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When Apple acquired Beats, it was thought they wanted their efficient manufacturing techniques for different combinations of styles/materials. The customization of the Apple Watch bears this out.

It seems reasonable they might next apply this to the iPhone - and it seems the different battery sizes you suggest would be easily accommodated. (Unless there's another reason they want to constrain battery sizes).

EDIT just thinking of Christiansen's ideas on evolution of products, basically from "integrated for performance" to "componentized for customization", it does seem that iPhones are now overpowered for... well... phones (they are pretty much last-gen console/low end PC level now, or will be soon). Therefore, people might soon stop being willing to pay for even more performance (maybe). This is a problem for Apple, because they don't like commoditized products, not from a margin point of view, not from a building cool new stuff point of view. A way out of this is cool designed customization - it's something that Apple likes, and has great margins (like Beats).

> it does seem that iPhones are now overpowered for... well... phones (they are pretty much last-gen console/low end PC level now, or will be soon)

The race to idle means that we still have room for more powerfull mobile CPUs. It's just that the extra power will appear as extended batttery life at the marketing material.

Anyway, I think the current generation is very near "good enough", people may switch once more, but the fast replacement of phones are getting to an end.

I wish most phone manufacturers would start to pay attention to this. I don't need to save the last few mm. My pocket can handle it. But there are times when I definitely do need the extra battery life.

Marketing wins, actual practical use of the product loses.

In my experience, those days when I need the extra bit of battery life are almost always at events, or while travelling. I can spot those days in advance, they're not surprises.

So I found a remarkably simple and obvious solution: I spent £50 and bought an external battery pack, something like http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAVPower-15000mAh-External-Generatio... . It charges overnight, weighs not all that much at the bottom of a shoulder bag, but on those crucial days when battery is getting slim, I can just pull a cable out, plug it into my phone, and bingo: the phone is charged.

It's capable of charging an iPhone several times over so easily solves the problem for you and even some of your friends.

and bingo: the phone is charged.

Isn't it more like "Bingo: now I have a battery pack dangling from my phone for the next few hours"?

Nope. iPhones tend to charge most of the battery in about an hour with a decent charger, so you sit down for a presentation or two, while still tweeting/etc, and by the time the presentations are done your phone is charged again.

I was recently at the airport and the airport was nice enough to provide power plugs. I happen to be sitting next to them for about 1.5 hours and counted six phones, one Samsung Galaxy S3, and a 3DS.

I used to own a battery pack too, back when I had an iPhone, it was a required accessory unfortunately. Since then I've owned a Samsung Note (1), LG G2, and Sony Z3, and all three of them last 2-3 days, and I have no need for a battery pack.

Even if size was a concern I could purchase a Sony Z3 Compact which is "iPhone 6 sized" but has twice the battery life or more.

Back in the iPhone 4 (ish) day the iPhone had "impressive" battery life. However Apple has stood still while everyone else has continuously improved. Now most non-Apple phones (Galaxy S5, LG G3, Sony Z3, Note 4, Windows Phone, etc) last substantially longer than Apple unless you're buying an unbranded piece of junk.

You'll want to check out the Moto G/X line then, I'm a happy Moto G owner, and that thing lasts a good 36-48 hours without a charge (admittedly, mine is a year old now, and can only take 24h without a charge) and the hardware isn't completely low-spec.

Not to mention it's about the same size as the iPhone 4. Great battery life, packed into a small handset.

Except that this line "I don't care about thickness, give me better battery life!" is repeated over and over by geeks like us, yet people pretty much always pick form over function - ie pick thinner phones over the ones working longer. So companies keep catering to the needs of those people, because that's what sells.

Samsung is interesting here. they still make their phones with removable backs. Thus third parties can offer larger batteries and replaceable backs. And I seem to recall a claim that in SK Samsung sell their phones with two batteries in the box. One small for "style" and one large for endurance.

> they still make their phones with removable backs

Only Apple makes phones without removable backs. Anybody else wouldn't be able to sell their phones if they removed that feature.

There are currently many 3rd party cases that provide exactly what you're asking for.

While it sounds clever at first, giving the iPhone variable thickness would ruin compatibility with countless accessories. Cases, docks, armbands, wallets, etc. Everything would either fit poorly or come with caveats: "Fits iPhone 6s 6.5-8.5mm thick." Along with hurting economies of scale, this would confuse and annoy users.

It really seems like your usage style is rare. I've never had an issue with my iPhone's battery life. It easily lasts two days without worry. On the other hand, I've never thought, "This phone is too thin." Apparently, Apple thinks that the best compromise is to keep the same dimensions and let others manufacture charger cases.

Since the edit deadline has long-passed, I'll reply with a note:

I suspect my comment was downvoted by people trawling my history after seeing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8879389 and disagreeing strongly. It may just be confirmation bias, but this isn't the first time I've noticed my older comments getting downvoted after a comment of mine gets a lot of eyeballs.

I realize karma means nothing, but this behavior harms the quality of HN. The mods may want to consider writing a detection/mitigation feature to ignore such downvotes.

This seems like someone Apple can address themselves and if you're not buying Apple accessories do Apple even care?

They get royalties from the MFi program (that "Made for iPhone" logo)