Agreed, that looks pretty ugly. iPhone 5 all day, I'm excited to hear about the 5S. I like the S models..
Same model? Just kidding.
Agreed, that looks pretty ugly. iPhone 5 all day, I'm excited to hear about the 5S. I like the S models..
Same model? Just kidding.
Then what did the S in the 3GS stand for? Steve was alive and well when that was released, wasn't he?
What the heck does screen size have to do with the most overused word of the year?I agree.
By the looks of things, and in what has become very predictable move, Apple's retaining it's odd narrow, elongated display.
So much for progress. They can change the insides all they want, but no one cares. So much for innovation.
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S stands for...
It looks the Same.
Nothing new.
That's Apple's (good) problem. They have to speed up the cycles. They used to be able to launch in just a few markets then gradually roll out the rest of the world to beat their revenue numbers quarter after quarter (every quarter, new markets would keep the revenues pouring in). Now they have to roll out to the rest of the world much faster to try to keep beating their revenue targets. And once they've rolled out to much of rest of the world, they have to roll something else out or realize the sales falloff for the period between when it's available everywhere to when the new one is ready to be sold.
In short, the slope of Apple's revenue growth is too steep to keep depending on the products they have to keep setting records. What Apple has been doing is speeding up distribution to new markets to pull what used to be future revenues (by staggering rollouts to new markets) into the present. The problem with this is as described above. Faster rollouts drives record revenues until Apple has rolled out just about everywhere. Then, Apple needs a new version to try to do the same thing again.
What Apple really needs is a next, next big thing... something new to sell to everyone that is not a new version (or size) of an existing "big thing". This model of pulling sales forward by rolling out to new markets can only go so far. Eventually, Apple collides with the limitation of launching today in all countries. A next big thing or two can shore up the revenue growth. But what will that next big thing(s) be?
Why?
It's been made clear the 12-15 month cycle was too slow. I think we'll see new iDevices every 9 or less months from here on out to keep up.
I'd rather see a NEW iPhone 6, 7, 8, ect. every year, and an "S" as a halfway mark upgrade.
When you have a group of customers, who have such empty lives, that they will camp out for a sell phone, you see money. So you cater to them.
.....Given that the origin of the photos is unknown, it is certainly possible that this part is an old iPhone 5 prototype design that was discarded in favor of the design that was ultimately used. Alternatively, the part could also be a fake or a knockoff, although at a glance the part seems to show similar levels of quality to that seen on the genuine iPhone 5 part and a knockoff part intended to be used for replacement on iPhone 5 devices would be certain to retain the arrangement of logic board screw holes.....Article Link: First Claimed Images of iPhone 5S Rear Shell Surface
I have a 4S I bought off contract after selling my 4 and have the upgrade sitting...but I've been very content with my 4S. I had a feeling the 5S rumors would start up at some point, but not this early. Now that I'm on the "S" upgrade cycle, I suppose it isn't very detrimental, seeing that the 4S and 5 (even the 4 to an extent) are still wonderful devices. Truly, what I'm waiting on is a revamped iOS, and I'm excited Ive has taken over. What his team can do with the 4" screen could prove to be very dope, and us 4S users could be primed to upgrade.
I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes an "early-middle 2013" arrival. Maybe in May or even April. Apple knows it can't go beyond 12 months without letting competition gain market ground. Going by tick-tock development, they could push for 6-month releases of iPhones and iPads to squeeze out almost all other competitors by having the most advanced iDevices at the Apple's higher prices.
although at a glance the part seems to show similar levels of quality to that seen on the genuine iPhone 5 part
This strategy could backfire in the long run.
Release the devices too close to the last one and it takes away luster and excitement from the prolonged build-up of anticipation.
Apple would run the risk of Android devices by seeming ho-hum.
- iPad Mini with its intentionally outdated hardware
You're the reason they're developing a new phone: to get the kinks out of the manufacturing process.There was a 3GS after the 3G where the S stood for speed. It has become a marker for an improved model that looks the same as the previous gen.
I don't like this faster release cycle because I haven't even had the time to get a proper iPhone 5 yet. I still have an open case with Apple after my first one had dust under the screen; the second one had a horrible interlacing screen and was dented; the third also had an interlacing screen and a camera lens with at least 50 particles of dust; the forth was a new retail box from China it but can't connect to LTE or 3G for more than a minute and defaults to Edge or GPRS, the camera can't turn on and has pink lines or huge rectangle covering the preview area, and has a screen that's pushed up from underneath creating very uneven backlighting.
I don't even feel like I have a phone that's mine yet since I know I have to get it replaced. I just asked for a refund because something is wrong if I can't get a normal phone after 4 tries so we'll see what the support tech says.
That's true... a PERSON only buys a new phone once every 2 years.
But PEOPLE buy cell phones every single day.
You can pick any day on the calendar... and there are millions of people ready to upgrade.
In other words.... someone would be ready to buy any new phone Apple offered at any given time.
OK, since you're such an expert, tell us what the next big thing in phones is that Apple should have, that ISN"T in the iPhone5.
The 4GPP roadmaps are publicly available. R11 (finalized in late 2012) is known, R12 is known approximately, R10 has chips being designed for it. What's in these releases?
(a) Lots of happy talk about bonding together more and more frequency bands to speed up HSPA+ and LTE. Nice --- but irrelevant until the telcos have the bands available. So that ain't gonna ship soon.
(b) A bunch of stuff on the TELCO side for improving networks. More SON (self-operating/organizing/optimizing network) --- basically a network that can configure itself rather than being manually configured. Better interference cancellation/avoidance. Inter- and intra-cell co-ordination to improve reception at cell edges. More use of micro, pico and femto cells. Nothing requiring changes in the phone.
(c) Optimistic projections about the use of 4 stream MIMO. This is the most interesting stuff; but it doesn't make sense to put it in the phone until the telcos support it, and I'm unaware that they have plans to do so --- right now they seem to have their hands full with basic LTE rollout.
So what do you imagine a better phone would do?
There are two obvious directions a phone could go today to stand out.
One would be to add a third diversity antenna for cell reception. I'd love to see Apple do this, but doing it well would require support in the chipset, which means it doesn't happen until Qualcomm wants it to happen. You could do it in a lame way, using a very crude metric to switch between two of the three antennas every ms or so. I would not be surprised to see the Android vendors do this soon; but Apple tends to avoid hacky solutions that offer bragging rights but only a minor improvement in performance, so I expect they'd wait until Qualcomm has a chip that handles the diversity.
Similarly, Apple could add a second WiFi antenna and double the WiFi throughput. I imagine this hand been avoided (by everyone) because of the extra power it would consume, so once again we're limited by what Broadcom is shipping. Once again, you could add a second diversity antenna and switch based on crude metrics. Once again, I'd expect to see that in Android before Apple.
Beyond that:
screen is good enough, camera is good enough, CPU and GPU are good enough. flash could do with a speed boost, but is basically good enough.
There just is nothing it makes sense to change before the usual update cycle.
Look at the Nokia 920 and then try to beat it.
Wireless charging, screen sensitive enough for touch with gloves on, NFC, awesome night camera (aka optical stabilization). Change the body design from just white and black. Improve durability so you DONT need to buy a cover every single time you buy an iphone.
There is PLENTY of stuff apple can work on, "just good enough" sounds like a lazy excuse for any company.
While you may not see or understand the benefits of it just yet, once it's adopted by more manufacturers the advantages will be obvious. Wireless charging most certainly has a place in the near future.Wireless charging strikes me as completely pointless.