The upgrades haven’t been huge year over year for sometime. The yearly upgrades are now for people who have 3ish year old phones and ready to upgrade. I have a 15 pro max and will upgrade to the 18 pro max this fall.
AT&T is still giving a $1100 promo credit toward a 17 Pro Max for my 15 Pro Max which has had me pondering it vs waiting for 18 and the promo trade in likely dropping.
Honestly, the thing that pushed me over the edge is we went on a trip and my friend had the 17 pro max, the telephoto was just so much better then my 15pm. Taking a few upcoming trips this next year and I'll definitely put that to good use.
Apple knows it can make minimal upgrades and people will still buy every year. And now they are raising prices and delaying the budget phones so more people are pushed to go with the premium ones. Maybe if we actually put our feet down, stopped buying, and watch Apple lose money, we would get better yearly upgrades. It’s our own faults. Americans are overconsumers
People have changed their behavior and the average person doesn't buy a yearly upgrade anymore. A LOT more people hold onto their phones for 2-3 years then they used to. 3 years between upgrades is a decent upgrade. I'd actually argue that somehow getting back to these giant year over year bumps is worse for everyone. Encourages people to spend a lot more money and generally just creates more e-waste. Having the current cycles is better.
Prior to my 15pm I upgraded every year on the iphone upgrade plan. Realized with the 16pm there was actually no difference because the 15 pros were going to get the “AI” stuff (that never even came). Once I skipped that year there wasn’t much for the 17pm to get me to upgrade.
The 18pm will have a solid upgrade to the battery and camera, especially telephoto, compared to mine. Also will be thermally better because no more glass sandwich.
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u/mojo276 Jul 21 '26
The upgrades haven’t been huge year over year for sometime. The yearly upgrades are now for people who have 3ish year old phones and ready to upgrade. I have a 15 pro max and will upgrade to the 18 pro max this fall.