[LINK] iPhone 5 … Problematic

[Frank O'Connor]

On 13/09/2012, at 4:56 PM, Ivan Trundle <ivan at itrundle.com> wrote:

> On 13/09/2012, at 3:26 PM, "Frank O'Connor" <francisoconnor3 at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
>> It may be just me, but I think Apple may have shot itself in the foot a bit with the new iPhone.
> 
> Every new generation of Apple's iPhone has sold roughly the same number as all previous generations combined (Phil Schiller, under oath). 
> 
> Think about what this means - I suspect that their feet are firmly planted out of firing range. 

Oh I've got no doubt they'll sell a squillion of them. I do however think they may have a few problems with the unlocked variant in the first few months ... if my ringing around of telcos is indicative.

That said ... the iPhone 5 is an incremental improvement an hardware wise (with the exception of screen resolution) is playing catch up with its competitors.

> 
> The lightning connector is no small change, and I am 100% sure that a company like Apple thought long and hard about the change.

What added performance does it give? What does it add to the iPhone experience? Is what it adds balanced against the various hardware incompatibility issues it creates.

Apple's ostensible reason (indeed its only stated reason) for introducing it is because it is more robust than the the 30 pin connectors ... not as susceptible to damage. I mean, this is what Apple said during the big shindig this morning. It doesn't add a droplet of data transmission performance. Nor a skerrick of added battery power up capability. Nor the ability to run more third party devices devices from its own power (Hey, it is another Apple proprietary standard we're talking about here ... and you know what happens to third parties who tread on those without permission.) It doesn't add anything that the 30 pin connector didn't do.

Not, IMHO, a good enough reason to introduce a new proprietary standard. Especially if it's gonna cost your clientele for no benefit.

For my money (and I've used Apple hardware since the late 1970's, I've written for Macintosh magazines, I've run Apple based bulletin boards and an ISP service and the like - so I'm not an Apple hater by any means) the iPhone 5 is the least attractive iPhone upgrade I've seen since the iPhone was first introduced ... probably because Apple is so intent on proprietising everything from cable interfaces, to SIM's, to Maps, to whatever and locking people into its ecology that its lost sight of providing customer value and seamlessly integrating that ecology. Apple's trying to be all things and define standards at the transport and engineering levels, but its not as good at some things as the specialists.

For me, the iPhone 5 actually makes Android an attractive alternative. As I said in another post ... your mileage may differ ... but this is just my 2 cents worth ...