we didn’t know it at the time, bot upon the release of android 7.1, nougat, we had reached the pinnacle of the technology. everything since then has either been deck chair re-arranging or the slow removal of features we once liked only to have them re-introduced 1-3 years later as a new feature. the most insulting is how completely useless google assistant became in 2020 only to now have features we had in 2014 sold to us as innovation and proof that gemini isn’t a total waste of ram.
i can’t speak on when iphone users hit this pinnacle, i never could figure ios out. completely unintuitive os tbh, despite what its adherents will tell you. it’s mostly only intuitive if you have prior experience with apple products
my initial plan was to say the smartphone peaked much earlier, but i decided to say the last good release was as late as i could, in good conscience. i wanted avoid any potential sensationalism in my already somewhat sensationalist thesis (one that i do actually believe it, but i know i could come across sensational)
so i threw myself, a tech-y, but somewhat unprincipled until 2023 about specifics, person. when was the last time i found my phone useful and not burdensome? 2019. when was the last time i remember feeling like my phone was improving? 2017