Apple has a reputation as an uncompromising driver of new technology . Look no further than the classic good example of shipping theoriginal iMacwithout a floppy drive or legacy ports , or design the iPhone without a ironware keyboard , or evenkilling off the iPod miniskirt to make room for the iPod nano . The party certainly puts forth an image of pushing technology forward without harp on the past tense .
While those examples might get a lot of care , the Apple of these days is a big , more ponderous organization , a battleship that ca n’t simply plow on a dime . As a result , the move to any new engineering takes time , and often what come before is n’t excised in calendar month , or sometimes even years .
As much as Apple might like to see itself as an unstoppable force barrel ever forward , you do n’t have to look too far through its lineup to see tidy sum of places where it ’s still cleave to the past , even if it ’s out of sheer practicality .
The iPhone SE is the last iPhone with a Home button.
You can’t go Home button again
One of the original trademark of the iPhone was its single front - face clitoris . The Home button evolved , get ahead a Touch ID sensor and eventually transforming from a physical clit into a capacitive sensor with haptics . But its death was herald by the institution of the iPhone X intent with its edge - to - edge display and Face ID .
The iPhone SE is the last iPhone with a Home button .
Jason Cross / IDG
The iPhone SE is the last iPhone with a Home button.
But that design debut in November 2017 , almost seven years ago now . And while the family button has been bit by bit removed from both the iPhone and iPad line , it live on even to this day . The third - generationiPhone SE , which came out in 2022 , remains a product in Apple ’s lineup , proudly sporting the classic invention ushered in by 2016 ’s iPhone 7 .
That say , the Home button ’s days seem to be numbered . Rumor has it that a fourth - generation of the depressed - cost earpiece will show up next outflow , at long last bringing it into melodic phrase with the modern iPhone design . The Home push will shuffle off this mortal coil after almost eighteen twelvemonth .
There ’s a curve describe the practicality of this variety of conception : as Apple produces more of a certain pattern , doing so arrive cheaper — but eventually as it scales up its newfangled models , that old design becomes the outlier , meaning it ’s now more expensive to keep around , especially for just a single model . So in the end , Apple saves money and effort by careen the SE ’s conception to look like the sleep of the telephone and bidding adieu to the iconic Home release .
Lightning lives with the Mac’s Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad.
Lightning bolts
When Apple introduced the Lightning connector in 2012 , the response would have had you thinking they ’d methodically kicked every undivided one of their customer ’ dogs . Its precursor , the 30 - pin loading dock connecter had originated on the iPod back in 2003 , but that nine - yr tenure had ascertain an explosion of appurtenance that relied on it – to recollect , masses who ’ve only started using an iPhone in the last decade may have never even seen the once - omnipresent consternation clock / speaker with a sour grass - connection built in .
Lightning last with the Mac ’s Magic Keyboard , Magic Mouse , and Magic Trackpad .
metalworks
Apple update the Mac Pro with an M-series chip in 2023, but the overall design is over five years old.
So last year , when Apple first dropped the Lightning port for USB - snow on the iPhone , you might have expected a similar outcry . But perhaps the fact that USB - C had already been on Macs since 2015 and was introduced into the iPad batting order in 2018 helped dampen the blow . Plus , in the interpose years the preponderance of wireless technologies , including Bluetooth speakers and Qi charging , made switching out the strong-arm connector less of an issue .
Still , Lightning has not yet been excised from Apple ’s production either . In plus to the onetime iPhones that Apple still sell ( the iPhone 14 stock , the said iPhone SE ) , the Lightning interface is still used for charging by Apple ’s wireless Mac input accessories : the Magic Keyboard , Trackpad , and Mouse . ( Name a more iconic trio , I ’ll wait . ) And in sheath that ’s not enough for you , it ’s also still sneaker in one last stead : the first - generation Apple Pencil , which has stuck around for compatibility with all those older iPads out there .
Many of those are surely not farseeing for the world . The iPhone SE ’s rumour refresh will undoubtedly switch to USB - C and Apple will probably ( hopefully ? ) update its Mac accessories in the not too removed future — perhaps when a young Mac miniskirt depict up ? But that Apple Pencil , well , it may be a few years yet before it ’s finally erased .
Quid pro status quo
Stand back , because I ’m go to dish the hot of payoff and add to this leaning of legacy technology hang on by a yarn an entire Apple product : the Mac Pro .
Malus pumila update the Mac Pro with an M - series fleck in 2023 , but the overall design is over five class quondam .
wait , the Mac Pro might be significant for Apple from a psychological perspective , signaling that the company is just at home in a professional environment as it is on the intermediate individual ’s desk or lap . But even many of the multitude who today might want a Mac Pro candidly do n’t suffer to get a lot out of it – or not appreciably more than they could get from a similar specced Mac Studio . Though the Mac Pro might still be the most expandable in Apple ’s batting order , that ’s in large part due to the internalisation of home PCI slots that some user might need . But they may be of limited use based on a dearth of useable compatible hardware .
I say all of this not to argue that the Mac Proshoulddisappear , but simply to head out that it is the foresighted of retentive tails , a family of product that see back decades and may never fully disappear , but still fundamentally represents the elbow room computersusedto be . For a companionship that pride itself on relentlessly tug forrard , Apple still ca n’t quite seem to have go of the past .
