[Opinion Article] Wake-up Apple, the iPhone is a yawn!

[Sedrick]

Two points I take away from this thread:
1. Apple has taken the iPhone and OS about as far as it intends to.
2. Apple fans are falling all over themselves rationalizing #1.

The sad fact is, not even the Apple fans are expecting to be blown away these days. Saying things like "how much further can you go with a phone" and "it's only a phone, people!" and "it does exactly what I want in a phone".

A lot has changed since Mr. Jobs has left the stage, that's for sure.

 

[Zaft]

Two points I take away from this thread:
1. Apple has taken the iPhone and OS about as far as it intends to.
2. Apple fans are falling all over themselves rationalizing #1.

The sad fact is, not even the Apple fans are expecting to be blown away these days. Saying things like "how much further can you go with a phone" and "it's only a phone, people!" and "it does exactly what I want in a phone".

A lot has changed since Mr. Jobs has left the stage, that's for sure.

its been less than a year. Mind explaining what has changed?

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Silly article is silly...

When I was a smartphone kid I use to sweat over the actual phone, now that I'm a smartphone adult I sweat over the platform and ecosystem. I don't care so much about what the phone can do as it currently does everything I need it to do, the rest are just bells I'll never ring and whistles I'll never blow.

...And just like that, the man wins the thread, wins the whole Android VS Apple debate, and puts all the posters In this thread to sleep. Good night Fandroids... Sweet dreams.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Two points I take away from this thread:
1. Apple has taken the iPhone and OS about as far as it intends to.
2. Apple fans are falling all over themselves rationalizing #1.

The sad fact is, not even the Apple fans are expecting to be blown away these days. Saying things like "how much further can you go with a phone" and "it's only a phone, people!" and "it does exactly what I want in a phone".

A lot has changed since Mr. Jobs has left the stage, that's for sure.

Blown away, for what?

The REAL sad fact is ...... no matter how hard you anti iPhone guys try, y'all just can't convert us into disliking iOS/iPhone.

 

[Interstella5555]

I'm confused, people use microwaves, watches, cars, washing machines, ovens and a ton of other devices on a daily basis that haven't changed in 40 years. What makes it that these aren't boring yet a phone that has been out for 5 years with 3 design changes is suddenly a snooze fest? Also, the sense of entitlement that a company "needs" to do something for you is laughable at best.

 

[alent1234]

I'm confused, people use microwaves, watches, cars, washing machines, ovens and a ton of other devices on a daily basis that haven't changed in 40 years. What makes it that these aren't boring yet a phone that has been out for 5 years with 3 design changes is suddenly a snooze fest? Also, the sense of entitlement that a company "needs" to do something for you is laughable at best.

don't listen to the tech media

MS releases a new OS with the same GUI and everyone whines that nothing changed.
MS releases a new OS or Office suite with a different GUI everyone screams bloody murder that everything is different and they don't know what to do

 

[Interstella5555]

don't listen to the tech media

MS releases a new OS with the same GUI and everyone whines that nothing changed.
MS releases a new OS or Office suite with a different GUI everyone screams bloody murder that everything is different and they don't know what to do

 

[dgree03]

I'm confused, people use microwaves, watches, cars, washing machines, ovens and a ton of other devices on a daily basis that haven't changed in 40 years. What makes it that these aren't boring yet a phone that has been out for 5 years with 3 design changes is suddenly a snooze fest? Also, the sense of entitlement that a company "needs" to do something for you is laughable at best.

What are you talking about? All of those items have changed significantly since their inception. Yes there CORE functions remain the same.. but the auxiliary functions are completely different.

Yes the iPhone still does its basics really well, but where is it pushing towards?

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I'm confused, people use microwaves, watches, cars, washing machines, ovens and a ton of other devices on a daily basis that haven't changed in 40 years. What makes it that these aren't boring yet a phone that has been out for 5 years with 3 design changes is suddenly a snooze fest? Also, the sense of entitlement that a company "needs" to do something for you is laughable at best.

I laugh every time I read the statement that either OS doesn't "wow" someone and that it is now somehow inferior because of it.

The problem I think people have in terms of the iPhone is that they've convinced themselves they know exactly what is coming this fall with the new version of the device and have already written it off as being a dud. I remember around this time last year we saw a lot of supposed leaked parts for what was supposed to be the iPhone 5 (several sites, including this one (https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/10/this-could-be-what-apples-iphone-5-looks-like/), went as far as to have their own mock ups rendered of the leaked info), and we all know how that ultimately ended up. There are always rumors and the such coming out about the next Apple device. The only two constants we generally see are that 1.) they're hardly ever right and 2.) people never seem to remember that.

In the end we're doing a lot of gnashing of teeth over our choice of cell phone. It's fairly exhausting.

 

[importfan]

I'm confused, people use microwaves, watches, cars, washing machines, ovens and a ton of other devices on a daily basis that haven't changed in 40 years. What makes it that these aren't boring yet a phone that has been out for 5 years with 3 design changes is suddenly a snooze fest? Also, the sense of entitlement that a company "needs" to do something for you is laughable at best.

Did you really just make this argument? wow. FYI, cars change body styles and even engines every 3-5 years as to avoid the same boring look and feel. Watches will often change designs or at least offer more variety than one model. Microwaves, ovens and washing machines are appliances. Nothing close to a personal device that everything in your life (calls, emails, texts, social networks) connects to.

 

[cynics]

Pentile AMOLED is great...

...if you like dark, dim, dank, blue stained screens...

Compared to iPad

Compared to iPhone
Image

And don't pretend the GS3 screen brightness is turned down. It actually looks like that maxed out in browser and general settings.

Don't have to pretend.

I think you said that cause you knew the brightness wasn't turned all the way up.

There is a noticeable blueness but there is a noticeable greyness to the iPhones blacks. Regardless both have there ups and downs.

 

[Subjugator]

I was getting tired of my iPhone 4, I have had an iPhone since they first came out. 3 days ago I went and "upgraded" to an HTC One X, i also looked at the SGS3. First off the One X is a very fast phone that does do a lot of things well, however, after just 3 days I was not impressed enough with the phone, some of this having to do with poor battery life, to keep it. It went back today. While Apple is very slow in making big, exciting changes the iPhone (esp. jailbroken) still blows away the top of the line androids. Just my opinion

 

[cynics]

I was getting tired of my iPhone 4, I have had an iPhone since they first came out. 3 days ago I went and "upgraded" to an HTC One X, i also looked at the SGS3. First off the One X is a very fast phone that does do a lot of things well, however, after just 3 days I was not impressed enough with the phone, some of this having to do with poor battery life, to keep it. It went back today. While Apple is very slow in making big, exciting changes the iPhone (esp. jailbroken) still blows away the top of the line androids. Just my opinion

While I won't disagree that the iPhone is a much better choice for you, 3 days is hardly enough time to test the competition. Seriously, the comparison was testing the iPhone for 700+ days vs 3?

I hated my 4S for about a month before I really gave it a decent chance. The biggest thing is finding new ways to do the old things. I'm still learning little tricks with both operating systems.

 

[pdutta2000]

Did you really just make this argument? wow. FYI, cars change body styles and even engines every 3-5 years as to avoid the same boring look and feel. Watches will often change designs or at least offer more variety than one model. Microwaves, ovens and washing machines are appliances. Nothing close to a personal device that everything in your life (calls, emails, texts, social networks) connects to.

Um no. People need to understand the difference between revolutionary and evolutionary. Apple created the revolution in 2007 that every other phone maker is trying to copy. Now they are making the evolutionary changes to adapt to newer technology. Car makers are evolutionary by nature. It costs a ton on money to create a revolution. The car is essentially the same as it was when it was first invented...a box with 4 wheels powered by an internal combustion engine. Hover cars and space cars would be revolutionary. Changing the body style and adding a nav system is evolutionary. Apple is unfairly expected to release a revolutionary product with each release. That's the criticism. The smartphone was defined by Apple in 2007. It's a touch screen device with apps and multimedia capabilities. Adding a bigger screen or more apps doesn't make it revolutionary...it makes it evolutionary since it still falls into the same basic definition. Even adding a satellite chip is evolutionary. Implanting the phone into your body...now that's revolutionary.

 

[Calidude]

I was getting tired of my iPhone 4, I have had an iPhone since they first came out. 3 days ago I went and "upgraded" to an HTC One X, i also looked at the SGS3. First off the One X is a very fast phone that does do a lot of things well, however, after just 3 days I was not impressed enough with the phone, some of this having to do with poor battery life, to keep it. It went back today. While Apple is very slow in making big, exciting changes the iPhone (esp. jailbroken) still blows away the top of the line androids. Just my opinion

When you buy an Android phone from a carrier, you're buying into their carrier and manufacturer bloatware, which will cause your phone to get short battery life due to the resources being used.

It's not a matter of Android being inferior, but rather, the drawbacks of having an open source software that carriers and manufacturers have the freedom to manipulate. Sure, iPhone has the advantage in that Apple has a lot of clout and will keep the iPhone free of this bloatware, but with open source, you have recourse as well. With your One X, you should have unlocked the bootloader and installed a custom ROM and kernel, as well as possibly another baseband for your part of the country. That would have put your phone on par with the iPhone's battery life or even exceeded it.

It comes down to this: with iPhone you get the work done for you with Apple's strict control on your phone, and with Android you have to exert your control over your phone the way you want it to work. Both are good for the user, but open source is better since it's neither Apple nor some carrier/manufacturer that controls your phone, but YOU, the end user control it.

If you go back to Android in the future, or any open-source mobile OS, keep this in mind.

 

[TennisandMusic]

What a fluffy article. Of course Apple is not clearly in the lead anymore with the iPhone. It takes so much more to demonstrate that something can be successful than it does to emulate it (and then tweak the emulation), as Google has done. What will happen now is that neither Google and Apple will be able to create a clear technological lead, because they're all working with the same or very similar chips. Thus, they will differentiate their phones based on the user experience, which is the only thing that sane users care about.

I'll tell you, after having bought a Galaxy Nexus I can say with absolute certainty Google has a CLEAR "technological lead" over iOS 6, and that is with ICS. I am sure when Jelly Bean is pushed out in the next week or two, it will be embarrassing for Apple.

Just sold my 4S 64gb today in fact, and I could not be happier. The Nexus is freaking amazing.

 

[Alameda]

It comes down to this: with iPhone you get the work done for you with Apple's strict control on your phone, and with Android you have to exert your control over your phone the way you want it to work. Both are good for the user, but open source is better since it's neither Apple nor some carrier/manufacturer that controls your phone, but YOU, the end user control it.

Can you give me an example of how I can use Android's open source superiority to exert control over my phone in some way that gets my work done better?

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I'll tell you, after having bought a Galaxy Nexus I can say with absolute certainty Google has a CLEAR "technological lead" over iOS 6, and that is with ICS. I am sure when Jelly Bean is pushed out in the next week or two, it will be embarrassing for Apple.

Just sold my 4S 64gb today in fact, and I could not be happier. The Nexus is freaking amazing.

Congrats on finding a phone that works best for you. To each his own, but you may want to tone down on trying to pass off subjective statements as absolute fact. You could come up with 10 different ways ICS is better than iOS and someone could counter them all.

In broad strokes neither OS is better than the other. It's only when you take specific needs into account that you start to find out which one is best from person to person.

 

[Zaft]

When you buy an Android phone from a carrier, you're buying into their carrier and manufacturer bloatware, which will cause your phone to get short battery life due to the resources being used.

It's not a matter of Android being inferior, but rather, the drawbacks of having an open source software that carriers and manufacturers have the freedom to manipulate. Sure, iPhone has the advantage in that Apple has a lot of clout and will keep the iPhone free of this bloatware, but with open source, you have recourse as well. With your One X, you should have unlocked the bootloader and installed a custom ROM and kernel, as well as possibly another baseband for your part of the country. That would have put your phone on par with the iPhone's battery life or even exceeded it.

It comes down to this: with iPhone you get the work done for you with Apple's strict control on your phone, and with Android you have to exert your control over your phone the way you want it to work. Both are good for the user, but open source is better since it's neither Apple nor some carrier/manufacturer that controls your phone, but YOU, the end user control it.

If you go back to Android in the future, or any open-source mobile OS, keep this in mind.

I think and this is just my opinion, that most people would rather not have to hack the phone to get decent battery life or what not.

 

[sulpfiction]

Im not sure if you realize but the 3GS is 3 years old. So that makes your point moot. What a childish rebuttal.

3GS is still a very capable phone. His point is very valid and a great rebuttal to your immature, childish, and senseless post.

 

[preguntonontrac]

Some people miss understand this topic, i think no one is saying iphone sucks or they dislike the ios but like i said previously the competition is pretty tied now and even better in some things if the new iphone just tries to compete by only matching screen size the game is over. I am impressed of how much of these threads i am seeing lately:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1402155/

Even on a mac forum...

 

[Sedrick]

its been less than a year. Mind explaining what has changed?

Expectations.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Some people miss understand this topic, i think no one is saying iphone sucks or they dislike the ios but like i said previously the competition is pretty tied now and even better in some things if the new iphone just tries to compete by only matching screen size the game is over. I am impressed of how much of these threads i am seeing lately:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1402155/

Even on a mac forum...

Mostly agree. To be more specific my position is that the iPhone is overrated. Maybe the most overrated piece of technology ever (debatable).

 

[Penelope Jones]

Some people miss understand this topic, i think no one is saying iphone sucks or they dislike the ios but like i said previously the competition is pretty tied now and even better in some things if the new iphone just tries to compete by only matching screen size the game is over. I am impressed of how much of these threads i am seeing lately:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1402155/

Even on a mac forum...

totally agree!

 

[pdutta2000]

Mostly agree. To be more specific my position is that the iPhone is overrated. Maybe the most overrated piece of technology ever (debatable).

Completely overrated. Since it's inception its only generated around $150 billion in revenue on 250 million unit sales. That doesn't include Apps or Accessories. Last quarter they only sold ~35 million units and the iPhone division only generates more revenue than all of Microsoft. Most overrated piece of technology ever.