“Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming,” Dan Lyons claims via BBC News. “Everyone pretty much accepts that Apple will introduce [the iPhone 5], and there have been so many leaks that everybody pretty much seems to know what it’s going to be. Word is it will look a lot like the last two versions of the iPhone, except a bit thinner and a bit taller, with upgraded guts and a refreshed operating system.”
“If that’s correct, I imagine Steve is not happy. First of all, he’d be furious about the leaks. Steve liked surprising people,” Lyons writes. “More important, is this really the best we can expect from an outfit that claims to be the most innovative company in the world?”
Lyons claims, “The hardware on the iPhone has been the same for two years, since the iPhone 4 and 4S were virtually identical.”
MacDailyNews Note: Incorrect. The iPhone 4S hardware is a considerable advance over the iPhone 4:
iPhone 4S hardware improvements vs. iPhone 4:
• Dual-core Apple A5 processor vs. single core Apple A4
• PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU vs. PowerVR SGX535
• 8-megapixel iSight camera vs. 5-megapixel iSight camera
• 1080p 30 fps vs. 720p 30 fps video camera
• UMTS/HSDPA (14.4 Mbps) vs. UMTS/HSDPA (7.2 Mbps)
• Bluetooth 4.0 vs. Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Battery life: Up to 8 hours on 3G vs. Up to 7 hours on 3G
Lyons continues, “Now, having had two years to plot and scheme, Apple’s renowned designer Jonathan Ive has replaced the tiny 3.5in (8.9cm) screen with a slightly-less-tiny 4in (10.2cm) screen? Wow. Knock me over with a feather. What do you do with the rest of your time, Jony? This is what happens when a company is too cheap to invest in research and development… Android’s market share is now four times that of Apple. Four times! Worse, despite all its bluster about innovation, Apple has become a copycat, and not even a good one. Why is Apple making the iPhone bigger? To keep up with the top Android phones.”
“Apple also has become a copycat in tablets. Jobs once said the iPad’s 9.7in screen was the perfect size, and smaller tablets made no sense,” Lyons writes. “Then the Android camp had success with 7in tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7, and now Apple supposedly will announce its own smaller iPad in October. Talk about thinking different!”
“Apple got where it was by taking bold risks. Now it has become a company that copies others and plays it safe,” Lyons writes. “A company that once was run by a product visionary now is run by a number-cruncher – chief executive Tim Cook, whose claim to fame involves running an efficient supply chain and beating ever lower prices out of Asian subcontractors and component suppliers… Apple has become the one thing it should never be. Apple has become boring. Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming.”
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Talk about boring copying. Trot in a few more fallacies, exaggerations, and unproven accusations, Lyons, you hit-whore by rote.
Of course, Apple isn’t a copycat. Everybody’s copying Apple, just look at phones before iPhone and at phones today. And, as for a rumored 7.85-inch iPad mini, Jobs often talked down certain tech while Apple was working on it (see: iPods that play video and iPads that deliver e-books, for just two examples). Plus, the screen area of a 7-inch in 16:9 tablet would be dwarfed by a 7.85-inch 3:4 iPad mini. And, can we give the already tired “Tim Cook is just a number cruncher” meme a rest?
Everybody wants to be the next John Dvorak, even while the bloated Hawaiian-shirted gasbag still floats over the earth.
One more thing: We have a hunch that Steve Jobs wouldn’t allow the John Dvorak wannabe Dan Lyons to hear him make a peep from up there.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gaz” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Apple rakes in 71% of the world’s smartphone profits – September 8, 2012
