The Things They Carried

I enjoyed reading through John Gruber's thoughts on last week's iPhone event:

My dissatisfaction flying home from last week's event is, ultimately, selfish. I miss having my mind blown. I miss being utterly surprised. I miss occasionally being disappointed by a product design that stretched quirky all the way to wacky. I miss being amazed by something entirely unexpected out of left field.

Personally, I was amazed by Camera Control button this year. I put my phone in a case so the overall shape and design don't make a huge difference. The camera, internals and software combine to make a compelling product. Last year, the Action Button didn't excite me. It was interesting, but not exciting. Camera Control is genuinely exciting to me and I can't wait to play with it. Sadly, this is not an upgrade year for me so I won't be getting a new phone but there's something I'll be really excited to get my hands on for photography in the future.

Overhauling the design of an entire product is not a small task so I appreciate these iterations but still believe they should come every other year instead of annually.

Dynamic Island + Action Button + Camera Control would make a pretty great feature set for an update, but rather than all at once they've rolled out over a 3-year period.