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Is the negativity over iPhone 5 Tim Cook's fault?

H

HishamAkhtar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 22, 2011
510
1
As a lot of gains of the iPhone 5 are revealed, I can't help but feel like the keynote may have a lot to do with the way the 5 is perceived at the moment. Without Jobs throwing a massive "reality distortion field" over the audience, a lot of the 5's plus points just dont seem important anymore.

I was watching the iPhone 2G and 3G keynote and Steve would highlight the most basic feature and talk about it while the crowd wow'ed and clapped. The other day, even when Tim highlighted the iPhone 5's features, no one was too impressed.

In fact, the most excited Tim sounded was when announcing the sales numbers of iOS devices...
 
I think people need to quit expecting Tim to sound like Steve. He's not going to. But neither will anyone else. Take Tim on his own merits. I personally think he comes off as genuine, humble and thrilled to be at Apple.

And I don't think there's as much negativity as you might think over the iPhone 5. I think sales are going to be astronomical.
 
Tim knows he's not a rock star. So he throws off a lot of stuff to people who designed the stuff and so can speak with great expertise. Then some developers will come up and do their thing.

Is Steve without the 15 pieces of flair. Nobody can ever be Steve. Tim is doing a nice job being himself.

As for the whining about "lack of innovation," what will that sound like when tons of merchants are using Passbook and nobody is using NFC? Starbucks can use Passbook today. Many others are ready as well. Get DOTs aboard so we can digitize our driver's licenses and you will have a major revolution. Get vending machines tend other mostly-cash devices an easy way to work with some iOS app and you'll have yet another revolution.

Plus how is building your own 3D map system not innovation?
 
Sort of, if you go back and watch the iPhone 4 keynote, Jobs did a masterful job explaining and changing the way people perceived the iPhone after viewing the Gizmodo leak. He went to great lengths explaining that until you hold it, you haven't really seen it, how those "breaks" that everyone hated were actually brilliant design and engineering, and on how incredible the screen resolution really was.

At the iPhone 5 keynote they could have done a much better job explaining how incredible the new design is, how much engineering and design went into it, and how the new 4" screen can change the way you use the phone. They only skimmed over the design, until the end when Jon Ive came out and said how precise their manufacturing is. And only talked about the extra row of icons and longer lists with the 4 inch display. They only showed one screen shot of the new iMovie app that has controls along the sides in landscape mode, making it MUCH easier to use. Same with iPhoto and Keynote. They could've also shown more apps that take advantage, but only showed two apps that weren't showing anything they couldn't have done with the old screen.
 
nothing on the market even compared to the original iphone when it was first announced. that is why people ooo and ahhh'd at it. with the iphone 5, none of the features are mindblowing. to someone who doesn't know a lot about technology, it looks just like every other iphone.
 
Some critics love to diss frontrunners because controversy sells thanks to website traffic.

The general public loves the iPhone (massive sellout) so you have huge disconnect between public and critics.

Pretty soon those critics lose all their clout.

Tim's doing just fine!
 
You mean "Is the - limited negativity here on the forums of those who knew every detail of the phone already and still hoped for an S3 clone or completely new design - over iPhone 5 Tim Cook's fault?"

I don't think so, it is Apple's fault in general that they are going to please the masses rather than a bunch of people that can never be satisfied.
 
greytmom said:
And I don't think there's as much negativity as you might think over the iPhone 5. I think sales are going to be astronomical.
Click to expand...
The problem is, it seems the target audience now are the kind of people who will buy an iPhone because their friend has one, or because they think it'll make them look cool.

When the first iPhone came out it was absolute cutting edge, there really was nothing else like it, Apple were way ahead of the curve and I'm not sure the iPhone 5 will appeal to the same people who really bought into the original.

(yes, I know there are people who are huge Apple fans and will buy every iPhone going, I'm just talking about the people who bought the original iPhone on it's own merits)

Edit: I agree with the above too, seems a lot of people really went out of their way to find out every single little detail they could about the new iPhone, then were disappointed that there were no surprises. I know Apple are to blame for letting the information get leaked (I swear this hasn't happened before, maybe Steve cracked down on leaks more than Tim does?) but I don't see why people were so surprised.
 
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Apple kinda re-invented the smartphone and there is no way to completely re-invent it again.

They kinda reinvented the MP3-Player and the Tablet-PC too and nobody expects new innovative designs for those every gen, they want them to look nice but foremost do what they want them to do.

IMO Apple is more interested in "re-inventing" stuff on a software level, like Siri. Voice control is nothing they really invented, but again they brought something to a level where others start to mostly copy the exact idea.

I also think that the new Maps can be really huge, I am surprised how good it seems to work already, but with improving this and offering downloadable maps it could easily replace dedicated turn-by-turn solutions. Of course they are catching up here with google obviously having the egde with their maps until today, but to me it feels like they'll soon beat Google's solution.

The basis for all this is new hardware, no new design, but faster cpu/gpu and maybe faster connections. That is what apple gives us and I found it pretty impressive as a package, even if not every single aspect is revolutionary or even yet exceeding the competition.

And I am pretty happy they still offer it at a size where I can have it with me at all times without any extra bags/cases. So Cook might not be the presentation genius, but overall the keynote was really good and only disappointing for those with very special wishes.
 
By negativity you mean this?

https://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/17/iphone-5-pre-orders-set-new-sales-record-for-att/

Who cares what some people or pundits talk about. People vote with their wallet. This has happened every single iPhone release
- Original iPhone - people deemed it as revolutionary but there are critics complaining about the lack of 3G
- 3GS - "This is repackaged 3G"
- 4 - Antennagate
- 4S - Boring ol' rehashed iPhone 4
- 5 - Twice cooked iPhone 4. Boring. Catching up to Android.

Guess what happened on each iterations? Sales number keeps breaking new record.
 
Thing is, with most of the iPhone Keynotes, there's always been something different to show people, whether it be the app store from the 2nd gen, FaceTime from the 4th, Siri from the 5th etc....this time, there isn't too much of a "new feature", just enhancing already good ones to make them better.

Tim may think bigging something up too much when something really isn't that much of a game changer would look silly. I dunno just speculating :D
 
It's quite sad when certain consumers seem to care more about sales and Apple's profits rather than innovation and the products themselves.
 
blizeH said:
It's quite sad when certain consumers seem to care more about sales and Apple's profits rather than innovation and the products themselves.
Click to expand...

I think both goes hand in hand. If you are making a great innovative product, people will naturally come and choose your product.
 
illutionz said:
By negativity you mean this?

https://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/17/iphone-5-pre-orders-set-new-sales-record-for-att/

Who cares what some people or pundits talk about. People vote with their wallet. This has happened every single iPhone release
- Original iPhone - people deemed it as revolutionary but there are critics complaining about the lack of 3G
- 3GS - "This is repackaged 3G"
- 4 - Antennagate
- 4S - Boring ol' rehashed iPhone 4
- 5 - Twice cooked iPhone 4. Boring. Catching up to Android.

Guess what happened on each iterations? Sales number keeps breaking new record.
Click to expand...

Most people who complain are doing so from their iPhone browser, haha. Apple knew it had 66% of its user base willing to upgrade even without seeing the specs. All it needed for the remaining 33% were slight spec bumps, and then the rest of the new adopters would follow, and wham, success. Obviously by the numbers it seems were preordered, it worked.

People will continue to buy iPhone because it's a quality phone with an OS we all know works. Apple products have always put design and usability over the latest and greatest technologies, and I'm okay with that. I'd rather have a phone that works, is the #1 app community on the planet, and plays well with my Mac instead of NFC or whatever payment technology of the week is. I'm a big guy, but even my thumb can't reach the upper left hand corner of the SGSIII... that's just silliness.
 
Michael CM1 said:
Tim knows he's not a rock star. So he throws off a lot of stuff to people who designed the stuff and so can speak with great expertise. Then some developers will come up and do their thing.

Is Steve without the 15 pieces of flair. Nobody can ever be Steve. Tim is doing a nice job being himself.

As for the whining about "lack of innovation," what will that sound like when tons of merchants are using Passbook and nobody is using NFC? Starbucks can use Passbook today. Many others are ready as well. Get DOTs aboard so we can digitize our driver's licenses and you will have a major revolution. Get vending machines tend other mostly-cash devices an easy way to work with some iOS app and you'll have yet another revolution.

Plus how is building your own 3D map system not innovation?
Click to expand...

That's going to be tough, moving DOTs or Transit Authorities to "Passbook" and not NFC. Many subways (people-movers, not the sandwich store) have already begun implementing NFC. I don't foresee them dropping another pile of cash on scanners for Passbook. And if I'm correct, anywhere there's a Paypass POS device, you can use NFC... and those have been filtering into many fast-food restaurants, drug stores, convenience stores, etc. for a while now.

NFC will likely win this battle. It's easier to implement than an optical/laser scanner. NFC's huge overseas, I hear, epecially in Japan. Apple missed the mark with this... but I guess there's always the iPhone 5S, right?

And 3D maps... that's glitz, pure and simple. It provides very little useful information above and beyond standard GPS mapping and location services. It just looks cool and is fun to "play" with.
 
IMO people seem to have for some reason become to believe every release is going to be some kind of famous revolutionary product vs an evolution of an already great product. Combined with a solid marketing strategy that offers the steak one bite at a time vs the entire thing, what Apple is doing is quite smart and certainly helping fund and drive future products.

It's just a smart phone.
 
If blame would be targeted on one executive at Apple then I'd put it squarely on Scott Forstall, Senior VP of iOS Software.

In order to stay exciting and relavent then you have to take risks. Microsoft is taking risks. Android is taking risks. Even despite the annual negativity against Apple Hardware, the iPhone actually does take risks with their hardware. But what about the software?

Lets be honest, how long has it been since we've seen something "amazing" come out at an iOS preview? iOS itself has gone from "Revolution" to stagnation in a very short amount of time and that shouldnt be something we sweep under the rug. iOS has played it so safe that iOS6 is not much of an improvement over iOS4. And before anyone says "well what features do you want", it's not our job to think of how to make iOS a better and more compelling product. Thats the job of Forstall and the teams he lead. So instead of getting frustrated with the "whiners" then why not question the leadership that isn't keeping pace with the Apple hardware division or the industry.
 
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I don't think Apple is waging a war with NFC. They're just not satisfied its worth putting in the phone yet. It will add expense, weight and bulk for what they consider a feature not yet worth it.
 
greytmom said:
I think people need to quit expecting Tim to sound like Steve. He's not going to. But neither will anyone else. Take Tim on his own merits. I personally think he comes off as genuine, humble and thrilled to be at Apple.

And I don't think there's as much negativity as you might think over the iPhone 5. I think sales are going to be astronomical.
Click to expand...

--- Exactly! Give the guy a break! Steve wouldn't areign Tim as his successor if he knows that he would fail that easily. These two guys have been working together for years so both pretty much knows how each other works and how Apple works. Honestly, I'm a little dissapointed of how the iPhone 5 is. It isn't quad core, not a 2GB ram, camera got stuck at 8 megapixel, though have implemented their own maps. They took out the transit part of it. And of course, the NFC thing. It seems like we have to wait for an iPhone 5s to see this to reality or maybe not judging from the iPhone 4/4s.
 
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