The iPhone 6S is a decent smartphone, and that’s a bad thing

For the most part, people have been pretty happy with the iPhone 6S, and that’s a problem for Apple. Whether the last few iPhones were as innovative and revolutionary as Apple and its fans claimed is a point of contention, but enough people believed they were that the company was selling absolutely insane numbers of the smartphones. The iPhone 6S, on the other hand, hasn’t enjoyed nearly the same level of success as its predecessors, according to a Localytics study, because even the die-hard Apple fans agree that it’s a decent smartphone. Emphasis on the word “decent,” because when customers are used to massive upgrades over previous smartphones, something that’s just decent doesn’t cut it.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Or at the very least, if you’re going to fix it, make it a big fix. Unfortunately, Apple seems not to have learned that particular lesson with the release of its latest iPhone model — the iPhone 6S Plus. Despite Apple’s reported record sales of the latest generation of iPhones, a Localytics study suggests that both “the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are experiencing lower adoption rates in the first week of their availability versus the same time frame for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last year.” In fact, when it comes to iPhone adoption as of this month, the iPhone 6 crushes the competition with 33.2 percent market share, whereas the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have only 1.5 and 0.4 percent, respectively. For those who have compared the newest version of the phone to its predecessors, this likely comes as little surprise. A Guardian review of the 6S Plus called it “barely better” than earlier models, and with few real upgrades and only the most minute of aesthetic changes, it’s easy to see why. Of course, the iPhone S was considered a soft launch rather than a major product upgrade, but still, the lackluster reception calls to mind the ill-fated 5C (though truth be told, I’m still rockin’ my plastic iPhone today).