“The new iPhone 5 has to be more than just another smartphone as it carries the weight of Apple Inc’s future on its slim frame,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters.
“Five years after the first iPhone upended the mobile industry, analysts say Apple is looking increasingly defensive as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other rivals have been first to market with phones that sport bigger screens or run on faster wireless networks,” Gupta reports. “Apple will try to close that gap on Wednesday with the unveiling of the newest iPhone, which is widely expected to offer 4G wireless technology for the first time, and a 4-inch display, up from the current 3.5 inches.”
Gupta reports, “But it remains to be seen if Chief Executive Tim Cook has any surprises up his sleeve, and if he will show off any technological breakthroughs that can put the iPhone 5 head and shoulders above the competition. ‘They have been in the crosshairs of a lot of companies for a long, long time,’ Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said. ‘They were the upstarts before,’ he added. ‘Now they are more in a defensive role.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The current iPhone models are already head and shoulders above the competition because they’re the only smartphones that run iOS.
You know what the 12 before the 5 means? It means Apple will release the iPhone 5 in 12 years’ time. In the meantime Tim will announce the iPhone 4SS, the iPhone 4SSS, the iPhone 4SSSS, etc.
Because, you know, they all look the same anyway.
Once Apple has perfection with a phone, why change it?
The only thing Apple needs to do is keep improving it in the areas “they” see they need to fix or adjust.
Just because you or some analyst says a bigger screen or a new redesign is needed does not make it so.
Are you working as a industrial designer at a high end company?
Do you have on your resume 3 past designs that hit it out of the park?
Then shut up.
Much as I don’t agree with BLN often, he doesn’t need a degree nor industry experience to have an opinion on what he wants. As a consumer he is entitled to his opinions and by default they are valid. Whether they may matter to you or Apple is a different matter.
As for the size debate, Apple/Jobs can go the Leica philosophy that a classic design is never completely out of fashion. However, Leica is niche and a good number of consumers tend to prefer bigger (reasonably) screens at first blush when pitted with side by side comparisons.
Obviously, it’s Apple’s call and I think they can afford to stretch the new iPhone to a larger size while offering an updated iPhone 4S for those who prefer the new classic model. I don’t think this will cause too much fragmentation. It might even afford Apple the opportunity to offer two iPhone refresh/upgrade cycles a year. No more two quarter long bottleneck/anticipations.
Well thought out argument. Two refresh cycles a year for two different screen sizes sounds good.
You shrink the buying window down then enormously with 6 month cycles. People would then buy for only maybe 3 months and then wait for the next revision down from the 9 months buying yearly cycle now. As a culture we are impatient babies but the reality is most people don’t really care about cycles if they have a solid quality device. I love the writers above who infer beyond device improvments that all else is equal between Apple and Android. Boy that couldn’t be further from the truth. While Apple cares about how features are rolled out their competitors throw s**t on the wall to see what sticks. There’s more to a phone than screen size and web connection speed.
Nah, I believe Apple got the size right.
Sales don’t lie:
“Each new generation iPhone sold approximately equal to all previous generations combined.” — Schiller’s quote during the Samsung trial.
Sounds like they going in the right direction to me.
Did you just write this to be silly? Apple is not I repeat not adding market share hence they will need to get back to cooing what works and incorporate into the iPhone.
My 21 y.o. daughter and Lord knows how many more of her friends are waiting to see the iPhone 5 and if it does not dazzle then they are moving over to the Nokia 920 when released.
Needs some glitz, need colours, and need a gorgeous intuitive OS and Windows 8 appears to have all these bases covered.
Just Saying!
They need glitz, colors and Windows 8??
Apple can do just fine without those customers.
You don’t need to be a painter to be an art critic. Idiot.
The MacBook Pro looks the same from year to year. The Bentley Continental GT for years 2003 through 2011 are identical in shape and only slightly different from the 2012 & 2013.
It may be that the iPhone 5 will look the same as the 4 and 4S because the outside bands serve as the antennae system. If this is the best antennae system that Apple can design then it would be counterproductive for them to change it for the small population who buy their phones because of the way they look.
And then cover up the phone anyway with a case. I LOVE Apple’s current design. All the bevelly curvy stuff can take a hike. I HATE the bevelled sides on the iPad for example. Functionally it makes it hard to use the side buttons and switches as well as plug in the power adapter (especially in the dark). NOT an improvement except it may look nice visually. Function here better than form.
Thank you. Don’t forget the design of the Porsche 911. One of the most iconic cars ever, why change it?
I see our resident troll Gupta writes for that rag a news service Reuters.
S/he works for MDN under the bridge.
hahaha
There’s been quite a few writers with Indian origins writing on Apple for Reuters recently. Many of them seem to have an skewed view against Apple.
Obviously the iPhone 5 will not be as large nor as fast … Much like iMacs or MacBook pros … They are good enough ….They aren’t the best in the market but they LAST LONGER
But the selling point is IOS … like Mac OS trumps windows
New apple buyers will not be able understand but just fall into the glamour of “larger screen or faster processor ” ….
Apple creates a seamless and enjoyable ecosystem ..
That said expect loads of hate mail about what the iPhone does not have !
There are those who prefer superficiality over substance and there’s those who care more for the substance/fundamentals over blings; and then there are the snotty tech pundits. There’s just no pleasing everyone (which is a good thing maybe).
That is a true statement. The superficial Shallow Hals & Hannah’s. You wanna be trendy instead of owning a solid dependable device (arguably that’d be Apple anyway) go buy an Android phone and STFU. No one is convincing ANYONE that Android is a superior experience or device. That’s a joke. Android is second or third best at most. (Why did Nokia’s advertising team shoot the whole company in the image stabilization foot and then incompetently document the fact it was done with a DSLR in their own advert – ever hear of painting things out? Surely Nokia must have s**t-canned them by now. I say this because they keep relegating Windows Phones to the cellar by such dishonest and stupid actions.)
Honestly, Apple might do well to introduce a solid and practical upgrade that does not stretch the envelope too much. They should continue to play the game on their own terms.
I just want a bullet proof phone that fits in my pocket and runs iOS all day long. The rest is noise.
The usual BS, bigger screen and 4G network.
The bigger screens on the Roids was to cover the massive battery they needed to run the phone a measly 3 hours. The handful of users I see with the Roids always have them plugged in at work. Why? Did you not just charge them overnight at home?
As to the 4G network, just like the 3G rollout. First chips are power hogs and how about that 4G coverage. Good luck finding it other than small areas of big citys.
All the dirty little Android secrets the geektards don’t want you to know.
The big question for me is, “Should I max out the RAM again?”
That depends: do you want it to be snappier?
> other rivals have been first to market with phones that sport bigger screens or run on faster wireless networks,” <
All they need to do is make it BIGGER than anyone else's – silly Apple, trying to make it better.
Could this be any more facile if he tried?
How about making a solid product, refine, enhance, and continue to add great consumer value. Shocking to most of these writers and build junk by repackaging every few months- they will love you. Shinny objects to distract the ADD inflicted.
Funny how times have change, we worrying about a phone that if it falls under the competition might be the end for Apple, what is wrong in this picture? Apple has become an iPhone – iOS company, personally I’m sick and tire of seeing iPhones everywhere everybody has an iPhone, is not a “cool” item to have anymore, come on Apple move on, be the company you used to be expand to other markets, also we need iWork, iWeb, something to replace all the Adobe shit, what happen with Final Cut? new Macs, new deigns, come on get us exited and don’t put all your eggs on the same basket, I can already see the stock drop later today, sad day.
So having something “cool and trendy” is more important to you than rock solid, beautiful and dependable, and has a great resale value, etc.? The stock will drop no matter what Apple does. That’s all stock manipulation, not anything Apple has done. And yes Apple has dropped the ball on a few things like a decent Mac Pro upgrade and the software you mentioned. I have a feeling we are about to see an avalanche of catching up from Apple though.
I’m hoping they let me hook my zip drive to it. It’s been in the drawer for a few years, but the rumors say the new micro adapter will accommodate SCSI. Here’s hoping…
No floppy drive is a real deal breaker for me.
for iphone to dazzle,it needs a detachable dick so all the gays that wants bump specks can suck all thru d nite…. Android phones do better when it comes to unwanted specks upgrade… I stick with my NOKIA java phone cos it does it better than all androids
The summary at the beginning about the landscape of smartphones is true. Competitors are catching up on hardware – there are some devices that are in the iPhone’s class.
However, it also highlights why the market needs some direction right now. The author cites bigger screens as a feature that differentiates other smartphones from the iPhone. While that may be true, it is not true that this makes them better. Not everyone wants a 5″ screen because it interferes with portability. 4G LTE is obviously better for data, but with previous chipsets being power hogs and with 4G networks still just rolling out, Apple made a decent argument to wait on 4G LTE.
In both examples, these are not innovations, they are features that Apple could easily have incorporated. Instead of just ramping up a spec, Apple actually considers the benefit to consumers and effect on usability.
The last thing also differentiates Apple, but the end to end user experience is never considered by tech analysts. If it is, they use the term “walled garden” as a negative.
Until someone completely revamps the form factor that Apple created for smartphones (virtual keyboard?!?! that isn’t going to work!!!!), there are just going to be improvements. Instead of mindless spec sheet races, Apple will likely again focus on certain areas they believe consumers will like most.
One such area is photography. Samsung and Nokia will make this a MP race, but that is nearly at the useful limit, except for marketing and spec sheet aficionados. Better sensors, better lenses (this is limited by the form factor, I know), and better software are all where it is at. The 4S may not win a MP comparison, but the photos are better than most other smartphones under similar conditions.