measure or obligatory for the corporate’s new C1 modem. The corporate is risking its popularity with these kinds of strikes, each when it comes to establishing belief and disappointing folks once they open the field.

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Some upcoming {hardware} refreshes ought to verify the place Apple is headed.

An unlucky custom

MagSafe is simply the most recent instance

Sadly, Apple has been attempting to excuse lacking or flawed iPhone options for effectively over a decade at this level. Take into account the iPhone 4 — whereas it was in any other case a basic product, considered one of Steve Jobs’ swan songs, it was initially tarred by the “antennagate” controversy involving sudden sign drops. Quite than admit it had made a design mistake with the antenna, Apple did every thing however, initially telling folks simply to “keep away from gripping [the phone] within the decrease left nook.” It then moved on to blaming a software program error, and Jobs himself saying free bumper instances for individuals who wished them. Some folks had been nonetheless gunshy about iPhones by the point the iPhone 4s shipped the following 12 months.

Even at present, USB-C assist is not what it ought to be.

I may inform an analogous story involving the iPhone 6’s “bendgate” controversy, however let’s fast-forward to the iPhone 7, which was the primary mannequin to drop a 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of all-digital audio. On stage, Apple advertising govt Phil Schiller championed the transfer as a show of “braveness” — regardless that many shoppers owned and most well-liked 3.5mm audio equipment, one thing the corporate was pressured to acknowledge by bundling a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter. The jack’s removing was in the end logical, given the shift in direction of Bluetooth headphones and the necessity for extra design area, however attempting to spin it right into a triumph was an unforced PR error, suggesting deafness to buyer calls for.

One thing Apple continues to be mired in is its therapy of USB-C. Even though USB-C has been current on Macs and Android telephones for a couple of decade, it took till February 2025 — the launch of the iPhone 16e — for the corporate to fully exorcize Lightning from the iPhone lineup. The corporate outright ignored frequent complaints about Lightning’s exclusivity and outdated knowledge speeds, presumably hoping to stretch out accent gross sales and provide chain financial savings for so long as potential. Solely European Union laws modified the sport. Even at present, USB-C assist is not what it ought to be — it’s important to pay for an iPhone 16 Professional or Professional Max to get something higher than Lightning’s USB 2.0-level knowledge throughput, and no iPhone presents the 60W-plus charging on some Android telephones.

Five Lightning port cables in a row in different colors.

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It is a lesson within the risks of prioritizing your individual ecosystem over what clients need.

Time to be trustworthy or ship the products

The erosion of excellent will

An iPhone 12 on a Nomad MagSafe charger.

Different corporations pull this kind of trick too — attempting to justify the closure of apps you’ve got been utilizing for years, as an illustration — however that does not excuse Apple. Certainly, folks usually maintain Apple to a better customary, because it tends to ship in the case of points like privateness, polish, and assist. The corporate is even sticking to its weapons on DEI and environmental initiatives, regardless of the political factors it will rating within the US proper now. I want it wasn’t combating unionization, however hey — credit score the place credit score is due.

Each time Apple camouflages the true causes for a function sacrifice or an outright mistake, it provides consumers cause to doubt guarantees it makes down the road — I do know I’ve change into more and more cynical over time. Whereas I used to deal with each new iPhone as a revelation, disappointments and the slowing tempo of smartphone evolution have diminished my enthusiasm to embers. Even earlier than the iPhone 16 launch, I knew that Apple Intelligence would not be practically the revolution it was offered to be, and to date I have been confirmed proper.

Folks usually maintain Apple to a better customary, because it tends to ship in the case of points like privateness, polish, and assist.

Higher nonetheless could be avoiding Scrooge-like choices within the first place. It is likely to be true that the majority entry-level iPhone patrons use wired charging, however that is in all probability true of Professional patrons as effectively, given how a lot quicker USB-C energy could be. For $599, it is a cheap expectation that you just should not be reduce off from the world of MagSafe equipment, notably when you should buy a used iPhone 15 Pro for practically the identical quantity. The 16e appears to exist solely to nudge you in direction of the common iPhone 16, making it one of many worst examples of Apple’s “value ladder” technique. It feels disrespectful to individuals who cannot afford something higher, on condition that even Android telephones are transferring in direction of the MagSafe-based Qi2 standard.

Is there an opportunity Apple executives will likely be extra upfront and/or rather less thrifty sooner or later? Presumably, however in all probability not anytime quickly. CEO Tim Cook dinner does not appear poised to retire, and he has a robust hand all through the corporate, notably in the case of sustaining revenue margins. The purpose is to steer folks in direction of “premium” merchandise, and that appears to imply paying lip service to extra inexpensive units.