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Apple will need to really rethink their product upgrade model.

D

DanteMann

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 23, 2011
453
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I'm thinking this is it for a bit. Quad core and 1080P and 5 inch phones seem to be the plateau for flagship phones (not phablets). After getting my GS3, I knew I wanted a 5 inch screen in the same physical size. And I know that will be my max. I will definitely be picking up a GS4 most likely and will hold on to that until the next real breakthrough. I also will pick up a Tizen device, as I believe in supporting new competition that has a realistic chance at succeeding.
Now with the flood of all these quad core, 5 inch, 1080P phones coming from all over. Especially the devices from China, if they make it elsewhere and come in at a real cheap price. These units actually look quite nice, but I myself wouldn't trust one. I believe we're at a time, were Apple now has no choice but to change their model of small upgrades. The quick upgrade of the iPad is a sign of this. The model of one current phone with one screen size won't work anymore. With the massive success of Android and Samsung's rise to top mobile vendor, Apple knows it cannot sit on it's laurels anymore. Too many options with high end specs are now coming in at a cheaper price. People want bigger screens, we all know this from the research. And now that these bigger screens are coming in smaller overall form factors with minimum bezel, the small 4 inch display of the iPhone with it's thick bezel will begin to look very dated as it already has. iOS also needs a serious upgrade in looks and features.
 
no doubt the iPhone 5s will have the same screen as the 5, meaning whilst all the competition has 1080p at around 450ppi, apple will be stuck on a resolution below 720p at 326ppi.

hmm...:confused:
 
We'll just have to wait and see...nobody can pretend to know what the next iPhone will be.
 
IPhone 4 will be my last Apple phone. I an waiting on the S4. Sick of Apple's awful spec bumps. Samsung gets it & android has become awesome. My nexus 7 is great
 
Apple still sell iPhones by the bucket load so I doubt they're in any hurry to change too much. The biggest problem Apple faces at the moment is they're not maximising the potential audience for their App store.

There are plenty of potential customers who can easily afford to pay a fee pounds per month on services but balk at the entry cost to iWorld. I think we'll see an iPhone Mini/Light before we see a bigger iPhone.
 
As long as Apple's phones are bought in the large quantities that they are at the moment, there is no incentive to change the trusted formula that is the iPhone. Certainly, IMHO, I can only foresee a spec bump for the iP5S in the middle or even later this year. Mid 2014 will, in my opinion, be the time that we see larger screen sizes on an iPhone. As a long term Apple fan, I really hope that it is sooner and that there is no iP5S, but instead, a phone that kicks everything else out of the park. I want to hear the words "This changes everything" and really hope that it does. Can't see it though.
 
Sounds Good said:
Same here. Although the brand new Sony phone is looking mighty tempting.
Click to expand...

After Qualcomm announced their 800 series chip, it made anything released by Sony, and everyone else almost laughable. The Sony Z looks to be the best of last years phones. The S4 Pro in my Nexus 4 smokes, but being the first out of the gate with last years processors seems like a dud to me.

As for Apple, the iPhone 5 holds its own quite nicely against every Android phone currently on the market, but the screen seriously needs to get bigger. 4" screen is mid-low range in the Android world. :cool:
 
Quad core CPU is so unnecessary for mobile applications. Pandora? Facebook? LOL. Apps aren't even close to saturating the dual core CortexA9, much less the new Swift cores. Even in high graphics gaming, look at Infinity Blade 2 and all.

Apple avoids nerdy specs for a reason. It's not always important to the user experience.

I think they goofed, personally. The 4" iPhone 5 is uncomfortable, months in now, hand positions constantly shifting. I miss how my iPhone 4 fit in my hand.

Apple could appeal to the big phone market with a 4.5-5"er, and kept the old phone at 3.5inch for the rest of us. Two screen sizes isn't all that much for them to manage. Just look at the iPod line.

But if they do that, they've got this left over bastardized 4" they've got to support. Fragmentation....
 
Internaut said:
Apple still sell iPhones by the bucket load so I doubt they're in any hurry to change too much.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The VAST majority of people buying iPhones (or smartphones in general) don't care one bit if they have 4k resolution, or the biggest screen available, or 800 million GeeBees of RAMROM... They want a phone. They want a phone that checks email, and Facebook, and plays Angry Birds, and manages their calendars. And they want an Apple, because that's what everyone around them has.

It's the 5% of us that are tech nerds that care about specs, and that group isn't a big enough demographic to risk irritating the other 95% with "unnecessary" change. Apple doesn't move fast because their user base doesn't want them to. Right or wrong, it seems to work for them.
 
Prototypical said:
Exactly. The VAST majority of people buying iPhones (or smartphones in general) don't care one bit if they have 4k resolution, or the biggest screen available, or 800 million GeeBees of RAMROM... They want a phone. They want a phone that checks email, and Facebook, and plays Angry Birds, and manages their calendars. And they want an Apple, because that's what everyone around them has.

It's the 5% of us that are tech nerds that care about specs, and that group isn't a big enough demographic to risk irritating the other 95% with "unnecessary" change. Apple doesn't move fast because their user base doesn't want them to. Right or wrong, it seems to work for them.
Click to expand...
Right now they might be coasting on inertia. That never lasts. Once the senior crowd has their iPhones where else can Apple go? And that crowd rarely updates. Heck I know several couples over 65 who just now got iPhones. iPhone 4's. For 99 cents.

But I see it around me all the time: iPhone users thinking about an S3 or some other non-Apple phone. People I never dreamed would go with Android doing just that. I rarely see an ad on TV that only mentions an app for iPhone. Almost always it says for iPhone and Android. It is certainly FAR from game-over for iPhone but if that should happen the handwriting had been on the wall.

Also, "everyone around them" is relative. Certainly not true in many places. That is only talking about the USA. Outside the US it isn't that way at all: iPhones are not the biggest seller at all.


Finally, if they only want a phone for email, Facebook, calendars and Angry birds they can get that in every Android phone out there. People are getting more tech-savvy and if they don't know that then even the most clueless of sales drones can reply "yes, you can do that on this phone" when asked.




Michael
 
Menel said:
Quad core CPU is so unnecessary for mobile applications. Pandora? Facebook? LOL. Apps aren't even close to saturating the dual core CortexA9, much less the new Swift cores. Even in high graphics gaming, look at Infinity Blade 2 and all.
Click to expand...

That's like saying that phones are fast enough and don't need to have a processor bump ever again, or at least not anytime soon. Yet Apple and everyone else does it every single year. Hmmmmmmm

If things are ever to approach a true "post-PC" world, then yes, quad cores are needed.
 
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