It was that time of the year again, where everyone around the world (not just in the tech industry) was jostling to get their hands on the new iPhone(s) at the Apple press event. Well the event has come and gone, and everyone has had their time to digest and think about what we have seen. In response to my esteemed colleague‘s post on his thought on the new iPhones, I thought I would weigh in.
The iPhone 5C
My first thoughts were: “œSo, I‘ve got this iPhone 5 in my hand. It‘s damn beautiful. That being said, the 5C is plastic and has basically the same hardware.“ My conclusion: Apple will finally have an affordable iPhone for the masses. O, how wrong those notions were.
While I am very happy to see Apple trying to expand into a different demographic, I feel they have missed their ultimate goal ““ or rather, will miss their ultimate goal: to expand to new markets. I say this for two reasons. Firstly, while it is $100 cheaper than the 5S, no one in the developed countries where having an iPhone is already a status symbol will flaunt the fact that they can‘t afford the proper iPhone with the 5C. Secondly, it is still too expensive to make inroads into the market they were aiming for ““ India and China.
Don‘t get me wrong, the 5C will sell ““ like all Apple products do ““ but I feel Apple may have had an opportunity to take a massive chunk of Android‘s share in the lower to mid-end market. The 5C is still technically a high-end device ““ iOS7 will still work brilliantly on it ““ it‘s just not the premium device that the 5S is.
I will employ the services of jLe to entertain you with a spoof iPhone 5C commercial:
The iPhone 5S
I‘m not going to talk about all the technicalities of the device at this stage, you probably know all about it already. So what do the changes actually MEAN?
First of all, I‘m a massive fan of the two new colours for the flagship iPhone. From what I can gather so far, not many people agree with me. But that is what the choice is there for.
The fact that the A7 processor in “œtwice as fast“ as the previous A6 iteration and that it uses 64-bit architecture makes it very interesting from the get go. This seems to be Apple philosophy these days: “œWe have the technology, but we will wait until next.“ To be honest, I don‘t really care about that. The iPhone 5 works perfectly well on the A6 chip, and so far the iPhone 5 has been working great with iOS 7 beta. It will be interesting to see what Apple releases to iOS 7 that takes advantage of this processing power ““ unless it is all used with the fingerprint processor.
To be completely honest, I am still waiting for that moment when Apple brings something brilliant to the iPhone. The last time I felt that was when Apple brought, well, the iPhone. I have a lingering feeling that some innovative brains have been shifted to a new project which we don‘t yet know about. The iPhone is a brand in itself, and the innovation is not perhaps needed as much (as long as they don‘t fall behind).
Once again, I leave you with of jLe to entertain you with a spoof iPhone 5S commercial:
Just to clarify before the “˜f‘ word gets flung around (fanboy), I do like Apple products and have worked with many. I have, however, carried Android phones for the last three years.
