The Experiential Tier, or, How Apple Solved the Mature Smartphone

Most commentary about Apple’s iPhone strategy bemoans its apparent lack of novelty. I think Apple may have quietly taken that feedback to heart, but not in the way people expect. Rather than trying to make the iPhone itself dramatically different every year, Apple seems to be treating the smartphone as what it increasingly is: a mature product category where the basic problem is largely solved and the return on radical changes to the mainstream product is relatively low.Unlike the 2021 MacBook Pro overhauls where Apple recognized that pushing thin-and-light laptop design to its extremes had become detrimental to the user experience, for most people, the smartphone is already an extremely mature product. The average buyer isn’t comparing camera sensor sizes or debating the merits of one processor architecture over another. They know Apple makes a good phone, they know people around them use iPhones, and when they decide to buy one, the Pro is an easy recommendation if they want the…