Writing in the New Yorker story, an Apple fanboy, Kyle Chayka, confessed that he did not need an iPhone 16.  In fact, he has not seen any real improvement on the iPhone since the 12.

He only noticed charging with USB-C cables, which Android has had for ages and only happened because the EU forced Apple to adopt it.  

“The greatest leaps in Apple's hardware are primarily directed at those niche users who are already invested in using tools such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality,” Chayka muttered.

If the reviews of Apple Intelligence are anything to go by, he will be disappointed in that, too.

“The 15 and 16 Pros can take three-dimensional photos, designed for VR, using the Apple Vision Pro. Thus far, I don't use A.I. tools or V.R. frequently and have no intention of doing so on my iPhone,” he said.

However,  then the poor lamb released that moaning about the iPhone being bad was not something a journalist does in the New Yorker, so he tried to spin Apple’s lacklustre phone in his own head, claiming:

“The fact that I do not need an iPhone 16 is a testament not so much to the iPhone's failure but its resounding success. A lot of the digital software we rely on has grown worse for users in recent years; the iPhone, by contrast, has become so good that it's hard to imagine anything but incremental improvements.”

However, he dispelled his own argument by suggesting that  Apple's teleological phone-design strategy may have reached its endpoint, the same way evolution in nature has repeatedly resulted in an optimised species of crab.  In other words, Apple had reached an evolutionary dead end.

He noted that Android did not seem to have this problem. Samsung offers devices that fold in half, creating a smaller screen that's useful for minor tasks, such as texting, and a larger one for watching videos.

Huawei is upping the ante threefold. The BOOX Palma has become a surprise hit as a smartphone-ish device with an e-ink screen, similar to Amazon's Kindle, which uses physical pixels in its display. Dumbphones, too, are growing more popular by intentionally doing less.