So Apple is just discarding two heavily marketed features of the iPhone, what gives?

Phone Arena

21 hours ago

There have been two very heavily marketed features on the iPhone for the last 2-3 years, and Apple is apparently getting rid of both of them. What's worse is that I actually quite liked both of these characteristics of the iPhone, even though one of them has been a very contentious change.
Titanium looks great for phones. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Yep, Apple is ditching titanium with the iPhone 17. It's not like this was a must-have feature for flagship phones, but it was appreciated nonetheless. I don't think I'm alone in saying that the titanium iPhone models looked stunning, like a truly premium piece of gear. At least we still have the Galaxy Ultra phones, unless Samsung is planning to ditch titanium for the Galaxy S26 Ultra as well. I truly believed that titanium was here to stay, to distinguish the flagship offerings from the rest. And, on a very minor note, titanium sounds so much cooler than aluminum, glass, or stainless steel.
But what truly bugs me is remembering how much Apple focused on the titanium finish when it was first announced. The people announcing the iPhone 15 Pro couldn't stop mentioning just how beautiful the new phones looked, and I agreed. But now, just like that, we're ditching titanium this year. The reasoning behind this decision is likely quite complex and not just a change of heart. Some suggest that manufacturing costs are to blame, and that makes sense because Apple is trying to make its phones as affordable as possible with the threat of tariffs looming over it. Perhaps it's the lack of titanium that has made it possible to not increase the cost of the iPhone 17 too much this year.But titanium isn't the only heavily marketed feature Apple is getting rid of.
Apple was really proud of the Dynamic Island. | Image credit — PhoneArena Who remembers when Apple first announced the Dynamic Island? This was one of Apple's more contentious changes, I remember a lot of the internet clowning on it back then. However, I thought that it was a pretty clever way to get around a problem that existed in smartphones back then, and still does today.
See, every phone manufacturer had started to introduce punch holes or notches into their phones. Even the cheapest budget phones made for low income regions featured a notch at the very least. This was being done to minimize bezel thickness, and because I suppose it was just the new thing to do. Apple, who I blame for popularizing the notch in the first place, came up with a pretty clever solution: the Dynamic Island. Immediately, the iPhone was recognizable everywhere, and it wasn't just another phone with a water drop notch. Even better, the Dynamic Island actually served a purpose.App integration with the Dynamic Island is superb, when it works of course, and it usually always does. And, personally speaking, I just like the pill-shaped cutout much more than a water drop notch, or a circular punch hole.
But guess what, Apple is ditching the Dynamic Island in favor of a punch hole design. This won't happen until the iPhone 18, but many reports have said that it is happening. Apparently, the punch hole iPhone 18 will bridge the gap between the iPhone 17 that has a Dynamic Island, and the cutout-free 20th anniversary iPhone Pro.
But…why not just stick with the Dynamic Island? Has Apple forgotten how much it showed it off back when the company first announced it? Not to mention that the iPhone 18 will just look like any other phone from the front. Apple is already making this mistake with the iPhone 17 redesign, and I wouldn't fault some people for confusing it for a Google Pixel 9, especially the iPhone 17 Air.
Suffice to say, I just don't understand why Apple would abandon heavily marketed features like this out of the blue. It honestly just makes the company look like it has no direction or sense of self, and is just throwing random things at a wall to see what sticks.