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BBC Article - Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite [MERGED]

adztaylor said:
My excuse? Why should I make excuses? Do you just want a change in appearance for changes sake? So you can show off to your friends you have the new model and people can't confuse it for an older model?

I'd rather have a refined similar looking model rather than a drastic new one that causes all sorts of problems.
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Are Apple fans scared of change or something? Why would a different model cause problems? I hardly think stretching it slightly qualifies as refinement, worse, it looks ridiculous. Can't put it better than the article....

"To use a car analogy, six years ago the iPhone was like a sexy new flagship model from BMW or Porsche. Today it's a Toyota Camry. Safe, reliable, boring. The car your mom drives. The car that's so popular that its maker doesn't dare mess with the formula"
 
superdudeo said:
Are Apple fans scared of change or something? Why would a different model cause problems? I hardly think stretching it slightly qualifies as refinement, worse, it looks ridiculous. Can't put it better than the article....

"To use a car analogy, six years ago the iPhone was like a sexy new flagship model from BMW or Porsche. Today it's a Toyota Camry. Safe, reliable, boring. The car your mom drives. The car that's so popular that its maker doesn't dare mess with the formula"
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you're comparing phones to camrys and porsches? Thats a pretty big leap and most phones out now are very much in the same ballpark.

you should be comparing bmw's to audis...or a camry with a honda accord.
 
superdudeo said:
Are Apple fans scared of change or something? Why would a different model cause problems? I hardly think stretching it slightly qualifies as refinement, worse, it looks ridiculous. Can't put it better than the article....

"To use a car analogy, six years ago the iPhone was like a sexy new flagship model from BMW or Porsche. Today it's a Toyota Camry. Safe, reliable, boring. The car your mom drives. The car that's so popular that its maker doesn't dare mess with the formula"
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On the contrary, it seems Apple fans want more change than a similar design. Probably for the reason I said above. But I'm one of those who doesn't want change for changes sake. We have no idea what refinements Apple will bring to this iteration apart from stretched screen so I'll reserve my judgement until I see the full facts.

By the way that car analogy just doesn't work.
 
The thing is, people were expecting a revolution last year and they got the 4S.

4S is a nice phone, but it's basically 4 with beefed up hardware. There was some disappointment last year about that.

So now they want 5 to make up for that.

If what we've seen from the leaks is true and all there is, there isn't a lot to be excited about. The biggest thing is the screen and even that is not very exciting. The basic brick design is the same and there aren't any new "revolutionary" (that Apple is known for) features. It seems that Apple has settled for evolution instead of revolution.

That's fine and all, but it does seem like Apple is playing it safe.
 
Purant said:
The thing is, people were expecting a revolution last year and they got the 4S.

4S is a nice phone, but it's basically 4 with beefed up hardware. There was some disappointment last year about that.

So now they want 5 to make up for that.

If what we've seen from the leaks is true and all there is, there isn't a lot to be excited about. The biggest thing is the screen and even that is not very exciting. The basic brick design is the same and there aren't any new "revolutionary" (that Apple is known for) features. It seems that Apple has settled for evolution instead of revolution.

That's fine and all, but it does seem like Apple is playing it safe.
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Everyone expects a revolutionary new iPhone every single year. That's near impossible
 
In the article Dan Lyons composed an excellent analysis ... of a phone he has never seen or used. :rolleyes: As I noted on the BBC web site, I wish I had his ESP....

Let's just see what Apple has come up with, and talk about it after the facts are known.
 
It's Dan Lyons + BBC. Should we expect anything more or less?

He's probably just pissed b/c he wanted a "teardrop" "iPhone 5" last year. :D
 
This guy is just looking for clicks. If Apple were "copying" Android manufacturers, they'd be releasing a phone with a 5" screen and stylus today, along with one with NFC. The "revolution" is with new products, not with annual updates. From the court cases, it also is pretty clear that they have mulled the concept of a smaller iPad for several years now. The 4" screen gets them closer to 16x9 and gives them the room to keep the battery roughly the same size even as the phone gets thinner.

Apple has done a lot of refinement to the iPhone over the years, and with this one we expect to see the use of in-cell touch technology so that it can become even thinner. It should be pretty obvious that Jony Ive and Apple value thinness as a design concept.
 
If the iPhone launch didn't excite, no one would care. Thats a lot of words for a non-event

Realize these little editorials are contrarian link bait. Nothing more.
 
I completely agree with the article, it's not very cleverly written, for instance where he quotes their R&D budgets simply as a percent of revenue is clueless and misleading, but there isn't anything new really happening in the apple line other than very incremental updates. Nothing makes you really go wow like it used to. The closest they've gone is retina displays, but that just isn't the kind of revolutionary improvements i'd hope for in my eyes.
 
I do agree with that article to some extent, i have every iphone since their inception, and have upgraded every year,but i won't this year. I know i will in the minority, but some of the features are useless

Passbook? NFC? LTE - none of these are readily available in the UK and only have one partial LTE carrier.

I love the iPhone, and think the 4S will be a great device for a while yet. The point the author makes about it being a bigger phone to ' battle android '' i definitely agree with, and thats the main reason i'm not upgrading because the phone will be bigger, its been the factor i chose the iphone over all other phones because of the form factor, again i know i'm in the minority here so please don't shoot me down.
 
He has been trying to get attention on Apple's coat tails for years.

Just watch the internet , and news today see how much an iPhone launch fails to excite...
 
magnificent me said:
This article is horrible. The comments are even worse!
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the comments on the BBC site are a little short sighted yes, the one about the dock connector annoyed me, while it's true that you can't use old stuff there will be reasons for it that we just don't know yet.

All the top rated comments where basically bashing apple while the only motive was the thought of not having the latest iPhone anymore.
 
Create the best-selling phone ever and then radically change it to a 5" screen or something ridiculous for the sake of change rather than usefulness.

Sounds like a great way to lose your dominance. Good thing the guy who wrote the article isn't in charge of any business. They would be bankrupt. You don't change for the sake of change when you have a winning design. You make small changes and refinements here and there and only change radically when it's something that will vastly improve the product and sales.
 
superdudeo said:
Is that your excuse for why the iPhone will most likely not change appearance for three iterations?
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Purant said:
If what we've seen from the leaks is true and all there is, there isn't a lot to be excited about. The biggest thing is the screen and even that is not very exciting. The basic brick design is the same and there aren't any new "revolutionary" (that Apple is known for) features. It seems that Apple has settled for evolution instead of revolution.
Click to expand...

superdudeo said:
Yeah you're right. The fact the phone hasn't changed for 3 generations might have something to do with that expectation though.
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The new model supposedly has in-cell touchscreen technology (that makes it thinner), a two-toned unibody design, a larger screen, and LTE without sacrificing battery life. It has a new dock connector that can be plugged in either way, and may well support USB 3.0 (which Micro-USB does not). How different do people expect? If Apple wanted to make a phone with a 5" touchscreen and/or stylus support, they would. They don't.

Sure it's a rectangle with rounded edges. Didn't Samsung just argue in court that a rectangle with rounded edges is "obvious" for a smartphone?
 
adztaylor said:
I seriously don't understand why people think there should be something "revolutionary" every year or so. It just doesn't happen that way. Tech matures and evolves. Thats alls smartphones are doing at the moment.
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The expectation isnt for every generation to be "revolutionary, its for Apple to maintain their lead over the competition.

Dont get me wrong, I strongly prefer iOS and Apple hardware but looking at it purely on the speed of progress then we can't forget that when the iPhone first came out it was several YEARS ahead of everyone. MS phones were on a death spiral and the first generation of Android was practically a beta. But in a very short amount of time then Android managed to catch up to (and even surpass) Apple in several areas, and even Microsoft had time to reboot and come out with something fairly amazing. This simply shouldn't happen when you have such a huge lead but here we are.

I know the super fans will defend Apple but thats unnecessary since Im not attacking them. Apple makes a solid, stable and popular product so overall it is the best phone on the market. But the problem is that you can't maintain a reputation of being "innovators" if you aren't constantly pushing the envelope.
 
The BBC as already stated is usually pro Apple. I was surprised to see this article but the fact that is there should be cause for concern.

Lets be honest - what has Apple done lately where you really went wow! I remember many wow moments but the only wow these days is how much money is in their bank accounts.
 
appswipe said:
I know the super fans will defend Apple but thats unnecessary since Im not attacking them. Apple makes a solid, stable and popular product so overall it is the best phone on the market. But the problem is that you can't maintain a reputation of being "innovators" if you aren't constantly pushing the envelope.
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The Retina display on the iPad and MacBook Pro is pushing the envelope (Amazon is finally getting into the act 10 months later with the Kindle Fire HD, but Samsung et. al still haven't). The in-cell touchscreen announced today will push the envelope. So may the new "Lightning" connector if it supports USB 3.0.

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sneaky butcher said:
not purely no, but it' a fact a company always does best in its home territory. You have business media supporting them, more news channels reporting on them which gives more free advertising/exposure and yes in a lot of cases people will go with the "home team"

Guess who has the biggest market share in korea? here's a clue: Samsung are a korean company.
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BMW's biggest market is the US, with China likely to overtake us in the coming years.
 
KPOM said:
The Retina display on the iPad and MacBook Pro is pushing the envelope (Amazon is finally getting into the act 10 months later with the Kindle Fire HD, but Samsung et. al still haven't). The in-cell touchscreen announced today will push the envelope. So may the new "Lightning" connector if it supports USB 3.0.

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BMW's biggest market is the US, with China likely to overtake us in the coming years.
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so what? only becuase another german VW beats them in germany.
 
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