Why all the disappointment?

[mohrt]

I keep seeing all these blogs/threads about how Apple blew it by not putting out a iPhone 5. But honestly, what would the iPhone 5 consist of that the 4S does not already cover? I can think of one thing: some new spiffy form factor with a slightly bigger screen.

As for form factor, the iPhone4 is already quite good. Is it just because we want something different, and not necessarily better? I don't think they could make things thinner with all the new guts they stuffed into the same case. A bigger screen, but same resolution... I'm not convinced that this would be all that much of an improvement. I certainly don't want a bigger phone, the iPhone 4 fits perfectly in the hand.

We know LTE would not be in the cards. It just isn't ready yet, and Apple isn't big on adopting technologies preemptively (unless they are innovating it themselves.)

So as for the 4S, let's list the highlights:

* A5 chip, x7 graphics
* longer battery life
* new antenna design
* 2x data speed over 3G
* enhanced camera
* CDMA/GSM in same phone
* iOS5/iCloud
* Find my Friends / Cards
* iTunes Match
* Siri

Ok, that is a pretty solid list of improvements. This really is a new phone, but just in the same form factor. Had we wrapped all this up in a new form factor and called it iPhone 5, would it suddenly get the praise and glory?

I think it's mostly perception. As a matter of fact, if Steve Jobs would have been the one on stage, I think things would have been perceived differently. He has a way of wowing the audience. "We started from scratch. We took the already beautiful iPhone 4 form factor, gutted it, and replaced every single component with something better."

Mainstream media is certainly not making anything better. They all like to point to the fact that the 4S is a big letdown to the customers, not delivering an iPhone 5. So of course, the average joe reading that will come the conclusion that the 4S is not much of an improvement over the 4. But it's completely different, just not in form.

 

[blairh]

Ok, that is a pretty solid list of improvements. This really is a new phone, but just in the same form factor. Had we wrapped all this up in a new form factor and called it iPhone 5, would it suddenly get the praise and glory?"

Bingo.

 

[kasakka]

People here seem to be disappointed because they didn't get what they thought was going to be in the new iPhone based on unsubstantiated rumors. So really, they should stop whining and either get the 4S or stick to their 4 or 3GS or whatever if they feel it's not worth upgrading.

 

[BJ.SoundWave360]

Exactly

I could not agree more with this post. The iPhone 4 was already the coolest looking phone on the market, and the new hardware and software features are incredible. Period! Incredible. Better camera. MUCH faster. IOS 5. Siri, which may change things as much as when Apple brought other things to market better than others had done them.

I'm hoping that when this gets into people's hands, and they see the thing work, it will stop being an issue. Apple's success and the ever present frenzy around their products seemed to created a bit of a cloud, just because everyone believed erroneous media reports about a non-existing iPhone 5?

 

[AppleFan360]

I agree. I'm not disappointed at all. The iPhone 4S looks to be a great entry into the market. Siri makes it something you would see on Star Trek. Impressive to say the least.

 

[Adamantoise]

I don't know why people want a new form factor, personally I think the iPhone 4 form factor is the best form factor for iPhone yet.

I have a hard time seeing how they're going to improve it.

 

[gibbynd]

I couldn't agree more as well. This phone also has now established a pretty clear pattern based on past releases and for future:

Iphone
Iphone 3G (new Design)
Iphone 3GS (new inside technology)
Iphone 4 (new design)
Iphone 4S (new inside technology)

So the next Iphone will clearly be a new design. I've had Android and I can tell you that iOS is sill the smoothest system out there. The stock tanked too yesterday. That was just stupid casual investors selling out.

 

[auxsend]

Disappointment is due to the fact that after a year and half, it seems as if a week's thought was put into this refresh.

Same phone we've been making for a year, oh we'll throw the new OS we already have in there, tack on a voice recognition program we bought, and we'll add a faster processor that we already make and ship in another product...

It just doesn't represent a year and a half of development. Not even a little.

 

[nefan65]

Agree 100%

Couldn't agree more! The problem is two fold...

1. People bought into the rumor mill, and assumed it would be a new form factor, bigger screen, et-al.

2. People are comparing the 4s specifications to the newest, or recently released Android handsets, and feel that since the 4s isn't BETTER, then it's not as good, and it's the same ole, same ole...

Unlike the competition, the iPhone and iOS are optimized for each other. You don't need a quad core phone in order for the OS to work properly, or have some snap to it. Would I have had liked to see a bigger screen? Sure, but it's not the end of the world. I have a 4, and will stay put. If iOS runs well, I can live without the Siri stuff.

Now if Apple releases another new phone this summer, whether it's the 5, or 6, or whatever, and it's still more of the same, then yes I'll be very disappointed. However, based on their recent track record, I'd guess that we'll see something new/different. Like going from the 3Gs to the 4...

 

[drew0020]

I couldn’t disagree more. Apple waited 16 months (eternity in cell phone time) to upgrade:

- A5-its been out in the iPad 2 for almost 7 months and most other high end smartphones have dual core chips already
- Worse standby battery life
- New antenna design because the old one that wasn’t flawed apparently was flawed!
- 2X data speed AT&T only and not capable of greater than 14.4 which is another disappointment
- iOS5 is ok. Notifications are 3 years late. I like wireless sync though.
- Cards. Seriously?
- Siri looks cool so I give them credit for this, but ill rarely use it

My boss has been waiting for the new Verizon iPhone for the past 2 months. She has a blackberry now. She said she almost called me last night because she was so disappointed in the new iPhone. This is from someone who is not tech savvy and who has never owned an iPhone before.

Anyway, you slice it, the iPhone 4S is a disappointment and not because of the body design or small screen size. Apple almost caught up to everyone else but I expect Apple to set the bar each year, not come in right under the bar.

 

[mohrt]

Would I have had liked to see a bigger screen? Sure, but it's not the end of the world.

Something to consider... reworking the iPhone 4 form factor just for a bigger screen may have been counter productive. One important objective is to keep the price down for the consumer, not add to it. Using the same form factor does just that.

I'm sure the iPhone 5 will be something completely new and different. It will likely support LTE, and maybe something like an aluminum curved backing and edge-to-edge screen, and something radical like touch-sensitive bezel/back to do something we never thought of.

 

[nikhsub1]

I couldn’t disagree more. Apple waited 16 months (eternity in cell phone time) to upgrade:

- A5-its been out in the iPad 2 for almost 7 months and most other high end smartphones have dual core chips already
- Worse standby battery life
- New antenna design because the old one that wasn’t flawed apparently was flawed!
- 2X data speed AT&T only and not capable of greater than 14.4 which is another disappointment
- iOS5 is ok. Notifications are 3 years late. I like wireless sync though.
- Cards. Seriously?
- Siri looks cool so I give them credit for this, but ill rarely use it

My boss has been waiting for the new Verizon iPhone for the past 2 months. She has a blackberry now. She said she almost called me last night because she was so disappointed in the new iPhone. This is from someone who is not tech savvy and who has never owned an iPhone before.

Anyway, you slice it, the iPhone 4S is a disappointment and not because of the body design or small screen size. Apple almost caught up to everyone else but I expect Apple to set the bar each year, not come in right under the bar.

You obviously don't know Apple that well. They are NEVER on the leading edge when it comes to specs, they ALWAYS play is safe with proven stable and often slower pieces.

 

[mohrt]

I couldn’t disagree more. Apple waited 16 months (eternity in cell phone time) to upgrade:

- A5-its been out in the iPad 2 for almost 7 months and most other high end smartphones have dual core chips already
- Worse standby battery life
- New antenna design because the old one that wasn’t flawed apparently was flawed!
- 2X data speed AT&T only and not capable of greater than 14.4 which is another disappointment
- iOS5 is ok. Notifications are 3 years late. I like wireless sync though.
- Cards. Seriously?
- Siri looks cool so I give them credit for this, but ill rarely use it

My boss has been waiting for the new Verizon iPhone for the past 2 months. She has a blackberry now. She said she almost called me last night because she was so disappointed in the new iPhone. This is from someone who is not tech savvy and who has never owned an iPhone before.

Anyway, you slice it, the iPhone 4S is a disappointment and not because of the body design or small screen size. Apple almost caught up to everyone else but I expect Apple to set the bar each year, not come in right under the bar.

So enlighten us. What should Apple have come up with to set this bar you speak of?

----------

You obviously don't know Apple that well. They are NEVER on the leading edge when it comes to specs, they ALWAYS play is safe with proven stable and often slower pieces.

More importantly, they focus on user experience, not so much on the latest and greatest specs. If the user experience is great, who gives a flip about the specs? The geeks do, that's pretty much it.

 

[drew0020]

So enlighten us. What should Apple have come up with to set this bar you speak of?

Before the announcement I said I thought Apple was in a tough spot because they waited 16 months. I also said I didn’t think LTE was ready yet, but I would have liked to have seen the following:

1. No glass back
2. HSDPA + with speeds up to 21mbps
3. Facetime HD camera
4. Bigger battery
5. Larger screen (3.7”-3.8”)
6. Updated proximity sensor, because its terrible on the iPhone 4
7. NFC
8. And most importantly $199/299 for 32GB and 64GB

 

[SerrQ]

I think the main disappointment is that apple needed to wait that long to release something that they could release in June.. And I'm talking about the A5.

iPhone 4 is actually enough imo.

 

[dvrmstrng]

I am only disappointed because AT&T isn't moving up my upgrade eligibility. 12/25/2011 FTL!!!

 

[mohrt]

I think the main disappointment is that apple needed to wait that long to release something that they could release in June.. And I'm talking about the A5.

iPhone 4 is actually enough imo.

Maybe. But you have to consider that Verizon just got the phone a few months before, and would probably not have been happy to see a new phone so soon after locking into their contracts. Timing.

 

[jameslikeness]

5. Larger screen (3.7”-3.8”)

You're disappointed that you didn't get .2" of extra screen? That's a little silly.

Most of this thread is exactly in line with what I've been thinking. I admit that directly after the announcements I was disappointed, but then I sat back and realized that the only thing I'm not seeing in the iPhone 4S that I thought I would see in the iPhone 5 is a redesigned form factor. And to be disappointed about that feels dumb when the iPhone 4 form factor was already really beautiful.

I can't help but feel like all this disappointment is exactly the same thing that we saw when people complained about the iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS update. At first everyone thought, "Wow, good job Apple. Same phone, except slightly faster and with a slightly better camera." But now, hindsight being what it is, we can clearly look back and say that Apple made a really big step forward in the 3GS. I feel confident that we'll be able to say the same thing about the 4S.

 

[Globetrotter]

Bingo.

I think it's clear Apple planned early on to only release the iphone 4S.

However, their plan got delayed (likely due to battery issues, and Siri problems) and instead of June it was released in October.

They didn't have time to suddenly re-work a new iphone 5 (those of you who work producing hardware/software will know the lead times on these kind of products) so they were basically in a lose/lose position.

However, I'm still disappointed - I think they should have planned an 18 month lead time to deliver the iphone 5, rather than 12 months for iphone 4S.

Phone customers are very fickle.

 

[Reach9]

So enlighten us. What should Apple have come up with to set this bar you speak of?

----------



More importantly, they focus on user experience, not so much on the latest and greatest specs. If the user experience is great, who gives a flip about the specs? The geeks do, that's pretty much it.

Focus on user experience? Apple spent most of the event, when talking about the iPhone, talking about the specs of the thing.

I posted this in a similar thread:

I think that's the big deal. internal component, people obviously wanted to see an external change. Absolutely ANY external change would have made this the best upgrade yet. Any being either one of these:

1) Bigger screen, maybe 3.8".
2) Rounded out the edges so it's easier on hand
3) Using another material instead of glass back

Apple could have VERY easily done this if they wanted to, but they decided against it. And that's what bugged people.

Yes, If Apple had tossed the iPhone 4 internals into the tapered design, then it would wow people. Because the iPhone 4S talked so much about the internals, that it sounded like a Samsung phone. People didn't give a damn about the inside, the average consumer couldn't care less.

 

[Number 41]

Disappointment that there are now two tiers of customers to Apple:

Those on the even-year upgrade cycle who get new products.
Those on the odd-year upgrade cycle who get old products.

The latter of those two get stuck every other year watching cool new stuff come out and having to wait a year to buy it.

 

[mohrt]

Before the announcement I said I thought Apple was in a tough spot because they waited 16 months. I also said I didn’t think LTE was ready yet, but I would have liked to have seen the following:

1. No glass back
2. HSDPA + with speeds up to 21mbps
3. Facetime HD camera
4. Bigger battery
5. Larger screen (3.7”-3.8”)
6. Updated proximity sensor, because its terrible on the iPhone 4
7. NFC
8. And most importantly $199/299 for 32GB and 64GB

1. Glass back, personal preference. The glass isn't scratch prone like the old aluminum back, and I kind of like it.
2. LTE is just not ready yet, we knew that one.
3. The front camera is pretty much just for Facetime, so this is so you can see the hairs in their nose? You can already flip the camera around to the back to show things in better detail. I guess it would be a nice update, not a big deal breaker.
4. It has longer talk and surfing time, so battery life is already an improvement (?)
5. Bigger screen, that was most hyped rumor, and probably the biggest reason for all the "disappointment." My thoughts are already posted earlier.
6. AFAIK the proximity sensor was fixed in a software update?
7. It's hard to tell if NFC (at this point) would be widely adopted, Apple must have decided not. I guess that is what next year will tell us.
8. The cost of production is still too high to hit those price points. It would be nice if they can find a way, but I don't see it.

Thanks for the list, good stuff!

 

[Reach9]

1. Glass back, personal preference. The glass isn't scratch prone like the old aluminum back, and I kind of like it.
2. LTE is just not ready yet, we knew that one.
3. The front camera is pretty much just for Facetime, so this is so you can see the hairs in their nose? You can already flip the camera around to the back to show things in better detail. I guess it would be a nice update, not a big deal breaker.
4. It has longer talk and surfing time, so battery life is already an improvement (?)
5. Bigger screen, that was most hyped rumor, and probably the biggest reason for all the "disappointment." My thoughts are already posted earlier.
6. AFAIK the proximity sensor was fixed in a software update?
7. It's hard to tell if NFC (at this point) would be widely adopted, Apple must have decided not. I guess that is what next year will tell us.
8. The cost of production is still too high to hit those price points. It would be nice if they can find a way, but I don't see it.

Thanks for the list, good stuff!

drew0020, you can't make people like mohrt understand. People like him will buy anything Apple comes up with.

The brain is such a powerful tool right? It'll make you believe whatever you put your mind to, even making sense out of Apple releasing an underwhelming product.

 

[mohrt]

Focus on user experience? Apple spent most of the event, when talking about the iPhone, talking about the specs of the thing.

Yes, they focused a lot on spec at this event, that is what it's all about. Who watches these events? The geeks do, not the mainstream. The mainstream watches the media hype and goes to the phone store and picks out a phone.

 

[MonkeySee....]

I couldn’t disagree more. Apple waited 16 months (eternity in cell phone time) to upgrade:

- A5-its been out in the iPad 2 for almost 7 months and most other high end smartphones have dual core chips already
- Worse standby battery life
- New antenna design because the old one that wasn’t flawed apparently was flawed!
- 2X data speed AT&T only and not capable of greater than 14.4 which is another disappointment
- iOS5 is ok. Notifications are 3 years late. I like wireless sync though.
- Cards. Seriously?
- Siri looks cool so I give them credit for this, but ill rarely use it

My boss has been waiting for the new Verizon iPhone for the past 2 months. She has a blackberry now. She said she almost called me last night because she was so disappointed in the new iPhone. This is from someone who is not tech savvy and who has never owned an iPhone before.

Anyway, you slice it, the iPhone 4S is a disappointment and not because of the body design or small screen size. Apple almost caught up to everyone else but I expect Apple to set the bar each year, not come in right under the bar.

Probably because you minced about the office giving her the impression it was going to be a completely new redesigned phone.

Its all your fault. She should fire you.