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Comment by slg | Hacker News Reader

>"Hello, I'd like to buy one of the new iPhones, please!"

>"Sure thing, here's the new iPhone 12. It's fast, beautiful, and is generally awesome."

>"Sweet, I'll take it..."

I guess this is a different topic, but it wouldn't play out like this. You have to decide if you want the iPhone 12, the 12 Pro, the 12 Pro Max, the 12 mini, the SE, the 11, or the XR and then you decide do you want the white, black, blue, green, gold, yellow, purple, coral, or red, and then you decide 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, or 512 GB, then you decide if you want AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint.

I have lost count of how many dozen of different SKUs of iPhone Apple is currently selling.

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Its not really difficult though. When I went in to the store they showed me a row of 4 phones and told me the 11 was the most sensible option as well as the benefits you get from the pro. Picking a colour and storage option wasn't really an issue either.

Odds are no one reading HN is going to find this "difficult", but there is no question that this is a noticeable diversion from earlier eras and that the sheer number of options can be confusing for some people. Take a look at this graphic [1]. There was a point early on in which there was zero choice and Apple sold only one iPhone. There were several years in which they usually offered somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-6 options. Recently this number ballooned up and right now there are 20 options. And this doesn't even include color or carrier differences.

Honestly, I would be less annoyed by this if Apple wasn't still selling the iPhone XR. It is 2 year old hardware and Apple seems willing to keep selling it for another year. The only reason it is still being sold appears to be that someone in a boardroom in Cupertino said "we need a product between the $399 iPhone SE and the $599 iPhone 11." Meanwhile customers are likely better served by buying either the SE or the 11 over the XR. This approach of "name your price point, here is the iPhone for you" just seem antithetical to the way that Apple used to approach products.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Timeline_of_iPhone_mo...

It is weird that they keep selling the XR but while I was at the store they didn't even show that as an option. It was just the SE, 11, 11 pro, 11 pro max.

It is interesting that they didn't even try to sell the XR. I wonder what they will present now that the 12s are out. Would they show the SE, 12 mini, 12, 12 pro, and 12 pro max while ignoring the 11 and XR that they still sell?

I feel like there's precedence for this at Apple, even during Jobs' tenure. During the mid-'00s there was a sudden rush of new iPod types- iPod with Photo, iPod with color displays, iPod with Video, different form factor iPod Mini and iPod Nano iterations all within a few years. I remember being confused even then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iPod_models#Timeline_o...

Don't the product segments seem much more natural with the iPod?

Shuffle - Small with no screen

Mini/Nano - Small with a screen

Classic - Classic form factor with occasionally offshoots with new features like photos or video

Touch - iPhone form factor

There seems to be clear lines of delineation between all those products. Those lines are much less clear when looking at the iPhone XR, 11, and 12.

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