“With Apple’s next smartphone still months away, fans have been gobbling up iPhone 6 rumors faster than Pac-Man on a power pill bender. However, even the hottest rumor mill in tech can’t turn this device into a winner,” Avram Piltch writes for LAPTOP. “Based on everything we know now, the next iPhone will be a year late and a bitcoin short of the competition, doing nothing to slow Apple’s descent from smartphone pioneer to high tech has-been.”
Piltch writes, “Here are six reasons why the iPhone 6 has already lost.”
• Weak Camera Features: While current rumors peg the iPhone 6’s camera at either the same 8-MP or a slightly higher 10-MP, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is about to launch with a 16-MP shooter, real-time HDR and goodies like Eraser Mode, which removes photobombers from your pictures, and Best Face, which helps you choose a different expression for each person in a group shot. Sony’s upcoming Xperia Z2 takes the megapixel war a step further on Android, going with a 20.7-MP lens while Nokia’s Lumia 1020 Windows Phone continues its 41-MP dominance.
• Poor Battery Life, No Removable Battery: While it is possible that the iPhone 6 will include a higher-capacity battery than its predecessor, the latest rumors peg it with a much-larger 4.7 or 5.5-inch display (perhaps one model with each), which will undoubtedly consume more power… the iPhone 6 will probably ship with a Liquidmetal, unibody design that has a sealed back panel. You’ll have to opt for a battery case if you want extra juice.
• Too Few Sharing Options: I have an easier time getting a 2-year-old to share than an iPhone. While Android has a universal sharing menu that lets you send content to any share-capable service, iOS treats every app as an island unto itself… On Android, I can share from any content app to the most obscure social network or messaging service (ICQ, anyone?), as long as I have it installed.
• Weak Keyboard: iOS doesn’t allow you to install a third-party keyboard. It’s possible iOS 8 will allow more freedom, but we have no reason to believe the iPhone 6 will be any different from previous generations.
• Limited Customization: You don’t have to be a hacker to make major changes to the look and feel of your Android phone. You can add widgets to the home screen, arrange your icons in any pattern you want or even install a completely new launcher. Apple’s design philosophy, which shouldn’t change with the iPhone 6, is to design for the lowest common denominator and offer the fewest choices possible, not letting you change much about the look and feel of the UI.
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: According to Mr. Piltch, Apple’s “iPhone 6” will be the first iPhone to not set the all-time unit sales record as all other previous iPhone models have done despite the facts that:
– Megapixels do not equal camera quality
– Apple’s iPhone 5s battery life beats both Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 and Google’s flagship Nexus 5
– Apple sets the agenda, thanks, and if Apple says NFC stands for No Fscking Chance, then it’s dead technology
– If you think the number of built-in “sharing options” means a smartphone “has already lost,” then you suck at hit-whoring
– Ditto for “third-party keyboards” and “limited customization”Without further ado, here are our 7 reasons why Apple’s iPhone 6 has likely already won:
1. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone (1st gen.)
2. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone 3G
3. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone 3GS
4. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone 4
5. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone 4s
6. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone 5
7. World’s best-selling smartphone: iPhone 5sAnd, as for Apple’s so-called “descent from smartphone pioneer to high tech has-been,” please see the following articles:
• How Android lost global open market share to Apple’s integrated iOS – March 14, 2014
• comScore: #1 Apple continues to take U.S. smartphone market share – March 7, 2014
• NPD: Affluent US consumers choose Apple iPhones – February 20, 2014
• Gartner: Apple gained mobile phone share as smartphones overtook feature phone sales in 2013 – February 13, 2014
• Analyst: Apple iPhone took 87.4% of mobile phone profits in Q4 – February 11, 2014
• Apple’s iOS gains U.S. share in fourth quarter as Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry decline – February 5, 2014
• Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
• IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
• Android phones 3 times more likely than Apple iPhones to have been bought at discount store – August 22, 2013
• CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
• Twitter heat map shows iPhone use by the affluent, Android by the poor – June 20, 2013
• Unsurprisingly, survey says Apple’s iOS is highest priority among mobile developers – January 23, 2013Lastly, hit-whores love to be contacted as it sometimes helps them aspire to greater heights the next time they sit down to scribble their gibberish:
• apiltch@laptopmag.com
• https://www.facebook.com/avram.piltch
• https://plus.google.com/104281401034115714032/
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/avrampiltch(The above is only a partial contact list. We have more contact information, including phone numbers, reserved for future use.)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tom” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple iPhone 5s battery life test completed: beats Galaxy S4 and Nexus 5 – December 23, 2013
Apple leads, the rest follow: Google dumps NFC requirement in Google Wallet app – September 18, 2013
Apple iPhone 5s camera leaps two years ahead of entire camera industry – all cameras, not just smartphone cameras – September 13, 2013
NFC stands for Not For Commerce: Apple snubs emerging mobile payment standard – September 13, 2012
Piltch,
This guy is a 5 star idiot. This is exactly what those anal spokesholes said about the 5. Wait till launch day and then you will see if it is a failure, you moron..
I like your comment.
I also noticed that the commenters in the article (on its page) mostly put down the author for his stupid comments.
Over the last few years, more and more commenters on blog articles have been pro Apple, or at least “be fair” type comments. And the samsung paid or unpaid trolls are getting worse about writing a quality post.
Just a thought.
Nice comment. He is an a major idiot and is obviously asian or something. He’s an iPhone hater and does not have a sufficient argument to support his claim. APPLE will remain TOP DOG for years to come as they always have in technology. They are the leader today and samsung is playing catchup with apple. They try and try but their cheap hardware and non working software will never top apples miracles invention. They came from doing MACs and iPods to inventing something that revolutionized the cell phone world. They are the onse that made the industry recognizable and caused every company to want to create something better. With that said, apple is still on top and samsung needs to start looking beyond the device and start considering re assessing their attack on apple because that shit is not working and will not work.
Well hes right, and your the idiot! My galaxy note 1, gt-n7000 is 3 years old! Do these specs look familiar 1.4ghz dualcore processor 1gb ram 8mp camera, they should there the same specs the iphone 6 has and my note1 with the same specs is 3 years old. So keep useing your ios iphone that app crashes twice as much as android, and have fun with ios 8 its a mess of problems at the moment. Hope you dont have an iphone 4s and upgrade to ios 8, because you might as well throw it in the bin! just look it up on the web! the laugh is on you! Idiot!
Please, why are hating on Apple? When a new iphone come out, it will still outsell that is on the market, Apple is a great company, so please stop hating.
Some who are not honest receive payment to blacken the Apple name. I think there are many of them. They may not hate Apple. When they receive payment, they use the money to secretly buy Apple products. They do not want to be called fanboy, but they want to own a good thing that works.
C’mon guys, can’t you see trondude hasn’t caught on to the “or something” system yet?
Oops, I read that all wrong. Retraction.
Even dumber than a professional anal ist if that was somehow possible.
The iPhone 6 is the easiest perdition any one can bet on in the longest time. It’s going to easily be the best selling iPhone in Apple history.
First, with the dual core 64 bit chip already trouncing everything on the Android side, you can only bet the A8 is going to further obliterate every phone on the market.
Second, the only player left in the Android market has already shot it’s wad with the Galaxy 5 dud being dead in the water.
Third, with the upcoming larger screen, will ANYBODY now have any reason even entertain getting an Android phone?
bu bu bu but Apple won’t make a larger iPhone!
I wil buy an Android, this guy is right i have tried to bluetooth music to an iphone with no luck! at all. I found out apple dosent support this trechery! No otg ready in a prenium device which is all files thats right all files music movie pictures pdfs zips anything you can put on a usb flash drive. I send home movies to Relatives with a simple transfer to a usb flash drive, they put in there 50 inch plasma and watch, what could be easier than this. Apple dont support! Still no full hd screen when androids are going Quad screens totally blowing the lowest resoultion retina out of the water, no water proofing at all. The list goes on! and on and on. And yes i have been taping my galaxy for payment at checkout for a while now. Iphone dosent support. A bunch of icons on a stale childish screen with tonka toy like looks! horses for courses you buy the iphone i buy a multi media device that shares to anything on the planet except an iphone! they even got by regulations that all phone makers use 1 charging cable. They get there boffins to find a loophole so they could charge the consumer $30 for a cable when every other company has micro usb the standard. I could go on and on about the limitations of this device but most people here see only thru rose coloured glasses! And have blinkers on! 🙂
Yep A Non full hd screen of the iphone is going to thrash the Quad resoultion screen of the galaxy note, 1gb ram is going to crush the 4gb ram of the note as well. Sounds like little bo peep meets Godzilla! to me. Wow any clown knows that a 64 bit pushing a non HD screen around is going to be quick! try a Quad screen and the 1gb ram on the toy will slow down like being stuck in mud!
Do I ever trust a “tech advisor” that doesn’t know the difference between “pole” and “poll”?
No.
If you can’t get your words correct (which is technically your JOB) then your credibility is lost. That said, glaring errors in grammar, spelling, and general lack of proof reading ability in anti-Apple articles do make me happy, as the quality of the individual (and by extension their opinion) become self evident…
😊
Just ludicrous.
Your negative comments will be lost on Piltch. Guys like this are so narcissistic that they get off on reading and seeing their own words and pictures that they themselves posted, and think everyone else is oohing and aahing over their clever comments, just like they do.
Pitcher seems to be more of a ‘catcher’..
Are you kidding me…? Every one of those so-called “reasons” are either bogus or are (intentionally) present in current and past iPhones, yet Apple still somehow manages to have record-breaking sales for iPhones. 🙂 This moron basically wants Apple to produce an Android phone.
I think he’s trying to become a paid Samdung shill.
Yeah, if this guy was writing during the early iPod era, he would have written a list of reasons the next iPod “had already lost”:
— Won’t play WMA files
— Won’t have an FM receiver
— Won’t allow drag-and-drop file loading
That’s what we went through from 2002-2006. Sales proved year after year that consumers didn’t care about those features, but no, this year was the year the consumers would finally understand, the pundits were sure of it. The same thing is going on with the iPhone now.
——RM
Idiocy of the highest order. The odour of ordure is strong with this one!
=:~)
While it would be foolish to say the iPhone 6 won’t solve at least some of these issues, it is even more foolish for Apple fans to pretend they don’t exist.
Apple’s camera optics ARE compromised by the insatiable need for every iPhone to become thinner. Apple needs to offer multiple models and stop pretending that a competitive camera can be squished into a thin mint.
Battery life is a serious issue for many users, especially since iOS7.
iBeacons _are_ one form of NFC. The question is if Apple got it right. There’s no guarantee that the market will rally around the Apple-branded one-way NFC.
Sharing options is something that MANY loyal Apple users have complained about for a long time. iCloud is the constraint, and it’s a horrible constraint that makes iOS a very incomplete computing platform. Might be fine for a phone, but MacBook Air users are far more capable than their iPad-toting counterparts when it comes to multi-platform, multi-program sharing and communication. Apple needs to stop pretending that all its iOS users live in a single-platform world.
The iOS customization issue has always simmered below the surface in past versions, but iOS7 made it a HUGE issue when the interface became glaringly ugly, unintuitive, and hard for many people to read. All the band-aids added in iOS7.1 improve the situation, but not nearly as comprehensively or as well as longtime Apple users would have liked. Basic font controls should not be considered “accessibility” options.
Finally: past performance is no guarantee of future success. The competition has gotten better, the main competing app store has essentially caught up, offering all the same key apps that Apple does. Again, Apple has to deliver a delightful product FAMILY with the capabilities that a diverse world demands. Like it or not, Apple’s past strategy of selling old stock next to new has been played out in first-world markets. The 5C was a commercial disappointment. It’s time the Apple delivers what we all know it is capable of offering.
Apple: how about 128 GB on board and 25% more battery life? We know you can do it.
Honey, iBeacon is bluetooth 4 not NFC.
Talking about bluetooth, The simplist thing a device can do is bluetooth a song, try doing this with an iphone, apple in there wisdom left the file share out of bluetooth, as well as other things bluetooth does! Every device capable has this as a backup for ease of doing a basic file share! I found out when i couldnt bluetooth a simple song to a friends iphone! the web was full of why cant the iphone do a simple bluetooth file share debate everywhere! She purchase an android and now says ok google whats this song it goes straight to the play store to purchase, she then buys with google wallet downloads wirelessly. Now she shares to her world of friends all her content she wants!
Honey, iBeacon is Bluetooth 4, not NFC. Be home before 4PM okay? Don’t get mommy worried. 🙂
Yawn.
Don’t even have to read past the first sentence to say, this guy is like a broken record.
“Apple’s camera optics ARE compromised”
won’t bother to answer most of the points as it’ll be too long but the camera. Instead of me arguing I’ll let the pros speak:
JIm Richardson took pictures for Nat Geographic with is 5S “”didn’t look like I was having to settle for second best because it was a mobile phone”.
Pro landscape photographer Austin Mann ““beyond impressed with what it can do…. The iPhone achieves its impressive results because Apple didn’t focus on flashy specs like megapixel count, but instead focused on the details that improve the quality of the resulting image. … for the first time ever, I didn’t bring my Canon 1DX and I didn’t regret it one bit.”
even Annie Leibovitz (using the 4s) was impressed.
etc
IPhone was used to shoot the recent apple ads, no one will dispute they don’t look great.
Piltch is obviously a hacker who enjoys fscking around with his phone….not just *using* it for its intended purpose(s).
That crowd will *never* like the iPhone, because Apple (wisely) actively discourages hacking the iPhone.
For them, enjoy your malware-laden, inconsistent, crappy-battery Android phonethat was probably obsolete the day you bought it and will never run a newer OS than the one that shipped on it.
For the rest of us, we’ll enjoy our easy-to-use, secure iPhones.
his brain is getting crushed by his fat head. iPhone 6 will destroy the landscape
@MDN: Easy. Don’t take this nonsense personal. He is just trying his best…
Comically some real strength, not weakness. The removable battery is a bad design. They make the phone weaker. I have watch a Samsung hit the floor at a bar and go into three pieces. The dude had to put the phone back together and reboot. The extra battery and charger cost more money. Also there is a lot of wasted space. Open is a problem, it is easy to hack. Only Samsung makes a Android with the security level of an iPhone or Blackberry. That is only a few high end phones with closed software. Amazon is believed to be the second best selling Android tablet, they are completely closed. When will Android get 64 bit? Speed and lens are what’s important in a camera. No mater how many megapixels you have focal length is the big problem.
since samsung is offering prize money to the ‘best blogs and articles’ and that it has admitted (in the HTC lawsuit) to hiring astro -Turfers to lie in articles and reviews (it masterminded fake reviews of HTC products) and has been fined by Asian authorities like the Taiwanese government for underhanded marketing tactics (samsung actually runs ads to hire college students etc as astro Turfers to post in forums and blogs) and samsung spends FOUR times Apple’s ad budget (and critics complain Apple a ‘marketing giant’ )
and that tech writers depend on a steady stream of hundreds of android products to review to make a living (go ask Andy “Android is Better” Iknatko) (you can’t live on one iPhone review a year) ….
… expect more articles like this, more disinformation, pervasive biased speculative criticism in all media before iPhone 6 launch….
As long as Apple sticks with the horrid iOS 7, the iPhone will always remain a failure not so much in a hardware design sense in which it still solidly leads the market but in software where it’s seen as trailing Android and WP8 in usability. The new iOS 7.1 redesign of the slide to turn off button is particularly bad as it’s almost an indistinct blob on the screen whereas iOS 6 was a bold red scrollbar in glorious 3-D with big lettering.
Ive has failed on so many levels to design a usable iOS 7 UI with the result that the current design is inferior in so many ways to Android and WP8. The sense of style that users of iOS devices had in terms of interacting with the software has been replaced by a dysfunctional utilitarian Soviet style design that harks back to 70’s of mono block design and introduces nothing new to the UI or the way in which the user interacts with the UI.
If going backwards is deemed going forwards by Apple, I fear for the future.
You clearly prefer an interface that looks like a Victoriana steampunk concept, with piddly little tiny pictures of real-world objects, rather than clean, clear, easily identified icons then.
I’m sure there’s a shitty Android knock-off of iOS 6 kicking around somewhere you can install on your shitty plastic Android knock-off of a real iPhone.
If that’s what it takes for you to STFU, then go to it.
Clean and clear design?
When my eight-year old niece played with Dad’s iPad Air at Christmastime she was confused by the icons totally changed from her 2-year old iPad (iOS6).
She asked why did they take pictures and games away and many other questions regarding questionable design if you can call kindergarten outlines high design.
@Davewrite tells it like it is. So Apple fanboy, why don’t you STFU for a change!
Trailing wp8? Seriously? You been into your uncle’s stash again?
1. I’m not interested in gimmicky camera features that I’ll never use. Photo file sizes are becoming an issue as they just keep getting larger taking up more precious space as the megapixel count increases. iPhones take wonderful photos and that’s why professionals are increasingly using them.
2. I really wouldn’t bring up the subject of battery life as an Android user if I were you.
3. I am yet to find a single person who uses NFC on their smartphone for anything. iBeacons are the future.
4. Copy and paste it to your obscure network if you must.
5. When the OS already has the best keyboard, why would you wan to change it.
6. Most people like to have beautiful artwork or photography as their lock screen and wallpaper. Jony Ive knows this and designed a beautiful OS that is sympathic to your photos by adding subtle transparency so elements of the OS change colour to match your photo. The paralax effect is also designed to make your photos look great, especially if you have a photo of a loved one on your phone as many people do, they don’t look like they have an app stuck on their face! You can customise all sorts of things on iOS without adding unnecessary complexity or affecting the speed or experiencingn crashes.
He also forgot that the iPhone is the only smartphone running on a 64bit processor on native 64bit applications. There is no competition. Since there is no iPhone 6 anyways I don’t no how he can predict failure before a product is even announced. This is a hit whore piece based on stupidity only and no knowledge of any products Apple builds or the competition.
You know I can’t help myself:
Weak Camera Features: Which explains why the iPhone 5S takes better QUALITY pictures than the much advertised higher resolution Nokia. Oops.
Poor Battery Life, No Removable Battery: Which explain how Apple was able to integrate the battery into the design of the devices such that they have the BEST battery life of comparable devices as well as lighter in weight. Hardly ‘poor’. Entirely innovative, for realz.
No NFC: Thank gawd. NFC is more dangerous than magnetic stripes on credit cards. It’s CRAP technology that was POORLY thought out before it was foisted on the market. Thank you Apple for avoiding lousy NFC. Please continue to do so. iBeacon is brilliantly superior and far more useful.
Too Few Sharing Options: Too few malware avenues, you mean! Sheesh. Live in the walled garden, or live in the rat filled slums. Take your pick.
Weak Keyboard: I assume he means SOFTWARE keyboard. We have lots of hardware keyboards for iOS. I was chatting about this subject with someone the other day! This one is a good point. The iOS software keyboard has plenty of oft discussed problems.
Limited Customization: This one is NOT going to change. Apple has been over this subject many times over many years. Apple demands ONE simple user interface that is reliable and identical across all their devices. Tough luck if you want to glamify your Apple gear. “It Just Works” is the mantra, and the latest glitz trend is not allowed to get in the way. Deal with it.
Conclusion: Three WORTHLESS points in the article, typical August Effect In March dreck. One good point. One ‘Suck it up dude! This is Apple Gear!’ point.
Sorry: Make that FOUR WORTHLESS points. I can’t count without my coffee.
Am I crazy, or are there lots of iOS 7 keyboard implementations? Is all this a twisted dream? It seemed so real…
Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > English > Dvorak
My addled, end-of-the-week brain recalls chatting with someone about using small letters on the iOS keyboard for small letters, capital letters for caps. I also heard a valid complaint this week about how its impossible to actually hide the passwords you’re typing into the keyboard because of the, otherwise helpful, enlarging on screen of each key you press AND that letter showing up in-the-clear on screen at the end of the password, as you type.
Otherwise, there are lots of foreign keyboards to choose from already in iOS as well as good old Dvorak.
Typing on the virtual keyboard is vexing on an encased iPhone: at the edges the finger or stylus is impeded. It is one reason I go caseless; another is the raw beauty of the naked machine. It is sculpture that would have had Michelangelo in tears. This stuff is not mere mortal tech but godlike adornment, elixir and tonic, and we don’t even realise it.
It’s a real drag trying to, um, drag apps between pages, too, with a case.
re:
“5. When the OS already has the best keyboard, why would you wan to change it.”
Because it doesn’t have the best keyboard. Pre OS X, all we had to do was drop a keyboard extension in the System folder and we had the Dvorak keyboard. With OS X, we can just choose Dvorak in the same location you choose any language keyboard layout.
iOS has various languages, but you can’t change the software keyboard to Dvorak. Having to use the Victorian era Qwerty layout on the paradigm busting iPhone is, sorry, pathetic.
I don’t know a single person who uses anything other than a standard QWERTY keyboard, and I doubt very much if I could find a single person who even knows what a ‘Dvorak’ keyboard is, in fact most people would say Dvorak is a classic music composer.
I’ve certainly never, ever seen one, in all the years I’ve been around computers.
Just because you have to be in a minority, using something which you think is oh so superior, doesn’t mean Apple, or anyone else has to.
Maybe when every desktop computer ships with one, Apple might change the iOS one.
Until then, fat chance.
Or a crusty old Tech columnist, altho I do know 3-4 people who do use the Dvorak KB
Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > English > Dvorak
It’s like MDN for Android! Just without any facts to back it up.
I see why the dipstick wears a mask, he’d scare his own mother.
“Android, going with a 20.7-MP lens”
Megapixels are NOT embedded in the lens.
This guy is dumber than a doorknob.
20.7 or 40 Megapixels have nothing to do with the quality of the picture or the display either. In fact, the display can suffer with a larger MP because it is interpolated for ANY display and most printouts. What it does give the photographer is the ability to crop good quality clips out of the photograph regardless of how small the cropping.
““Based on everything we know now, the next iPhone will be a year late and a bitcoin short of the competition, doing nothing to slow Apple’s descent from smartphone pioneer to high tech has-been.””
This idiot forgot one thing… It’s an iPhone!
That trumps his six featureless set that he thinks is Apple’s downfall!