The grumbled whispers persisted throughout the week, and as I left the impressive Nvidia Omniverse (we even gave it the best empowering tech award in our best of CES 2023 selection), the loudest whispers were there for all to hear. Talk about the iPhone 14 being complete trash went into overdrive, which is interesting given we reviewed it quite favorably! So let’s get an answer out of these people, as to why this is apparently a big old stinker from Apple.
Why the hate?
I spoke to a few people for some quick, anonymous comments about what got them so riled up about the iPhone 14, and the comments are kind of damning. One peripheral maker stated, “My daughter has gone through three iPhone 14s in the last few months.” When I asked what the issues were, they said, “Lenses keep cracking, buggy performance, with one literally just never turning on again after just a couple of days of normal use.” At first, he thought she might have just been mishandling the device, but after the purchase of a third and using an extremely durable case, once again, there was an issue, and he “downgraded” her to an iPhone 13 Pro Max and all has been well ever since. Another individual described that after a month of use, the iPhone 14 was no improvement over the 13 and felt as if they were taken advantage of by their provider, who insisted now was the time to upgrade. As I walked the aisles and chatted with industry folks, the themes, issues, and complaints were all the same. iPhone 14, in all its iterations, was a flop and not truly an upgrade, but simply a rebranded and tweaked 13. I mean, Nothing even managed to make Apple themselves say it about the iPhone 14 Pro of all phones. Just skip to 8:40 and you’ll see what one customer service rep says when the Nothing returns its iPhone.
Outlook — is it time for Apple to grow up?
It’s weird to say that Apple was so heavily talked about at a convention they never attend. Though, to let you in on a little secret, we did see Apple reps try to get into the HTC Vive XR Elite private event to test out the hardware (maybe the Apple headset is closer than we think). But I digress. Off the record, some of the iconic tech maker’s partners are whispering their displeasure at the lack of true innovation from mount Cupertino, especially when we see others enjoying all the potent power coming from the latest Snapdragon chipsets. So Apple. Would it kill you to spend a little more time in R&D to iron out these issues and work on giving us something a little more fresh each year rather than dolling out a slightly repurposed model from last year? It may be time to stop using the word “innovation” on a loop after scaring us half to death with bear attacks to sell us iPhones that, according to the ghosts in the halls, are complete trash.
