iPhone 5 – Will not be impressive
The iPhone 5 is scheduled for release in September 2012. “iPhone 5” has started popping up as a highly searched term already in Google, following several months of rumors.
Interestingly, one of the rumors is that Apple themselves are causing a lot of the rumors by leaking information for free attention. No-one ever said Apple weren’t good at marketing.
iPhone 5 – not impressive – Rocky 5 – not impressive
Rocky V was a rubbish film. Police Academy 5 was awful. If I start to talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, you can probably see where I’m going with this.
When you get to the fifth evolution of anything, doing something ‘new and improved’ gets tough. And the Apple iPhone 5 is, in the opinion of this Whatphone contributor, a good example of when the fifth iteration was hard.
At Whatphone, we have considered the commonalities in the iPhone 5 rumours of features. And, frankly, some of the Whatphone team are not that impressed with the talk about the new device.
Since our role at Whatphone is to help you decide what smartphone is right for you, we wanted to explore the other side of the Apple iPhone 5 launch. The side which says the new iPhone 5 is no biggie.
iPhone 5 – new features are boring
- A bit bigger screen : Compared to the Samsung Galaxy SIII, a device the Whatphone team see as one of the iPhone5’s major competitors, the rumoured iPhone 5’s 4.0 inch screen, is still not going to be that impressive. While the iPhone 5 has 4.0 inches diagonally, the Samsung Galaxy SII has 4.8 inches. This might seem a small difference but, cracking out the schoolboy maths, that difference could result in as much as a 40% more screen real estate on the Galaxy !On top of that, Android devices offer a range of screen sizes already, to suit any hand or pocket size. The screen size on current Android products range from 3.7 inches on the HTC One V through Samsung Galaxy SII at 4.3 inches, the HTC One X at 4.7 inch screen, up to the 5.3 inch Samsung Galaxy Note.While the older and lower end devices ( Galaxy SII and HTC One V ) have lower resolution than the rumours suggest the iPhone 5 will have, those that Whatphone would consider direct competitors for the iPhone 5 – the HTC 1X, Note and Gal SIII all have better pixel density.
- A screen which is clearer : “In cell technology’ from the iPhone 5’s screen manufacturers removes 0.5mms of the touch interface which previously sat between the user and the screen itself. Half a millimeter. While we’re open to seeing the results, this seems like a marginal improvement at best and the Super AMOLED screens on the Samsung Galaxy SIII / Super LCD screen on the HTC One X are, honestly, stunning to watch video on.
- Quad Core Processor : Quad core is the new higher end standard. Both the Samsung Galaxy SIII and HTC One X ( 3G version ) have Quad Core. The truth is that the benefits to the user of Quad core at this time are questionable. Potentially, sharing out the processing required for calculation intensive tasks like video editing might extend the battery life instead of ‘revving’ one or two processors too high. But really, until the software developers get their heads around how to use this improved processing power, it’s marketing bumph. Having Quad Core processors in the iPhone 5 is not an earth shattering thing.
- LTE Capabilities : LTE just means really fast wireless network data access. An increasing proportion of devices have LTE capabilities and they’re starting to become worthwhile with Optus recently launching LTE capabilities in Sydney and Perth after a successful trial in Newcastle. Remember though, in large part, the benefits of LTE come from the operators. Apple are just using them – and LTE capabilities do not set the Apple iPhone 5 apart from the Android ( or for that matter Windows Mobile ) range. Android devices have been doing this for months !
- New connector : 8 pins instead of 30. Brilliant. So none of the existing accessories we use for charging our iPhones will work then.
iPhone 5 – the software better be good
Unless there is a serious software upgrade associated with these hardware ‘evolutions’ ( some would argue that this is just the iPhone 5 hardware keeping up with industry trends ) then, in my view, the iPhone 5 will be a boring, disappointing device launch.
iPhone 5 – Apple can change the world
Don’t get me wrong. Apple can blow your socks off with a world changing idea, embodied in their technology releases, which solves a problem people have and makes planet earth a better place to be. There has been some talk of 3D mapping and 3D photography in the iPhone 5.
It’s possible that Siri will become a holographic monkey butler and if he / she does, that would be pretty darn cool.
But Apple :
- If you want to pay your CEO half a billion dollars a year,
- If you want to keep your tens of millions of units shipped a year going,
- If you want to sustain your remarkable sales and share price growth,
- Then you have got to do more than follow the Android pack and launch another product which fails to impress.
iPhone 5 – Apple creating their own problem
It’s possible that Apple are creating their own problem here. By designing and building iPhones like the iPhone 5 which are simple to use and a ‘reliable’, ‘low risk’ first time purchase for Smartphone buyers, they could be educating the world on the value a Smartphone can add to their lives.
Initially, perhaps, people see the Apple infrastructure and often talked of ‘ecosystem’ as a ‘safe’ place to play when they’re learning to ride their Smartphone.
But, sooner or later, unless Apple innovates, like it ‘used’ to, and keeps pace with the Android device ranges’ flexibility in form factor and user experience, hardware / software capabilities and configurability, the iPhone is going to be surpassed as the Smartphone benchmark.
My personal point of view is that’s already happened.
Aug ’12
Written by:
Kurt Hands