Bloomberg’s latest Power On newsletter was largely a speculative piece about what Apple moving away from its rigid yearly product release schedule would look like. Turns out, Apple has already been doing this for years across all of its product lines. And it probably won’t make iPhone updates more interesting.

Many (Most?) Apple Products Aren’t On A Yearly Release Schedule

A quick look across Apple’s various product lines shows that a large amount of products aren’t updated yearly. The iPad line is a great example of this. The iPad Pro has been on an 18-month refresh cycle almost since the product was introduced. The iPad Air is updated every 18 months to two years. The base iPad is generally a yearly update, but hasn’t been updated in close to two years. The iPad Mini is updated whenever Apple feels like it.

This shows up across other product lines as well. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro are skipping the M3 generation. The Mac Mini gets sporadic updates. The Apple Watch SE hasn’t been updated in two years. The HomePod Mini hasn’t been updated since it launched outside of new colors. And the iPhone SE is also seemingly updated at Apple’s whim.

This even applies on the software side. At the past few WWDCs, Apple has been very clear about features that will ship when the operating systems launch, and those that will be coming “later this year” or into the following year. This staggered release approach isn’t new.

Changing The iPhone Release Cadence Doesn’t Guarantee More Innovation

There’s a prevailing narrative that if the iPhone wasn’t released every year, we’d get refreshes that were more substantial and innovative. That’s probably true on some level. The incremental updates stack up and hit with more of a bang. Of course, you can get that same effect right now if you don’t feel the need to upgrade yearly.

The problem with real innovation remains is that it happens when it happens. It comes when it comes, and companies can’t really plan for it. You can’t tell a team they have six months to “innovate” and be guaranteed to get anything new or groundbreaking out of them. A longer development cycle for an iPhone doesn’t guarantee Apple will come up with more innovative ideas. Or that those ideas can be executed at the scale and pricing they need.

Once a product hits a certain level or maturity, meaningful updates become really hard to do. Gimmicks are easy. Change for change’s sake is also easy. But once the low hanging fruit are taken, updates aren’t as impactful. And that’s not just an Apple problem, the rest of the consumer tech market faces this same issue.

We also have to remember that people, regular people, largely hate change. I like to think back to the Windows 8 debacle, where Microsoft developed an OS that was substantially different than what came before it, with some fresh new ideas, and their install base largely revolted. Changing something as widely used and ingrained as Windows can’t be done in big boom releases. It has to be done in small updates over time. The iPhone is also in this category. Apple is a victim of its own success in this area.

It’s Okay To Be Bored With Your Phone

Much of the sentiment on social media when the iPhone 16 was released was some variation of “a new iPhone shouldn’t be released every year because the updates are boring and it looks the same”. Clearly there are some people that are very bored with the current state of iPhone. And that’s fine.

Again, smartphones are a very mature product line at this point. Some people have been making the comparison to cars, and that feels pretty accurate. A new model of car is released every year with minor improvements, and every so often there’s a design refresh.

If you are one of these people that’s bored with iPhone, I hope you have the means to try another phone when next you upgrade. There are lot of great alternatives from Samsung, Google, and others. You should never feel held captive by your phone. Smartphone platforms aren’t religions. Try something new! You don’t owe Apple anything. Certainly not your hard earn money if the product they’re producing isn’t working for you anymore. As consumers, the only real power we have to affect change is to vote with our wallets.

Outside of the iPad (and now Vision Pro), I don’t find most of the tools I use to be particularly interesting. Is the iPhone kinda boring? Sure. But I’d argue smartphones as a product category are boring. Even foldables, which are in their fifth or sixth generation at this point, are having less compelling updates year over year. But other side of boring is reliability and consistency, which for me, is what I want out of my smartphone.