“Is Apple losing its ‘appeal?'” John R. Quain asks for FoxNews.com. “With such stellar products as the iPhone and iPad, every Apple announcement is a potentially game-changing event. And yesterday’s debut of the new iPhone 4S could also change the marketplace — just not in the way you might think.”
“By failing to make any major changes to the phone that changed the mobile world — indeed, merely catching up in some areas — Apple has left open the window for Windows and the iPhone’s other competitors, from Samsung to Google to HTC,” Quain reports. “The biggest lunch-bag letdown was that Apple failed to introduce a true fourth-generation (4G) iPhone. With the increasing reliance on smartphones for video, websurfing, email and more, the best devices use the fastest, newest networks possible. New 4G phones even spur carriers like AT&T and Verizon to improve their networks. On that front Apple is lagging — badly.”
Quain reports, “To be fair — and awfully confusing — there will be a semi-4G iPhone 4S coming October 14: AT&T’s version of the iPhone will use its “HSPA+” higher speed data network (the Verizon and Sprint versions will use slower, older data networks). Technically speaking, HSPA+ is not a full-blown, 4G technology, like WiMax or LTE: It’s merely an enhancement to an earlier technology. But HSPA+ is pretty darn fast — fast enough that T-Mobile has been advertising it as ‘4G’ anyway. (Whether AT&T will start advertising that it has ‘the only 4G iPhone’ remains unclear –I asked. It certainly sounds better than, ‘We have the only HSPA+ iPhone!’) But AT&T itself plans to replace that network, meaning if you want to avoid obsolescence and get a fast 4G phone, you’ll have to buy an Android smartphone on Verizon or Sprint. No iPhone for you.”
Full piece – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Some people are just plain stupid. Others are so morbidly vacuous that you just have to stop and stare in horror. Quain is the latter category’s poster child.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Shawn” for the heads up.]
