The iPhone 15 has gone all grown-up, here’s why we should be grateful

The new iPhone is about improvement, not innovation – and signals a new way of thinking about our handsets, writes Andrew Griffin. Could it be that Apple have devised the perfect upgrade-when-you-can appliance for cash-strapped times?

(Getty Images)

At Apple's introduction of the iPhone 15 on Tuesday night, many of the biggest announcements were about removing things, not introducing them. There would be no more leather accessories sold with the new devices; there would be no Lightning port on the bottom, thanks to the European Union mandating that Apple switched to USB-C.

In one sense, it was confirmation as some had feared that the new iPhones would struggle to be exciting or new. The iPhone 15 does contain some innovations – a new manufacturing process for the titanium case that makes the Pro models lighter, for instance – but there are no standout, wowing features. Instead, it was made up of iterative changes to the cameras, processors, and so on.

But removing things, and the attendant lack of excitement, might not only be a change of tone in the way we think about the iPhone. They might also mark a significant moment in the development of the technology. Finally, the iPhone might be maturing: growing up, even if that means becoming a little less boring.