[LINK] iPhone 5 … Problematic

[Frank O'Connor]

It may be just me, but I think Apple may have shot itself in the foot a bit with the new iPhone.

Yes it's an incremental improvement on the iPhone 4S, but the haphazard way apps will handle the extra screen size (with black space filling in the bits), and the hamstrung new Maps (that don't offer a number of features available in the Google product ... Street View being my favourite) and general apps lameness (some of those puppies seem to be solutions in search of problems) seem an example of bloat without really researching what users want.

The hardware is cool ... but most of it has been done before. The quicker A6 CPU is nice, but the phone doesn't really need the extra grunt, the 4" screen follows what HTC and Samsung have done for the last 18 months, the camera is still stuck at 8MP (when competitors offer 10 MP or better) and 3 microphones seems like a bit of overkill, but what the heck.

That said, the two major deal killers as far as I'm concerned are the Nano-SIM and the Lighting port. 

Using the Nano-SIM means that I'd somehow have to find a major telco shop that had some to spare for prepaid customers like myself (I don't want to get into long term plans with locked hardware) ... which is unlikely for many months now (and Apple is the ONLY manufacturer as far as I know that's transitioned to the Nano-SIM ... so it's not likely to be a huge priority to get them available in supermarkets, regional telco shops and the like).

The Lightning Port means that my speaker dock, my recharge docks and yes the scarce USB ports on my 'puter, are either obsolete or have to be fitted with the adapter, that Apple makes available for $35, to work. And whilst that adapter is attached I can't use that device/dock for the 30 pin devices I have - an iPod and an iPad and an old iPhone. It makes what had been a pretty integrated seamless ecology fragmented and annoying.

Normally, I would have upgraded without question (it's been two and a half years since my last mobile upgrade) but now I'm looking at either waiting for an extended period before I do upgrade, or going the Android route with Samsung or HTC.

The thing that really hurts is that i can't for the life of me see ANY technical advantage to the Nano-SIM or the Lightning port. Neither adds ANY user value at all. Indeed ... as I said, they subtract value and actually provide a disincentive for people to purchase the unlocked iPhone.

Just my 2 cents worth ...