The Evolution of iPhone Innovation: A Comprehensive Analysis

Apple has just launched the iPhone 16 — the latest generation of the brand that has dominated the smartphone industry for over a decade. With this product hitting the market, many users are curious about whether it will have remarkable improvements compared to the earlier iPhone 15. Some, however, are asking a bigger question: Are iPhones still the leaders in smartphone technology, or has Apple’s rate of innovation significantly dropped over the years?

This is a question that we, at WizCase, wish to find an answer to. Being dedicated to empowering individuals to thrive in the digital space, we want to understand the iPhone’s trajectory in the market, highlight its notable contributions to the industry, and analyze what these might mean for the future of smartphone technology.

Key Takeaways

• iPhone shipments have largely plateaued since 2015, after the release of the first multi-model generation (iPhone 6).
• While there has been no clear drop in innovative iPhone features introduced since 2008, the accessibility of these upgrades has arguably diminished over the years.
• Since the iPhone 13, there has consistently been at least one key feature available only to higher-priced generation models.
• The iPhone 15 has the smallest number of significant upgrades so far, with most of the generation’s new key features available only in the Pro models.

An Overview of iPhone’s Evolution

The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 marked a significant change in the smartphone market. While Apple wasn’t the first company to release a touchscreen phone, its superior interface and philosophy influenced the market to completely do away with keypads, keyboards, and styluses — shaping smartphones as we know them today.

This pattern has repeated over time, with Apple releasing a new iPhone generation every year and inspiring significant strides in the industry.

Popularity and Market Performance

A few short years after the iPhone first burst onto the scene, its yearly growth in sales and shipments seemed almost unstoppable. Between 2009 and 2012, the year-over-year (YoY) increase in iPhone shipments was consistently between 70% and 95%.

However, iPhone shipments have largely plateaued since 2015. After the release of the first multi-model generation that year, the number of units sold saw its first dip. In 2016, there were 8.36% fewer shipments than the previous year. Since then, the percentage increase in YoY iPhone shipment rates has only reached double digits once (13.5% in 2021).

The slowdown in iPhone shipments is presumably linked to users’ impressions that newer models aren’t providing as many new features as they used to, so there’s less reason to upgrade as often.

This is potentially evidenced by the reported drop in iPhone sales in the first quarter of 2024, even as the overall smartphone market saw a 10% YoY growth. iPhone 15, the latest generation at the time, allegedly came with comparatively fewer and smaller updates than its predecessors.

Apple’s competitors have also been putting up a fight for the top spot in the industry. While Apple shipped 50.1 million units in the first quarter of 2024, Samsung — its lead rival — sold 10 million more (although this difference doesn’t consider the fact that Samsung also sells cheaper models).

Chinese smartphone manufacturers have also been climbing the ladder, with Xiaomi, Transsion, and Oppo claiming the rest of the top five places. Transsion and Xiaomi experienced an 85.06% and 33.77% YoY increase in sold units, respectively. Meanwhile, the iPhone saw the biggest decline among the five brands at -9.57% YoY.

Flagship Features per Generation

Our team wanted to determine if there’s an objective basis for the perceived deceleration of significant updates on iPhones. So, we studied the new features per iPhone generation to see the rate of innovation.

In our review of key innovations per iPhone release, we decided to omit hardware and processor upgrades, as these are updates that users naturally expect to come with every new smartphone release. Specifically, we chose not to include:

• Processing speed
• Battery life
• Storage capacity
• Structural durability
• Camera resolution (in megapixels)

Moreover, our team highlighted unique innovations instead of iterations. For instance, while the iPhone 4’s Retina display can be considered an original feature at the time, succeeding versions (e.g., Liquid Retina, Super Retina) were evolutions of existing technology. As such, we treated them more as “updates” rather than “innovations.”

Instead, we focused on key innovations that could not be considered a natural progression from previous models or primarily influenced by market demand.

We also included some software additions that were key features of specific models and not simply hardware upgrades. For example, Portrait Mode could be initially thought of as a primarily camera-related feature, but it actually combines the power of two different lenses to create images with a nine-layer depth map.

Apple released its first multi-model iPhone generation in 2014 (iPhone 6 and 6 Plus). While Plus models have since been considered to simply be bigger versions of the standard models, the iPhone 6 Plus was the first higher-priced generation variant to include exclusive features (optical image stabilization).

From 2016 to 2022, Apple released at least two generations of iPhones every year except in 2019 and 2021. However, only four out of 12 (one-third) of the releases during these years had significant updates that were available across all generation models.

Another third of the generations released during this period had key features available only to the more expensive Plus or Pro models. The remaining third — iPhone XR and three generations of iPhone SE — offered more affordable units with no brand-new features.

Apple’s SE units, as well as the iPhone XR, were marketed as the “cost-effective” line, offering most of the basic hardware upgrades as their predecessors but with removed or slightly downgraded features. For instance, the third-generation SE’s launch price was almost 400 USD cheaper than the standard iPhone 13, which was released six months earlier.

In 2023, the iPhone 15’s only notable feature update for standard models was the replacement of the Lightning port with a USB-C port. This was primarily triggered by European Union legislation requiring devices to have USB-C port compatibility by the end of 2024.

The most recent iPhone 16 seemingly focused more on updating existing tech. Its most notable upgrade is the Camera Control, which allows easy access to the camera and its functions. This generation will also feature Apple Intelligence (which will come with iOS 18.1), highlighting the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the smartphone line.

The iPhone’s Impact on the Smartphone Market

Despite questions about its continued grip on the industry, Apple has certainly steered the market over the years. Whether it’s by introducing unique functionalities or improving upon existing technologies, the iPhone makers have inspired significant advancements in smartphone tech. We take a closer look at them below.

Innovations vs. Imitations

In spite of the iPhone’s popularity and frequency of new releases, Apple didn’t pioneer most of the features it introduced through its smartphones. For instance, Siri — while pivotal in making voice-controlled smart virtual assistants available to the public — has been linked to technologies previously used by other manufacturers.

In fact, only a few flagship iPhone features have undoubtedly been trailblazers in smartphone technology:

That said, the iPhone is still notable for popularizing several key smartphone technologies. For example, the birth of the Apple App Store in July 2008 arguably paved the way for the Android Market (later Google Play Store) to come out in October 2008, but the concept has been around since at least the 1990s.

In the table below, we listed key iPhone features that had considerably influenced the smartphone market despite being adopted from existing or previously used technologies. While plenty more upgrades may fall under this category because of how dominant the iPhone has been in the industry, we only listed those with definitive information proving their impacts.

Notably, most of the iPhone’s adopted features that made a significant impact came in the late 2000s to mid-2010s. People may argue that this is because Apple isn’t innovating as often, but we must also consider that the smartphone industry has greatly matured since then. This means that later “innovations” inherently tend to be more iterative than completely original.

For example, Apple showcased a “higher-end” AI to smartphone integration in its recent iPhone 16. While AI writing tools have previously been featured by Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones — and the visual intelligence function resembles Google Lens — the technology is still certainly on par with the global state of AI tech development.

Perhaps one of the most notable aspects of Apple’s handling of its iPhone business is the ecosystem it built around its products — something competitors have yet to replicate successfully. Many users are potentially drawn to the convenience of seamless operation between their Apple-based devices, which now include phones, tablets, computers, wearables, and more.

Security Enhancements Over Time

Among one of the iPhone’s main selling points is its robust “out of the box” security. Android smartphones are easily customizable, which makes them susceptible to malicious apps, files, or systems. OS upgrade rollouts are also decentralized — controlled by different Android smartphone manufacturers — so users may experience delays receiving vital security upgrades.

While Android’s relative versatility also makes it easier for users to perform individual security upgrades, this smartphone system is probably best for people with above-average tech knowledge.

On the other hand, regular users typically don’t need to perform complicated adjustments to make iPhones safe and secure since the devices and their operating systems are closed-source and tightly controlled by Apple. Moreover, the closed Apple ecosystem facilitates cross-platform operations with few vulnerabilities.

However, this means that the responsibility of regularly updating security features falls exclusively on Apple’s shoulders. iPhone users rely on the company to find, examine, and patch backend vulnerabilities (weaknesses that may compromise their servers or systems without directly breaching individual users’ devices). At the same time, Apple must constantly provide frontend enhancements that will improve the experience of privacy-conscious iPhone users.

As such, our team decided to also look at the key user-facing security features that the iPhone has introduced over the years. We must note that many security updates didn’t coincide with the launch of specific iPhone generations or models. Instead, they came with iOS updates. So, similar to our list of flagship features, we only included unique security enhancements that weren’t introduced alongside previous iPhone models. We also excluded security features that were iterations of previous upgrades.

Notably, iPhone security enhancements were more frequent during its early years. This is presumably because the initial rollout of iPhones focused more on user experience and innovation than security, which exposed a number of weaknesses. Since the launch of iOS 8, iPhones have had stronger encryption and data security protocols.

Apple has also been continuously addressing vulnerabilities and exploits in its systems since 2007. In almost every major iOS update, the company has patched issues or weaknesses related to Safari browsing, wireless network compromise, encryption, and more.

Most recently, Apple introduced its Private Cloud Compute (PCC) technology, which is the company’s way of ensuring user privacy amid heightened AI usage by running models on first-party servers. During the launch, Apple declared its tech the “new standard for privacy in AI.” They also encouraged cybersecurity experts to test their systems to ensure their robustness.

While some called into question the vulnerabilities inherent in AI technology, other analysts pointed out that Apple is primarily a tech manufacturing company that focuses on end-to-end user satisfaction.

This, perhaps, is one of the main reasons the iPhone has a strong consumer base. Unlike other tech giants, like Google and Microsoft (more recently), Apple doesn’t heavily rely on personalized ads to boost its revenue. So, users may be willing to pay a premium for a brand with a business model and philosophy centered on user privacy and experience.

Conclusion

Overall, there is little doubt that Apple continues to lead the smartphone market through its unique iPhone feature upgrades. However, users’ perceived slowdown in the pace of innovation may not be completely unfounded.

Our study found that, since 2016, the accessibility of vital updates has arguably diminished. Later iPhone generations have focused more on improving the functionality of variants with higher price points, often leaving the standard models with negligible to minimal upgrades.

Perhaps, here lies users’ sentiments that there has been little difference between generations since at least the iPhone 11. Individuals who can only afford the standard models would not be able to enjoy the innovations present in Plus or Pro models, making it arguably impractical to purchase new releases every year.

At the same time, we must acknowledge that the overall development in the smartphone industry has left little room for constant “groundbreaking innovation,” which is perhaps what most people have come to expect from iPhones. Nonetheless, Apple continues to find ways to improve upon existing technology to provide users with the best possible experience.

Only time will tell whether this phenomenon will significantly impact Apple’s industry dominance. For now, at least, the iPhone is still one to watch in terms of smartphone innovations.