Put jack back and boost battery, iPhone fans say

BALBOA ISLAND, Calif. – Every year, shortly after Labor Day, Apple execs stand before the world to show off new iPhones and tout new features they hope will entice folks into ditching their older models and springing for new ones.

Usually, the chatter is focused on power – more of it, with a faster response time and a sleeker, thinner body. But if you ask consumers what’s on their wish list, those features don’t tend to make the conversation.

We talked to iPhone owners recently, on the streets here and in our Facebook and Twitter community. Longer battery life and an unbreakable screen were the two most common themes, hands down.

Crystal Rose, who runs the Crystal Rose Island Therapy shop here, wants more storage on the next iPhone “so I have no fear of losing photos.”

In recent years, entry-level phones from Apple came with 16 GB of storage, which is barely enough to fit the operating system, a handful of apps, and some photos and videos. In 2017, Apple upped the entry level to 32 GB, but that’s still small, as photo and video size continues to get bigger every year.

Many consumers, like Danielle Heslatt of Indiana, have asked for “expandable storage” on new iPhones, similar to how Samsung does it with its premium Galaxy line. These phones have slots to plug in a micro SD card, to effectively double or triple the phone’s storage, depending on the size of the card. Consumers have asked for this for years, but Apple has yet to integrate it.

Battery life is a big issue for Michelle Rasmussen, who lives near Salt Lake City. She’d like to see a battery that “would last a week,” she says. She adds that she’d be more than happy to get “a full day” from a charge.

Other hot-button issues include the removal of the headphone jack in 2015. Consumers want it back – it’s unlikely to return – or at the very least, for Apple users to be able to listen to music on wired headphones and charge the phone at the same time through the Lightning port.

“Can we rethink the shared charger and earbud port please,” asks Lee Ann Marie of Orlando, Florida, on Twitter. “Puts a real damper on my work day when I have to decide between music and a dead phone.”

Chris Raney of Irvine, California, hopes for solar charging. “Just put the phone into the sun and get some juice,” he says.

At the beginning of the year, Apple admitted what many consumers always feared: that software updates for iPhones intentionally slowed them down. Apple said it was so the newer phones could keep up with declining batteries. But to many, that was code for “planned obsolescence,” and pushing them to buy phones every two years.

“I want a new phone that runs well five-plus years from release,” Sean Rogan of North Carolina said on Facebook. “It is ridiculous than a $1,000 phone is designed to be a brick in 36 months.”