Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Pro iPhones are TOO CHEAP - how to fix the Smartphone Market.
Welcome rageclickers and click bait hunters… I know why you’re here. But, before you angrily click into the comments section, understand, this video is shot on iPhone 16 Pro Max, edited on a Mac and people like me, are the problem Apple has. And it’s not because of profit margins and greed like you might think.
The top end of smartphones has been ascending for years, since probably 2017 when Apple first introduced the iPhone X alongside the iPhone 8. Before that, we essentially had a single model at the cutting edge. Everyone thought a thousand dollar iPhone was the peak. A step too far? Maybe. But it brought the first (almost) full screen design, pushing up and down where there were once bezels, just having to leave that notch for the front camera, but also leaving room for that new FaceID array, adding far better security as well as the TrueDepth camera that made real-time Memoji a possibility too.
This split went on to become the difference between pro and base iPhones, but looking back to the origins of the names that Apple uses, perhaps we have more of an issue than we thought.
I as in iMac and iBook meant consumer, Power as in PowerBook and PowerMac meant pro, and evolved into the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro name. So an iPhone Pro (and the now removed iMac Pro) by those rules make no sense. And the iPhone Pro just seems to be what the iPhone would have been, if we’d not diverged the lines a while ago. So what if Apple made their Pro phones Pro again?
Right now, the iPhone Pro just means the better, cooler one for a lot of people, but it also happens to have a whole bunch of features that most people buying one have no use for and will never use. I for one, use the iPhone 16 Pro Max as my daily driver, and I’m shooting this video on mine, using Continuity camera to record direct to my MacBook. I sold my dedicated lumix camera when the iPhone 12 Pro Max arrived, because even four years ago, the video quality (and more than anything else, the autofocus) was dramatically better.
Do I need a Pro iPhone? I tell myself I do because it has the best camera array. When did I last use the telephoto lens? I have no idea. But it wasn’t for content creation. It was probably for a random picture at the beach. Would I have had less value from my phone without it? Probably not.
So why do I have an iPhone Pro, in reality? Because over the couple of years I’ll likely own it, the monthly difference in price is almost negligible. But in all honesty, so is the difference in hardware. So… Apple should lean all the way into Pro, make the price higher, and force me to buy the normal one.
Because the real issue with iPhones isn’t the cost of the components. It’s that at the price iPhone Pro models are, along with Apple’s popularity, no-one can make the high end components Apple needs to make the phone they want to, because of scale. Apple doesn’t intentionally hold back new technologies as the Android propaganda would have you think. Almost everything iPhone has, in terms of individual specs is available in a probably lower priced Android handset. But that’s because each of those sacrifice in other areas, whether that be just software, build quality, battery life, refresh rate or something else. iPhone does an insane job of overall quality.
But Apple has priced themselves into a corner. For years, Apple has had a reputation for being the premium priced option. But the iPhone 16 Pro still starts at $999. The same as the iPhone X which was released 8 years ago. But with a dramatically faster chip, more ram, more storage, better display, better camera, newer design, faster wireless and everything else.
But Apple could be weird and cool again. Just like they were with the iMac G4 - allowing the eMac to fill the lower end of the market and pushing real innovation and design excellence to those who could make use of it and were prepared to pay for it.
Perhaps this is why we have a slim iPhone on the way, sacrificing some features for the cool factor. It’s not designed for the tech geeks, but that’s handful of people who bought the first iPhone because Apple was cool. Or a gold first generation Apple Watch. Because those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
How I record the Podcast? Riverside fm. Support the show by using my link if you're signing up :)
icavedave.com/riverside
Join the conversation
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Pro iPhones are TOO CHEAP - how to fix the Smartphone Market.
Welcome rageclickers and click bait hunters… I know why you’re here. But, before you angrily click into the comments section, understand, this video is shot on iPhone 16 Pro Max, edited on a Mac and people like me, are the problem Apple has. And it’s not because of profit margins and greed like you might think.
The top end of smartphones has been ascending for years, since probably 2017 when Apple first introduced the iPhone X alongside the iPhone 8. Before that, we essentially had a single model at the cutting edge. Everyone thought a thousand dollar iPhone was the peak. A step too far? Maybe. But it brought the first (almost) full screen design, pushing up and down where there were once bezels, just having to leave that notch for the front camera, but also leaving room for that new FaceID array, adding far better security as well as the TrueDepth camera that made real-time Memoji a possibility too.
This split went on to become the difference between pro and base iPhones, but looking back to the origins of the names that Apple uses, perhaps we have more of an issue than we thought.
I as in iMac and iBook meant consumer, Power as in PowerBook and PowerMac meant pro, and evolved into the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro name. So an iPhone Pro (and the now removed iMac Pro) by those rules make no sense. And the iPhone Pro just seems to be what the iPhone would have been, if we’d not diverged the lines a while ago. So what if Apple made their Pro phones Pro again?
Right now, the iPhone Pro just means the better, cooler one for a lot of people, but it also happens to have a whole bunch of features that most people buying one have no use for and will never use. I for one, use the iPhone 16 Pro Max as my daily driver, and I’m shooting this video on mine, using Continuity camera to record direct to my MacBook. I sold my dedicated lumix camera when the iPhone 12 Pro Max arrived, because even four years ago, the video quality (and more than anything else, the autofocus) was dramatically better.
Do I need a Pro iPhone? I tell myself I do because it has the best camera array. When did I last use the telephoto lens? I have no idea. But it wasn’t for content creation. It was probably for a random picture at the beach. Would I have had less value from my phone without it? Probably not.
So why do I have an iPhone Pro, in reality? Because over the couple of years I’ll likely own it, the monthly difference in price is almost negligible. But in all honesty, so is the difference in hardware. So… Apple should lean all the way into Pro, make the price higher, and force me to buy the normal one.
Because the real issue with iPhones isn’t the cost of the components. It’s that at the price iPhone Pro models are, along with Apple’s popularity, no-one can make the high end components Apple needs to make the phone they want to, because of scale. Apple doesn’t intentionally hold back new technologies as the Android propaganda would have you think. Almost everything iPhone has, in terms of individual specs is available in a probably lower priced Android handset. But that’s because each of those sacrifice in other areas, whether that be just software, build quality, battery life, refresh rate or something else. iPhone does an insane job of overall quality.
But Apple has priced themselves into a corner. For years, Apple has had a reputation for being the premium priced option. But the iPhone 16 Pro still starts at $999. The same as the iPhone X which was released 8 years ago. But with a dramatically faster chip, more ram, more storage, better display, better camera, newer design, faster wireless and everything else.
But Apple could be weird and cool again. Just like they were with the iMac G4 - allowing the eMac to fill the lower end of the market and pushing real innovation and design excellence to those who could make use of it and were prepared to pay for it.
Perhaps this is why we have a slim iPhone on the way, sacrificing some features for the cool factor. It’s not designed for the tech geeks, but that’s handful of people who bought the first iPhone because Apple was cool. Or a gold first generation Apple Watch. Because those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
How I record the Podcast? Riverside fm. Support the show by using my link if you're signing up :)
icavedave.com/riverside
Join the conversation
iCaveDave.com/twitter
iCaveDave.com/facebook
iCaveDave.com/instagram
iCaveDave.com/youtube
iCaveDave.com/merch
iCaveDave.com/discord
