NEWS ANALYSIS How drastically could they really change the phone at this point to really blow both critics and die-hard fans away?
Once again, we find ourselves at the end of the almost ritual-like iPhone cycle. First the rumours begin, and then, after an agonising wait, we find out for ourselves what Apple has cooked up over the last one-year. Lastly, we all watch as it becomes the biggest-seller across U.S. and Europe, just as Christmas hits.
This time, however, it seems as if something was missing, almost as if it was a little less magical. After all, what could one truly expect after five years? How drastically could they really change the phone at this point to really blow both critics and die-hard fans away? Make it faster, perhaps? Cram in a better camera and adopt newer technologies such as the much-vaunted LTE?
A common critique of Apple is that it is following in the footsteps of BMW and Porsche — constantly refining its flagship, but never reinventing. Apple’s marketing team, borrowing from their late founder’s philosophy, responds to this by maintaining that the company is at its best when making something that works (albeit with a state-of-the-art user experience) — not something with more bells and whistles than the other guys. They might miss the mark occasionally, but they still hit it so much more frequently than the competition. But surely this doesn’t leave much wiggle room for innovating on the current line-up? If the iPhone ‘just works’ and there is no need to add more bells and whistles, then eventually other phone makers will leave them in the dust. While it still remains a great phone, not innovating on old products seems like an out-dated business model as it only leaves room for new products and at a 2 per cent R&D budget they don’t seem to be headed that way just yet.
Apple got where it was by taking risks. Its sales are now booming, with net profit margins of nearly 30 per cent. And let’s not forget — this is a near miracle in the consumer electronics hardware business. The latest updates for the iPhone 5 are ones that customers have been screaming for over the last year or so. The move to expand the iPhone’s screen is one that rivals adopted, in the tech-cycle, ages ago.
Steve Jobs was definitely right about one thing: waiting for the average customer to tell you what they want doesn’t get you anywhere. Why has this changed now?
Keywords: iPhone 5, Apple products, Apple iPhone
Well Bhushan, if it's a copy, how come the copied models come years before the iPhone. I remember a far better model from HTC that my friend had about 4 years back. Here's one more: All leading mobile vendors agree on a common micro usb for external connection (like power charging)and here we are seeing a totally new connection port in iPhone 5. On top of that Apple releases an adaptor for 30 bucks (Can't they just throw in the adaptor as part of the phone?). I'm sure it wouldn't cost them more than few cents to bulk produce them. And still we are expecting some magic from Apple? It's how Apple operates. The only saving factor for iPhone is the thousands of apps that are available.
@Kanwar
May be you didn't see the introduction of Lumia 920 and 820. Especially 920 is a very high end phone that has higher resolution than iphone 5 (yes, read the specs). And does Widows Phone UI has any resemblance with iPhone? Heck no. Rather than having bunch of dumb icons, Windows Phone has Live Tiles that has continuous streaming of updated information. When I launch the home page, I know that I have comments from facebook, latest emails on my multiple email accounts. Especially I can pin specific folder to know that I have important emails to read straight away. I know, I have latest news to read on the favorite topics.. I definitely agree that when iphone was introduced in 2006 it was revolutionary thinking and I had iPhone for myself. Microsoft missed the boat that time. But they have done phenomenal job now. They deserve full credit for that. Android is copy cat of iOS. But, Samsung is really making cool phones and their hardware features are definitely better than iPhone.
Yes - iPhone5 doesn't have the wow feel. But still I am upgrading my
iPhone4 to iPhone5 because currently no other smart phone is nearly as
good as iPhone4. I desperately wanted to switch to non-apple phone
because i do not like lot of apple policies like not having flash
support, FM radio, no direct song transfers and lot of other things.
I don't know what people expects from Apple? iPhone 5 is an awesome phone.
Compare it with any phone across the globe which are foolishly copied from Apple, i
bet nothing will emulate to iPhone standard.
iPhone 5 is another hit product of Apple, and it's gonna rock once again the moment
it'll hit the market.
That Apple was NOT going to take a dramatic innovative jump was obvious from its strong
pursuit of legal measures against Samsung rather than focusing on newer products and
innovations. They have probably realized that there is only so much you can do with a cell
phone. Accordingly the next steps will be baby steps of tweaking the existing product line up.
The zigzagging on iPod nano front is a good example of how Apple is not immune to making
mistakes and that its successes are projected strongly enough to make the market forget its
failures. Post Jobs, there will be more of the latter than the former. In this context preventing
your competitor from Introducing attractive products is as important as making improvements
yourself. Restraining your competition has the added advantage of making your own market
position that much more viable. Hence Apple's very aggressive stand on copyrights.
Thanks for articulating so lucidly the sense of "underwhelming" that I suffered for the past day! I felt the new iPhone was simply a a "Johnny-grew-up" model... Like a teenager moving into adulthood, the new iPhone is a bit awkward (disproportionate size), still a child in its
thinking (antiquated iOS still having no widgets), and way too expensive ...
Apple sells drastically overpriced items which some irrationalists
'fans' buy and thus contributing to the economic imbalance.
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