- The iPhone 12 lineup is only a few months old at this point, but Apple watchers have already moved on to the myriad new hardware, software updates, and news around Apple’s growing services ambitions that everyone is expecting to see in 2021.
- There is a long list of Apple releases to expect this year, including the iPhone 13 lineup that’ll be released in the fall, as well as updates to iOS, new
Apple TV + releases, and much more. - However, there’s one Apple product I want most of all right now, more than any of that.
2021 is already shaping up to be another exciting, release-packed year for Apple, with tons of new hardware, software improvements, and additions to Apple’s constantly growing services lineup that — and we’re only a little more than a month into the year.
Presumably, Apple will derive an obvious lesson from the headlines this week regarding the iPhone 12 mini being something of a sales flop in the US, with this smaller model accounting for just 5% of Apple’s overall phone sales during the first half of January (that’s according to Counterpoint Research). In fact, J.P. Morgan analyst William Yang said in an analyst note just a few days ago that a lack of demand might motivate Apple to pull the plug on the iPhone 12 mini in the second quarter of this year. Fine by me — I’m definitely ready for an upgrade, to something like the iPhone 12 Pro Max. That is, unless I think I can hold out till September for the next-gen iPhone 13 lineup. Having said all that, though, there’s still one thing above all else that I wish Apple would give us right now, more than anything else that Apple fans are excited for in 2021.
Indeed, there is even a lot more to be excited about from the iPhone maker for 2021 that’s still to come, from welcome changes that are accompanying iOS 14.5 to new MacBook Pros and other hardware that the company is releasing with the new M1 chips. Regarding the former, the public beta of iOS 14.5 that arrived just a few days ago will let users unlock their iPhone with Face ID while they’re wearing a coronavirus face mask, as long as the user also owns and is wearing an Apple Watch. Speaking of the Apple Watch it also comprises a growing and increasingly more important component of Apple’s hardware lineup.
Proud of this. For the first time ever I burnt over 1,000 active calories for 7 days in a row on my Apple Watch. Tempted to aim for the whole of Feb but not sure I can 😅 pic.twitter.com/36WGB3ufTj
— Harry (@harryxru) February 8, 2021
On the services front, Apple TV+ is slowly but surely continuing to expand its content lineup. I’ve been a fan of the service since the beginning, and new seasons of Ted Lasso (coming hopefully later this year) as well as the fantastic Israeli espionage thriller series Tehran (green-lit for a second season, with a date still to come) make
But as excited as I am for all of that and more, and I know this is going to sound a bit anticlimactic — but the thing I think I want more than anything right now is simply a better phone battery.
Don’t get me wrong, all of these developments and more that are coming this year are plenty welcome. So are the even more exciting products on the horizon, like Apple’s first mixed-reality headset that could offer a high-end VR experience and will be priced at $3,000 or so, at a minimum. But one thing I keep coming back to is how wonderful it would be to not have to scramble to make sure my iPhone and iPad, and to a lesser extent my MacBook Air, are charged up day-in, and day-out.
In 2021, it feels like it’s high time for a battery that lasts longer than a day. Of course, this is slightly less of a concern right now, thanks to the pandemic, since most of us are still working from home and not running around as much — meaning, a charging outlet is always well within reach. But it’s the principle of the thing. And, besides, we’ll all be much more mobile hopefully sooner than later, as vaccines continue to proliferate and normal life slowly returns. Be that as it may, though, that’s my product wish right now — a battery that lasts longer than I do over the course of a day.
