Discussion on:

Apple iPhone 5: Guaranteed to disappoint

In the long run it won't matter whether it's an evolution or revolution. It will sell just as many phones either way, with lots of people thrilled and lots of people disappointed. Good, bad or indifferent -- millions of people will buy it just because it's an iPhone.

These types of comment amaze me as a Smartphone developer. When I read this, "millions of people will buy it just because it's an iPhone." I think 14 year old writing. People purchase the iPhone for value received not for Hype as the Anti-fanbois imply. I always wonder why it is the least informed with the strongest opinions.

They will buy it just because it's an iPhone. When our contract was up back in June we upgraded to smartphones. My wife opted to shell out $150 for the 4S just because that's what all her friends told her she should get. I settled on $25 for a Motorola droid. My phone does everything hers does and more (except talk back to me) and does it faster. It has a slightly bigger screen. It takes better pictures. It has a better GPS. The sound quality is better. etc. I find the iPhone frustrating to use because it only has 1 button so navigation is tricky at best. I just don't see what the big draw is for an iPhone.

She's the one using it all the time; how loudly does SHE complain about the things you mentioned?

She likes it BUT she has said that it's not as anywhere near as fantastic as everyone claimed it would be. She seriously questions if it was worth spending almost 10x the price of a droid. So, yes, I would say she is somewhat disappointed.

I am an iphone enthusiast However I have been using a droid for about 9 months, and to be honest, The droid blows the IPhone out of the water, especially when it comes to price and being on a 4g network. I just wish that some of the makers of the droid phones would take just a little time and care when it comes to the cameras in them, Iphone beats everyone hands down in that department. Droid would also be smart to have something like Itunes , so your downloads and uploads arent scattered all over your computer!!!

Google Music is Google's answer to iTunes/iTunes Match (iTunes in the cloud). Google Music; however, gives you awesome features for free... iTunes Match, you pay yearly for pretty much the same thing. To start using Google Music, look it up on the desktop and download the Google Music Manager. Google Music is cloud based and can be accessed by all your Android/Computer devices and can hold up to 20,000 songs of your uploaded, or purchased music... it treats your music the same as purchased music, unlike iTunes (always HATED that method w/ iTunes). I tossed out iTunes as soon as a less controlled, more versatile and open music environment came along - Google Music. Has a decent content store as well.

I am a iPhone fan since I got my first 3GS but I love the wife example. thanks for the smile.

I'm happy you have a job, but you say it with such pride. Yet we don't accord garbage handlers the same level of dignity, since some work is valued more than others...

Are you sure you're not the one who is least informed with the strongest opinion? I know a lot of people personally who will buy one simply because it is an iPhone. They don't even care what it's supposed to do, or even if it's an improvement over their old iPhone. They're not buying it for the value REceived, they're buying it for the value PERceived. It's called "marketing," and its only purpose is to convince people to buy a product.

Hey guys, I know a lot of you are disappointed with the new iPhone haha, but I'd like to share my unboxing video with you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ZjaGd56u4

I'm gonna have a lot more iPhone videos up soon. Thanks!

That's a 4S, you can't fool me

Sure looks like a 5 to me. 4S has a bright frame.
Only the white iPhone 5 has a bright frame.

It will be once, once Samsung sues Apple for infringing on their LTE patent, then it'll be the same old, slow 4S.

So you're starting the "disappointing" iphone conversation already? You do remember how stupid all the "iphone 4s is disappointing" pundits were, right? The 4S was *so* disappointing, it was the fastest selling iphone model ever...

Do y'all ever get tired of being wrong (every. single. time)?

I think you are very wrong about the naming issue. The iPad is set to replace the laptop and desktop down the road, and in that sense the naming system is being repositioned to be more like the naming of the iMac or MBP. The phone on the other hand is competing within the phone arena, and will continue to have some designation, especially as long as carriers offer the older models at lower prices. To suggest that iPhone naming will follow the lead of the iPad displays a lack of understanding of these two products in the bigger scheme of things.

As for evolutionary vs revolutionary, you are definitely right on. The new iPhone will build upon its predecessor in some important ways, but those people who want to see magic, it will be labeled as disappointing. Every iphone has, and everyone has out sold its predessesor However Apple doesn't need to revolutionize the phone market. It already did that, and it's phone remains the industry standard. Evolution is enough to remain the leader AND more importantly, meet the needs of users who are real people, not pundits who need to generate a reason for their own position.

Where are you going to cram 3072 video processors in an iPad, and how will you have a battery and manage the heat?
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-690/specifications

Or do you think that geforce card will fit in a laptop?

There may be a day where hybrids replace the laptop, but they definitely won't be replacing the desktop any time soon. That's what Slayer was saying.

I said, "eventually". Personally, I expect it within 15 years--maybe 10. Desktops will be far different from what we're looking at today... Probably wedge-shaped with a touch display built-in and either a slide-out keyboard or the USB-equivalent connector for an external keyboard--all designed to be in easy reach for text or touch entry. The odds are that speech to text will be more reliable and efficient so that even keyboards will be the exception rather than the rule, though the users will likely be sub-vocalizing through throat mics.

Anyone contemplate the possible fallout from the Samsung court case. I am not an Apple follower, but last I heard, Samsung manufactures a lot of components for Iphone. If they wanted to be spiteful and cut off their own nose at the same time they could slow down delivery of required modules. Just a thought.

Is that selected Samsung Products are not sold in the US most other parts of the world where the Cases have been finalized have come out radically differently to the US Rilling.

If that was to happen all that would happen is that Samsung stops selling some products in the US and causes people in the US to suffer with second rate technology with no competition that the rest of the world has.

You don't need to be Uncle Albert to realize just how bad this is for Apple and the US Market.

Col

Completely agree, though I don't really blame Apple for the situation. The patents for the contested technologies should never have been granted in the first place. How is it possible for anyone to patent a rectangle with rounded corners? What bit of tech' do you own that has sharp edges? I'm looking at my desk now and I can see one (a designer HDD). Everything else is a rectangle with rounded corners. Insane!

If I invent a device to transport matter from one place to another then I would expect to get a patent. I wouldn't expect that patent to be based on the fact that I used an interface that looks like every other interface in common usage today, that it had a button in the middle, or because the screen had rounded curves. The patent system itself is the problem here.

"device to transport matter from one place to another"
LOL. Now someone will try it. OH or are you talking about one that fits in your pocket and does it without using muscles? Fat chance. What we need is more muscle power and less of this tech crap like a new iPhone every year. Whatever happened to talking on a landline? Insane.

If you look over the individual patents, I agree -- there's not much there that should have been granted. And no surprise this has gone the other way most of the rest of the world.

But here's the thing... even without the patents, Samsung certainly isn't without guilt, and probably not without legal liability. It's very clear, looking at the "rubber band" patent, the "black" and "white" iPhone design patents, and the icon patent, that Samsung was trying to look like the iPhone. Those complaints can' t be made about other Android devices. In fact, just yesterday, I was looking at friends Galaxy SII and iPhone 4S compared to my Galaxy Nexus. Running stock Android, it's very odd that aspects of the GUI have the SII and iPhone looking more closely related than the Nexus. Samsung spent lots of time making their "TouchWiz" GUI shell look iPhone-like.

That, plus the mechanical design, put the box, plus a bunch of other things, could very likely be held to mimic Apple's "Trade Dress", even without a single individual patent, trademark, or copyright violation. Basically, if you intentionally try to make your product look too much like a competitor's, particularly something iconic like the iPhone, that's it's own special kind of illegal in the USA. I have no love for the nonsense expressed in most of those patents, but I would be surprised if Samsung had escaped entirely, either. And they shouldn't -- no one should be uglifying Android with iOS nonsense.

One sure thing about this case -- this has certainly awakened the mobile industry to the need for design patents. That may have the same potential for landmines in the market as have software patents, particularly because there's far less of a "proof of infringement" on a design patent... it's a matter of degree, opinion, one prominent difference in an otherwise clone, etc. But it's going to be much harder for everyone, including Apple, to deviate far from their existing designs without stepping on others' toes. In fact, for all we know, the new iPhone will be different enough for Apple to get slapped with a lawsuit by someone who "owns" that shape. Not to encourage that, but it would be a special kind of karma.

Gone are the days of Patenting Inventions now they are Inventing Patents.

After all it's much cheaper for the companies to Patent some that is Touchy Feely rather than actually invent something.

Col

Large companies come with their own legal departments. Those lawyers need work to do, and found it in patent development.

Some of this always went on. But in the early 1980s, the US PTO officially started allowing software patents, and there was kind of a gold rush. Particularly given that the PTO didn't have any examiners "skilled in the art'... so lots of really heinous patents were getting approved, because the examiners on hand didn't understand software.

This kind of lead many of these companies to the mentality of working the system, and claiming any possible patents, rather than working on things recognized as really "invention-worthy". As you can see in some of the Apple patents, too, they're starting to write patents for trial as well as the examiner. They know that non-engineers will be judging the worthiness of any patents that go to trial. Making them even more overly complex, saying things in 100 words when 10 will do, obfuscating the actual invention, etc. is very effective here.

Apple recently got a patent for a device that can disable phones' features remotely.

ZDNet had an article entitled "apple-patent-could-remotely-disable-protesters-phone-cameras-7000003640" recently... it's worth finding and reading...

most of us could fathom this stuff but don't have the money to make patents and then cash in when someone else does the work to make the fantasy a reality. Just like Star Trek TNG's PADDs... or, rather, iPADDs...

On the plus side, the FBI will probably pay royalties, on top of the usual subsidies, handouts, and other entitlements, to Apple as such...

Where Samsung used to provide 80% of Apple's components, that's been reduced to about 30% or so where Samsung, for now, is the only company able to provide what Apple needs. Yes, Samsung could cut them off--and be sued for breach of contract.

Reuters put out an article saying Apple said Samsung raising prices solely on Apple was "unfair". Gee, who said Samsung had to put out the same price for everyone across the globe?

Apple wants it both ways. And it will blame customers when knowingly putting out poorly designed materials. Remember "YOU'RE HOLDING IT WRONG!!"? If you or I, as managers or CEOs, yelled at customers like that, how long would we have any say in anything?

Yet people give that unethical company, Apple, praise. Apple is ironic as well, as it did the same thing to Xerox that they're suing Samsung over (looking at someone else's product and making their own version/copy of it with other features...)

As I will never buy anything Apple - the World's worst IT bully boy.

Doesn't really matter, at least not to my relatives who are undying fans of everything Apple. They could just package poop, stamp the Apple logo on it, and sell it as iPhone 5 and my cousins would still buy it, all the time waxing poetic about how great the new iPhone is!

Unnecessary changes like Nano-SIM's and the barking mad dock connector change suck ass, and will just irritate and inconvenience people - the dock one especially when a generation of stuff won;t now work, or will need an adapter to keep it going. Expensive/premium stuff like SoundDock's esp,

4G for most, even in the US/Canada, is an irrelevance, when getting any 3G is a huge problem for many. I live in pretty flat geography about 2 miles from one of the busiest motorway junctions in the UK - M6/M1, and my Vodafone 3G connection seems to vary with the blowing of the wind - it's horrendous. O2 (Telefonica), T-Mobile/Orange and 3 are little better - it's 2G EDGE most of the time. 4G, which will take a decade to build out, does nothing for me without a whole new generation of phone hardware.

.. do you think they should keep the same connector? 5 years, 10 years, forever?

If we did that, we'd all still be using 80 Baud serial ports to connect our devices and rotary dial phones. Got to draw a line at some point and move forwards.

You can argue both ways on this, citing other connectors that have not changed in years as fit for purpose - USB, wall power, wall phone, Ethernet RJ45 etc...

However in the case of the Apple Doc connector, there is no real driver/forward move for a change to a smaller connector, unless there is some secret change that power and data does not already supply ??!?!

. It's already pretty small, and there is little uplift from a form factor change - Note they did irritatingly muck about a little about 6 years ago when they removed the F|irewire power from it - an Apple Ipod HiFi won't chare an IOS device, but will an iPod G5 video for example. It's also pretty robust and give a generally firm connection - In comparison Android/WP are poorly served by the dock market for their devices which seem to change willy-nilly - Mini USB, Micro USB, Blackberry/Kindle connector. My 2 children's Nintendo DS and DSi's with different dock are a pain in the arse when going anywhere as you need both PSU;s, as they change it for no reason too.

there is no reason for them to change it. Your examples (Android phones, DSi etc) changed due to the marketplace. Everyone has moved to MicroUSB at this point. Apple could do the same but wants to make more money (and hey, more power to 'em!) on the new peripherals.

Licensing, and a little chip within one of the ends that renders it an "authorized" cable. Control and therefore profiteering that goes from it. It's not far different than paying royalties to the patents Apple worked so hard to wor... I mean buy and then troll with.

Some people claim that cable adapters will be made so that people can use their existing older cables. That defeats the purpose of the new design...

Anti-trust anyone ?

Adapters - more so you can continue to use your expensive Bose Sounddock, or other bits of kit. They are going to look fab with an adapter collar, which will no doubt come loose each time you remove the iDevice.

Why do we even have connectors? You should be able to drop it on a pad and it should charge and sync without any connectors. This is the 21st century. And to make this work better, they need to redo their 'sync' method, to much redundant data being moved around. It should not backup every time you have to connect. They need to redo their sync setup.

Slim is better. The 3G form factor was better than the 4. It fit you hand better. Less bulk is always better.

Especially when you consider how many different USB connectors there are right now. I've got four different devices that use USB to transfer data--two cameras and two camcorders--and every one of them uses a different USB connector to plug into the computer. That's hardly what I would call standardization on the device end and the iPhone/iPod Touch is a device, not a hub or base station. It's still a conventional USB connector at the other end.

You might also want to note that you're complaining about what many used to call a "much too big" 30-pin connector to now a 9-pin connector (according to rumor). What you and others refuse to acknowledge is that the 30-pin connector on the iPhone/iPad allowed connection to a plethora of external devices that all have different connectors of their own, like the SVGA/digital video connectors of displays and projectors, line-out audio to automotive and other home stereo equipment (such as all those docking accessories?) and other things. Because VGA/SVGA is essentially obsolete and other standards have replace it, Apple has decided there is no longer any need to continue support for it. That alone kills the need for... what, 21 pins?

To think that Apple is making this change just to be annoying is the height of conceit on your part.

Yes, but computer end which is mainly what I was meaning remains the same, USB3 devices will run on USB1/2 ports.

Dock 30pin-->9 pin

Whynot list stuff you may have that will not fit and need replaced

- Apple IOS device DV adapter (HDMI) adapter top of the list for me

A quick rummage on the Apple UK website for 30 PIN dock accessories...

-B & W Zepplin Dock
- Soulo Wireless Mic
- Withings Smart Blood pressure monitor
- Discovery Bay Atari Aercade Doc
- ION Piano Apprentice
- Numark DJ Live
- Elgato EyeTV Mobole
- iRig MIDI interface
- Medisana ThermoDock
- Medisano Cardio dock
-Apogee JAN Guitar

andthat is just on the Top Seller's page....

It's certainly not conceit on my part, it's wanton wholesale junking of tons stuff that even Apple are still merrily selling in the Apple Store.

that the iPad's connector has the 'conventional' USB connector on the computer end. The iPad is currently a 'computer supplemental device', though admittedly it has far more capability (if not the OS) of the old 286 PCs.

Changing the connector is removing no-longer-necessary connectivity to the older-style sVGA and digital video 21-pin connectors. It's not up to computer maker to cater to third-party peripheral makers, it's up to those makers to adapt to the computer's abilities. The old Serial, Parallel and even SCSI connectors died in much the same way 15 years ago.

" it's wanton wholesale junking of tons stuff that even Apple are still merrily selling in the Apple Store. "
Not junk, they buy it back for almost nothing and sell it as lucky to be available right here at retail...net better margins than anything else..lead to gold is the apple way. Jobs, the p-o'd, father-rejected orphan child is smiling right now, getting even. Tragic, the closed system of the cave.

You made a fair analogy, but did not prove how Apple's altering the design fits your analogy. How does the new cable run so much faster, as opposed to a 300 baud modem versus an 80 baud one?

What, apart from squeezing out 3rd party cable manufacturers, and customers who don't want to replace expensive cables with far more expensive ones because that's also wasteful to the environment (and noting who is on Apple's board of directors, but I digress), rendered the need to "improve" the cable design? Please tell us, especially as you made the analogy so you must have the relevant documentation to give weight to it.