After a dry and hot summer like never before and in the middle of a global energy crisis, we understood it well: it was time for sobriety and lower consumption to try to save mother nature.
And now this Wednesday, Apple announces with great fanfare and big apple, the release of the Iphone 14, at more than 1,000 euros in addition, during a conference as only the brand has the secret. A staging and a presentation which would not have denoted in 2007, date of the Keynote legend of Steve Jobs on the first Iphone. Yes but now, 15 years have passed and the tricks of the day can now seem a bit anachronistic with regard to our time.
A giant in his world
First proof, “the ecological dimension was never mentioned on Wednesday, when we are talking about one of the most powerful brands in the world. This shows how this kind of giant lives in its own world, far from the problems of the time and the population”, notes Marion Trommenschlager, doctor of InfoCom sciences and researcher in digital uses: “One could have imagined that ‘Apple boasts of a lower energy consumption of its product, or its manufacture with greener materials, but absolutely not’.
All the press reviews agree that the Iphone 14 has no major changes with its predecessor, the Iphone 13. It must be said that the latter was released only a year ago, which left little time for a real revolution.
Aging on the new market
The criticism is not new, it’s been 15 years since the anti-Apples laugh at the lack of major changes between each Iphone, but it reasons differently this year when climate change has hit like never before. “The world of buying a new phone a year may be old-fashioned. Apple’s model seems less relevant than before,” asks Cécile Désaunay, director of studies at Futuribles and author of The Society of deconsumption, The revolution of living better by consuming less (Editions Alternatives, 2021).
We already have one foot in consumption: “The number of new smartphones sold is down -11% between 2019 and 2021. A trend that can be explained by the extended lifespan of devices, but also by the development of the market of the occasion”, deciphers Pascale Hébel, marketing co-director at Credoc (Research center for the study and observation of living conditions). And this mode of consumption extends well beyond telephones: “The same is true in the automotive field, where sales of new vehicles are down,” adds the expert.
As a result, Apple sometimes tends to force its hand, notes Dominique Desjeux, an anthropologist specializing in consumption: “The brand has built its empire on a closed circuit: it controls all of its devices, which are incompatible with other systems. It may decide on an update to its operating system that renders its old models obsolete, forcing you to buy a new one”. The brand had in particular been hit on the fingers with some new products incompatible with its own old phones. Europe has whistled part of the end of recreation, forcing the standardization of portable chargers between all models from 2024.
Will the iPhone be the jet of tomorrow?
To compensate for this loss of buyers, prices are rising, contributing to making the product even more marginal: “Today, the Iphone 14 max costs more than a net minimum wage in France, again a symbolic shift. Not everyone can change their iPhone every year,” points out Cécile Désaunay. A mode of consumption reserved for an elite and not very green, does that remind you of anything this summer?
For years, private jet travel has passed without stirring the crowds in the least, before causing scandal and being the source of massive controversy since this scorching summer. In the near future, will having the latest iPhone also be a controversial practice? “Whistleblowing campaigns are on the rise, and social and climatic inequalities are less and less tolerated,” agrees Elisabeth Tissier-Desbordes, professor emeritus at ESCP and specialist in consumer behavior: “There is great sensitivity to overconsumption and we do not accept that the wealthiest can afford to deplete resources more than the others. Overconsumption is much more criticized since we know that it impacts everyone through its ecological effects”.
The iPhone could one day find itself on the dock of the ecological defendants: “The product consumes a lot, whether in terms of data centers or rare materials. For the moment, the consumption of portables escapes his lawsuits, but for how long? asks Dominique Desjeux. We reassure you, we will not fall back to the period of smoke signals, carrier pigeons and telegraphs. But still “it is possible that the model of releasing the same product or almost every year and buying it in the second is coming to an end”, concludes the anthropologist. The Iphone 10 is still very good, you know.