“Not worth buying for a little island” – why iPhone 14 upsets users

A highly anticipated Apple iPhone 14 launch on September 7 caused mixed feelings among consumers and provoked a lot of memes and jokes.?

Our study of user opinions on social media showed that negative reviews prevailed over positive ones. We found out what exactly disappointed consumers, what caused ridicule and what earned approval.

The number of mentions of the new iPhones began to grow gradually a few days before the release and reached a peak the next day after it. Predictably, it was most discussed in the US (almost 300K comments), with California on the top (24K). The main channels were YouTube (73K) and Twitter (64K).

One of the most viewed and commented was a user's video introducing the new iPhone and its hyped feature – a Dynamic Island. A new interactive window located in the camera area resizes and turns into a notification window, displaying messages, incoming calls, players, timers, etc. The video got almost 8M of views and 18K comments.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs' daughter posted a meme mocking Apple's iPhone 14 and implying that it doesn’t differ from the previous model. This post was then widely spread on social media.

More criticism than praise

In general, there were significantly more negative mentions than positive ones. Users complained about high prices, while there were no considerable changes in functionality. Also, they were disappointed by customer service: long waiting time for pre-orders, long delivery time, and shipping problems.

At the same time, the design of the device mainly received enthusiastic responses. In particular, users liked the appealing colors.

As for so much discussed Dynamic Island, users’ opinions differ. Some claimed that this solution made iPhone look like Android. In fact, something similar has indeed already appeared in the Honor V20, Galaxy A8s and some other Android phones.?

Also, users complained that using the new feature, you have to touch the camera, leaving fingerprints on it. Others considered Dynamic Island not a good enough reason to buy a new iPhone. However, quite a lot of people appreciated the solution, affirming it was one of the best Apple innovations in recent times.

Along with smartphones, Apple presented a line of accessories: AirPods Pro 2, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch SE. While phones were the top-mentioned devices with negative feedback prevailing over positive, less mentioned accessories were at the same time less criticized. For example, Apple Watch Ultra received more positive reviews. Users mentioned its convenient design and improved functionality.?

Who’s in the game?

The core audience discussing the new release was male – 76%. This is especially true of YouTube, where the share of content published by men was 92%. Interestingly, the female audience totally prevailed on Pinterest – 94%. Obviously, Apple marketers would do well to consider this stat when working with these channels.

The authors’ interests were very diverse. The most common are technology, games, music, photography, art and traveling.

Camera features were essential for photographers and bloggers. In particular, they were impressed by the volume of megapixels and mentioned improved zoom.?

Memes speak for themselves

Sharing memes dedicated to Apple`s releases has already become a tradition. iPhone 14 is no exception. One of the popular topics is the "slowdown" of older iPhones. Users hint that after the new release, Apple forgets about updates for former models.

In addition to Jobs' daughter, many other users made fun of the lack of significant differences between the iPhone 14 and the previous models.

Dynamic Island also became the butt of jokes.

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