"Apple playing catch up"... no, they're playing smart.

[MasterHowl]

I've read a lot on Twitter, BBC News, and MacRumours (and other news sites) this morning about how Apple are "playing catch up" with Samsung, HTC and other other companies with respect to the iPhone 5 screen size.

It's unbelievable how many time I've read "... still not as big as other leading phones...", "...still smaller than a lot of other touch screen phones..." etc etc etc.

Since when did biggest screen = best phone?

If Apple was playing catch up, it would have made the screen the same size, if not bigger, than the SIII (which is portrayed as been the standard for smart phones a lot of the time). In my opinion, Apple played it smart. They could have quite easily made the screen larger in both dimensions, and generated a massive "wow factor" after the keynote in the media and got a massively positive reaction. But at the end of the day, it's how the phone feels when it's in the individual consumers hand (and Apple know this), which is why they went for function over aesthetics.

And as for people complaining about "the interface been outdated" because "it's been virtually unchanged since 2007", get a grip. The operating system works, brilliantly. It's not the operating system's job to wow people, it's the apps. Luckily, with an iPhone, you have access to the worlds best App Store! So the operating system can just do its job of working well and providing a stable platform for apps, while the apps provide all the fun.

Saying this, there's still room for some added features, like settings toggles in notification centre, as well as music controls... I'm betting they'll include that in iOS 7.

I think once the media and a lot of people get over the initial "disappointment" of the keynote last night and this phone gets into peoples hands, the general attitude towards the iPhone 5 will change. It looks like an amazing phone, and although I won't be getting one (bought a 4S in February), I'm certainly looking forward to see what else Apple will do to refine and enhance it with the "5S"

 

[JesalTV]

Your first point is valid, but the iOS defence is nonsense. They have to move with the times and work harder. Jelly Bean is damn good.

Gotta admit, Scott Forstall looked heartbroken yesterday. He just didn't seem into the iOS, as if he knew that it just wasn't that impressive - and there was NOTHING new from the initial offering in June.

It's true that the Apps are the most important thing, but Apple barely even get that right. Their Podcasts app is a joke, they hardly ever do anything to Mail, Music, Weather, Stocks, the notification centre is basic as... The Maps app has been forced upon them, and hopefully they've done a decent job. Otherwise, when paying so much money, it's not unreasonable to expect certain things.

They are finally giving iTunes app a refresh and it's about time. They are seriously underdeveloping their own apps, which is unacceptable.

Still think the iPhone 5 might now have the "wow" factor but it is impressive.

 

[eastercat]

Jelly Bean is damn good.

Yeah, but who has it? Not the s3. They're in limbo, last I heard. Since the bootloader is locked, you can't even hack it.
When the biggest selling android phone can't get the latest os, something is wrong.

 

[HeyGreggie]

Your first point is valid, but the iOS defence is nonsense. They have to move with the times and work harder. Jelly Bean is damn good.

Gotta admit, Scott Forstall looked heartbroken yesterday. He just didn't seem into the iOS, as if he knew that it just wasn't that impressive - and there was NOTHING new from the initial offering in June.

It's true that the Apps are the most important thing, but Apple barely even get that right. Their Podcasts app is a joke, they hardly ever do anything to Mail, Music, Weather, Stocks, the notification centre is basic as... The Maps app has been forced upon them, and hopefully they've done a decent job. Otherwise, when paying so much money, it's not unreasonable to expect certain things.

They are finally giving iTunes app a refresh and it's about time. They are seriously underdeveloping their own apps, which is unacceptable.

Still think the iPhone 5 might now have the "wow" factor but it is impressive.

I just need to know exactly what times are we moving in? I understand this is a smart phone, but ghesh. As a kid, I remember wanting to talk to people face to face like Simon Pheonix on Demolition Man.. Now I can.

The iphone has plenty of features, enough for the standard phone user. Some things honestly.. arent necessary to have on a mobile phone. You don't need a 16-20MP camera, then expect it to be thin & light. You don't need a 3d cell phone. You can get a tablet [ipad, ipad mini] if you want a phone with a 4.8 inch screen and have it wide in width.

I jut think the things Android has put in their phones, some are nice, but honestly, people use and eventually... get over. As with other phones. Remember when folks had sidekicks and thought AIM was Gods greatest gift? A/S/L? Do most use it now? No.

Moving with the times doesnt necessarily mean move in the same direction. Sometimes you can be innovative by simply improving functions that make the person using it, more productive. A trait Apple focused on from the shape of the phone, down to software, and not the hardware upgrades.. every year.

 

[Meanee]

Yeah, but who has it? Not the s3. They're in limbo, last I heard. Since the bootloader is locked, you can't even hack it.
When the biggest selling android phone can't get the latest os, something is wrong.

S3 bootloader been opened for some time. Even Verizon's. Jellybean is available for it as a Cyanogenmod. And in October, there will be official Samsung JB upgrade.

 

[HeyGreggie]

S3 bootloader been opened for some time. Even Verizon's. Jellybean is available for it as a Cyanogenmod. And in October, there will be official Samsung JB upgrade.

That's cool.

But how long will the S3 be Androids "Flagship" phone?

G1
G2
Motorola Droid
HTC Incredible
Droid x
HTC Thunderbolt
Galaxy Nexus
Droid Razr
HTC Rezound
Evo
Evo 3d
S2
S3


I used to have at least 3 of the phones I listed, and they all became obsolete after 6 months. So is Android innovative, or forever missing ONE thing about their phones so they put a new one out?

 

[MuddyPaws1]

Saying this, there's still room for some added features, like settings toggles in notification centre, as well as music controls... I'm betting they'll include that in iOS 7.

I disagree with your post and this line in particular.

"I'm betting they'll include it in iOS the next version" seems to be the answer to every software complaint since 2007. I gave up on that statement a long, long time ago.

But how long will the S3 be Androids "Flagship" phone?

I used to have at least 3 of the phones I listed, and they all became obsolete after 6 months. So is Android innovative, or forever missing ONE thing about their phones so they put a new one out?

And with Apple you might have to wait 18 months for the next phone to be released to get anything newer or better or something with a feature you really want. So now you have a phone that is a year and a half old and that's light years behind technology change.

 

[freedevil]

I wish they would update the lockscreen. It looks terrible.

 

[teejaysyke]

That's cool.

But how long will the S3 be Androids "Flagship" phone?

G1
G2
Motorola Droid
HTC Incredible
Droid x
HTC Thunderbolt
Galaxy Nexus
Droid Razr
HTC Rezound
Evo
Evo 3d
S2
S3


I used to have at least 3 of the phones I listed, and they all became obsolete after 6 months. So is Android innovative, or forever missing ONE thing about their phones so they put a new one out?

The same can be said about Apple next year with the 5S....except instead of 6 months, it's a year. Which allows other companies to release 2 new phones of potential greatness whereas Apple only gets 1.

 

[mattopotamus]

S3 bootloader been opened for some time. Even Verizon's. Jellybean is available for it as a Cyanogenmod. And in October, there will be official Samsung JB upgrade.

has that been confirmed? Last I heard was maybe, maybe December

 

[tann]

This iPhone is a mammoth upgrade. Look at how thin it is and how low the volume it is. Then look at the battery life. It's gotten BETTER than the 4S and it now has LTE and a larger screen, better cpu and better graphics.

IF the cpu is based on A15 architecture then this really is a MASSIVE thing! But we won't know that for sure until next weekend I'm guessing.

Either way, it seems like a very large upgrade (especially compared to the 4>4s!).

I'm just beginning to wonder if Apple are taking the "Let's do the phone one year, and software the next" approach. iOS 5 was huge, iPhone 4S was just internal.

iPhone 5 is huge, iOS 6 is much smaller...

iPhone 5S internal and iOS 7 huge? Maybe.

 

[BoxerGT2.5]

It's as simple as this, Apple created the market we are in now with phones. They no longer set the tone. Clearly this is the case when less than 24hrs the tech gurus are pointing out how it falls short of other offerings. When that happens, you are no longer the leader.

People want a screen you can read, as Johnny pointed out its a device we tie are lives to the most, he went on to say, "The challenge we faced is to make a device better and smaller." Clearly you people (Apple) have become tone deaf. I believe this is the result of having their heads up their lawyers ass.

 

[SprSynJn]

The first thing that popped into my mind when looking at Apple's website was that they are indeed playing it smart. They upped the screen size without sacrificing one handed use. They made it thinner and lighter without sacrificing core components. They made it more powerful without sacrificing battery. That is why I have been keen on their products for a while. They don't care about making something flashy and powerful that eats up resources. They care about the experience. Good call if you ask me.

 

[HeyGreggie]

Sometimes I forget I'm on an Apple/iPhone site. You'd think I was on AndroidForums.

 

[b24pgg]

"Apple playing catch up"... no, they're playing smart.

Since when did biggest screen = best phone?

It's not just about screen size. LTE has been on phones for almost two years. As much as six months ago, Verizon wasn't selling a single smartphone without LTE capability, except for the iPhone.

This is a catch up device, period.

 

[Krandor]

It's true that the Apps are the most important thing, but Apple barely even get that right. Their Podcasts app is a joke, they hardly ever do anything to Mail, Music, Weather, Stocks, the notification centre is basic as... The Maps app has been forced upon them, and hopefully they've done a decent job. Otherwise, when paying so much money, it's not unreasonable to expect certain things.

They are finally giving iTunes app a refresh and it's about time. They are seriously underdeveloping their own apps, which is unacceptable.

I take some issue with this statement mainly because when Android users talk about "Android has done X for ages" it is often a 3rd party app and not an app that is part of android and in some cases even an app that requires a root device. Most of the stock apps in iOS and Android are not the best and 3rd party apps are better. You say Apple did a bad job with the podcast app, but stock android doesn't have a podcast app at all so they are really underdevloping their podcast app. Now, on android just like iOS there are several 3rd party podcast apps so users on both systems have other options. So I'm not sure complaints on built-in apps is really valid unless there are no other options.

On this catching up thing I want to go through my experiences. I've had an Apple since the 3Gs and bought the 4 and the 4S and plan to get the 5. I also had a blackberry for work. With all the talk of the 3G I recently got my company to upgrade me to the S3. With all the talk I have heard I expected to just be wowed and want to transition to it completely. Hasn't quite happened so far.

First, on the size. I find the S3 to almost be a bit too big. I like a phone I can operate with just one hand and while you technically can on the S3 I have found that most of the times I need to use 2 hands mainly due to the width. I cannot even imagine what the Galaxy Note is like. So I'm thinking the iPhone going taller but not wider may actually be a good design choice.

I keep hearing about how iOS is outdated and the screen is just rows of icons, but most of the S3 is still icons but with the ability to use widgets. I have found the widgets nice, but many I have found with apps I haven't found very useful. They try to make a small version of the app on the homescreen which almost becomes too small to really be useful and then takes up screen real estate that then spreads apps out over more pages. Haven't played with a lot so I'm not sure if this is those specific apps or a more general issue. So far, I haven't found many widgets to be that useful.

On the positive, I love the quick setting bar. If I am in a place with weak wifi, being able to pull down settings turn it off and quickly turn it back on when I leave is very useful. The notification page is much much better then iOS.

Now to my biggest issue so far as that is the apps. While I have found apps that can do a lot of the things I do on iOS in many cases the ones I have found are not near as functional and/or take a lot more effort to setup and use. One ironically enough based on what I replied to is podcast apps. I use downcast which I love (other then it is a huge battery drain) and I have tried a few on android including doggcatch which seems the most popular and they don't don't have the same functionality. Hard to give up an iOS app that does what I want better then anything I can find on android. Then you have the apps and features that just take a while to setup properly on android if you can. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and one thing easy to setup on iOS is a smart playlist is itunes set to play count=0 so that once I listen to a track from an audiobook on next sync it is gone. I don't need it anymore and don't want it. So iTune, iOS, and the music player make this work with little effort. I have tried and tried to setup something similar on android and almost have it working but not quite. I use iSyncr to sync from itunes but the problem is getting playcount data back. I am finding the media players that sync playcount data back he best are designed for music not audiobooks (i.e. no bookmarking and auto-resume features) and the ones that play audiobooks well don't sync playcount data. Took hours to get setup and trying various players and still can't get it to work near as well as an easy setup on iOS. Now, here is the ironic thing. There is one part of this setup that works MUCH better then iOS and that is wifi syncing. iSycr Wifi is stable and works great wheras the wifi sync built into itunes has been unstable and almost usless for me. Maybe the itunes redesign will fix it, but itunes wifi sync sucks and isyncr wifi is much better.

I guess the bottom line is I like both phones (4S and the S3) and really right now have a hard time saying one phone is so much better that the other phone is playing catch-up. They both have things I like and both have things I think could be improved. I'd actually like a combination of the two devices. Right now it would be a tough choice if I had to only pick one phone but would probably be Apple due to the fact I like several apps on there better then the android equivilants.

 

[KPOM]

If Apple was playing catch up, it would have made the screen the same size, if not bigger, than the SIII (which is portrayed as been the standard for smart phones a lot of the time). In my opinion, Apple played it smart.

I think once the media and a lot of people get over the initial "disappointment" of the keynote last night and this phone gets into peoples hands, the general attitude towards the iPhone 5 will change. It looks like an amazing phone, and although I won't be getting one (bought a 4S in February), I'm certainly looking forward to see what else Apple will do to refine and enhance it with the "5S"

Exactly. If Apple were a follower, they'd have released a Galaxy SIII or Note clone with a massive screen and maybe even a stylus. Instead, they deliberately released a phone that isn't much bigger than the last one. There's a difference between wowing the tech writers and press, and doing what's right for the consumer.

Apple has had only a handful of "wow" products over the years: Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. In between are many generations of refinements. iPhone has reached the point where it is pretty mature.

 

[SR45]

It's as simple as this, Apple created the market we are in now with phones. They no longer set the tone. Clearly this is the case when less than 24hrs the tech gurus are pointing out how it falls short of other offerings. When that happens, you are no longer the leader.

People want a screen you can read, as Johnny pointed out its a device we tie are lives to the most, he went on to say, "The challenge we faced is to make a device better and smaller." Clearly you people (Apple) have become tone deaf. I believe this is the result of having their heads up their lawyers ass.

I like the iphone as is, with the ability to hold with one hand and use, not being so wide as to be uncomfortable. I like the build quality as well (Not plastic), and very glad that Apple is not going the way of the Android phones that Samsung and others are producing which is why I will stay with Apple, not being a so called slave or toned deaf to them or anyone. You want a bigger screen ? Other manufactures have them, so just go and stop whining here. Plenty of choices to make. Apple will stay with their model.

As for you Boxer. I'm enjoying reading the whiners on this forum from you and others that are not getting your way. Glad Apple does not care about you. Just leave and enjoy your Samsung phone. Millions of new iphones will be sold without you.....

 

[JupiterDoc]

The first thing that popped into my mind when looking at Apple's website was that they are indeed playing it smart. They upped the screen size without sacrificing one handed use. They made it thinner and lighter without sacrificing core components. They made it more powerful without sacrificing battery. That is why I have been keen on their products for a while. They don't care about making something flashy and powerful that eats up resources. They care about the experience. Good call if you ask me.

Very well said.

 

[KPOM]

It's not just about screen size. LTE has been on phones for almost two years. As much as six months ago, Verizon wasn't selling a single smartphone without LTE capability, except for the iPhone.

This is a catch up device, period.

No more than the iPhone 3G was a catch up device. Anyone who knows Apple knows why they waited to put LTE on their phones. Until the current 28nm generation, the chipsets were battery hogs. Plus, except for Verizon, LTE was still relatively rare even a year ago. Fast forward a year and AT&T now has a decent LTE network, but it's still rare in Europe and much of Asia. Sprint is just starting to roll out its LTE network, and the UK just launched its first LTE network a few weeks ago.

So by waiting, Apple got to introduce LTE to a bigger audience, and without making compromises in the design of the phone such as attaching a humongous battery to it. Remember, they added LTE to the new iPad and people complained about the size (since it used an older chip that required a bigger battery). Had the 4S had LTE, they'd have needed a larger battery and I'm sure we'd have heard the same complaints about size and weight.

 

[SpyderBite]

It's not just about screen size. LTE has been on phones for almost two years. As much as six months ago, Verizon wasn't selling a single smartphone without LTE capability, except for the iPhone.

This is a catch up device, period.

But LTE hasn't been available to more than a handful of areas for more than 6 months. That leaves your point about 1.5 years short of rational. Integrating LTE now is smart. 2 years ago was just hype over a then useless technology to majority of he consumers.

 

[SprSynJn]

No more than the iPhone 3G was a catch up device. Anyone who knows Apple knows why they waited to put LTE on their phones. Until the current 28nm generation, the chipsets were battery hogs. Plus, except for Verizon, LTE was still relatively rare even a year ago. Fast forward a year and AT&T now has a decent LTE network, but it's still rare in Europe and much of Asia. Sprint is just starting to roll out its LTE network, and the UK just launched its first LTE network a few weeks ago.

Here in Japan only one carrier has LTE that is used. While it is up and running well enough, only the most recent phones have really be utilizing it and as such it's still not widely popular. Rest assured the iPhone 5 will give it the big push it's needed to gain momentum as the two carriers that are listed on Apple's list are the two who don't use it yet.

 

[sixteen12]

Those early LTE devices were beyond brutal though. They just threw an LTE radio and chip in there with no thought to battery life on integration and ended up with the HTC Thunderbolt or the GS2 X LTE or whatever it was called. They had horrible battery life because it didn't smartly switch from LTE to 3G when no heavy uploading or downloading was in progress.

 

[thuchu1]

It's as simple as this, Apple created the market we are in now with phones. They no longer set the tone. Clearly this is the case when less than 24hrs the tech gurus are pointing out how it falls short of other offerings. When that happens, you are no longer the leader.

People want a screen you can read, as Johnny pointed out its a device we tie are lives to the most, he went on to say, "The challenge we faced is to make a device better and smaller." Clearly you people (Apple) have become tone deaf. I believe this is the result of having their heads up their lawyers ass.

Man, I don't know how this cellphone industry ever took off! If people are having trouble reading on an 4" screen I cant imagine what it was like for the on the 1" square screens back in the day. It must be nice that you were finally able to buy a phone after a couple decades with a big enough screen that you could bump up the text size enough for it to be legible.

 

[goofy1958]

It's not just about screen size. LTE has been on phones for almost two years. As much as six months ago, Verizon wasn't selling a single smartphone without LTE capability, except for the iPhone.

This is a catch up device, period.

This is not directed at you personally, but all who say that Apple is only "catching up". When the first iPhone came out in 2007, most new phones (even some basic flip phones) already had 3g data capability. The original iPhone only supported 2g. Were you there lambasting Apple for coming out with a product that was way behind the times? Or were you in line to buy it, even though it was using "old" network technology? Somehow, they sold millions of them.

Apple simply does not care about what other handset makers are putting into their phones. They are committed to the USER experience of normal people, and they really couldn't care less if a few tech people here go to android. The vast majority of the 400 million phones they have sold are to people that just want something that works well. That is what Apple does. They will wait until a technology is more mature before placing it into their products, instead of jumping on the bandwagon. I for one think that is a much better plan than throwing new stuff on a phone (and please remember, it is just a phone), that is not yet ready for prime time.

Just my humble opinion.