Sales for the iPhone are declining and I'm pretty sure I know why. 1.) No more subsidized phones. I don't care how anyone wants to slice this pie, we now pay for the full price of phones and still require contracts. Greedy, monopolized telecommunications industry somehow tricked people into believing they were saving money by not upgrading. Reality is, you are paying an extra $25 a month. 2.) Processing power increases every year, but app progression utilizing this power is absent. The best iPhone games IMO are still from the iPhone (4s) and (5s) era. Even gameloft stopped developing FPS games and 8-year old COD zombies is still on the top charts. No more fighting games like street fighter or mortal kombat. Tap to play and free to play (which are glorified digital pets you have to check on more than your children) have flooded the App Store. The lack of Old PC and console games certainly doesn't help. There just isn't as much excitement browsing the App Store as there was 5 years ago. Games I still have. GTA San Andreas Aerofly 2 Wings of duty Crash dive Assoluto racing Rush Rally 2 Wild slide Zombies (waw) (BO) WWR Breach and clear Marvel vs Capcom2 Kung fury RCT 3 Aircoaster Coaster crazy Simple rockets Billabong surf Survival craft Kingdom rush 1 + 2 Geodefense Bust a move Sonic 1 Solomon's bone yard Pool break Drop 7 (All pre iPhone 5 games except the racing ones) Even the mobile gaming community has become complacent in accepting these terrible games as having substance, when in reality they are mediocre just like its users. 3.) Battery life has not improved, even after 10 years. Only the advancements in chip design have stabilized battery consumption to an acceptable level. When will Apple get back on track? With their focus on iPad pros and lame watches, I'm thinking.... Never.
For point 2, I don't agree at all about the games being better five years or so ago, not even slightly, but I guess we just have different tastes. I enjoy fighting and FPS games, but I think developers accept that touchscreens aren't the best medium to deliver them in. That said, Skullgirls looks very interesting. Fingers crossed for that one. I'd suggest that most other genres have better games in it now than in the 4S era - as you say, Rush Rally 2 is on your list, and it came out only two months ago. And if you're looking for a better GTA-style game than the Rockstar efforts, then so is every other gaming platform. You're right that nobody is making the most of the present tech, but I believe that's a reflection of the rolling platform that is iOS. There are still huge numbers of people with an iPhone 5, and probably still a worthwhile chunk of 4S users. No developer with any sense is going to simply ignore a huge cut of the potential market. Give it another couple of years though, and the 2GB 6S will start to be the minimum requirement for some top-end games. There are already one or two. And point 3, you are also right. Battery life definitely needs to improve, and represents one of the tech sector's biggest battles. They're all trying to build a better battery - it'll come. But it's the same issue for all portable devices, whether it's Android or Apple or even a Kindle Fire. Point 1, cost, is undoubtedly a factor, but I think the main reason for declining iPhone sales is simply a maturing market. Do you know anyone under the age of, say, 65 who does not have a smartphone? My parents are in their seventies and they have one iPad and two smartphones between them. And they are not likely to get a new iPhone 7 or the next iPad Air when it comes out. Simply, their needs are met by the technology they have, and don't feel the same drive to upgrade. They're not looking to play Implosion or White Day. There are obviously still growing markets out there, somewhere, but it's pretty close to saturation point across much of the world. If you've already got your cheap new Huawei or an old 5C with a battery that's good for another year, you're not going to upgrade your handset every year - especially if, as you say, the contracts don't give you a decent discount. Now, go play Teeny Titans or Sky Force Reloaded or Guild of Dungeoneering or King Rabbit or Planar Conquest or Crashlands or Final Fantasy IX or Warbits or White Day or Rush Rally 2 or Snakebird or Crypt of the NecroDancer or Hyperburner or Human Resource Machine or Titan Quest or one of the other many great games that came out this year alone!
1- Iph6/6+ spurred sales because there was a lot of pent up demand for Iph for 4.7"+ screens. Anything larger than 4" really. Iph6s/s+ introduced 3D touch. It varies... some people are "meh" about it, others wish it was implemented more in 3rd party apps, with finally last but not least saying it's great. However, the larger screen really was the big boost many wanted. Even though Iph have sold a billion units, the Iph7 with the 3.5mm jack removed can be more negative that not. 2- It's just aiming marketshare so you reach the widest audience possible. Only a minority of users will be able to run your app if all you make are apps that can only run the latest Iphones. On top of that, only a minority of them will shell out the big bucks to make your app sustainable. As one dev put it here on TA, making games with fancy art is time consuming and taxing on phones. Lengthens the phone life considerably doing all of those read write cycles. 3- Well, I'm also worried about the life of the battery, not just the life between charges. My IpT5 is going on 3 years, and it takes much less to drain the battery. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there, but when it goes, I can get an IpT6 (not likely with only a dinky 4" screen), a used Iph6 for cheap (for the larger screen), stick with the iPad Air solely for gaming, or just give up on the Apple EcoSystem altogether. It's not like i d NOT have backlogs in other platforms It's like PC game makers who only targeting those with gaming rigs. No way.. they'll also make sure that those with i5 processors can also play, even if on medium settings. Heck, make it work with i3 processors, if it's playable on low settings.