I'm so so bored with all the hype that comes with new apple products. Further more it's not even Apple that are creating all the hype, it's the media. It seems that I can't even open an industry related web page without seeing some dickwad pundit's verbal diarrhea on what Apple is going to say/release today. Yet go to Apple's site and there's nothing whatsoever about today.
Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite
By Dan Lyons
Creator of the 'Fake Steve' blog
Apple unveils the latest version of its iPhone this Wednesday. It will be the first since the death of Steve Jobs.
To mark the occasion the BBC asked Dan Lyons, Newsweek magazine's technology editor and creator of the satirical blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, to pen an article about the firm's progress over past year.
This is his provocative view.
Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming.
Back in 2006 I launched a blog where I pretended to be Apple CEO Steve Jobs. My alter ego, "Fake Steve," had a good run, but I shut it down in January 2011 when it became apparent that Jobs was in poor health. Nevertheless, even now, I'm constantly wondering what Steve would think about whatever Apple is doing.
This week it's the the iPhone 5. Everyone pretty much accepts that Apple will introduce it, and there have been so many leaks that everybody pretty much seems to know what it's going to be. Word is it will look a lot like the last two versions of the iPhone, except a bit thinner and a bit taller, with upgraded guts and a refreshed operating system.
If that's correct, I imagine Steve is not happy. First of all, he'd be furious about the leaks. Steve liked surprising people.
More important, is this really the best we can expect from an outfit that claims to be the most innovative company in the world? This is the sixth version of the iPhone, and the user interface still looks almost exactly like the original iPhone in 2007.
The hardware on the iPhone has been the same for two years, since the iPhone 4 and 4S were virtually identical.
Now, having had two years to plot and scheme, Apple's renowned designer Jonathan Ive has replaced the tiny 3.5in (8.9cm) screen with a slightly-less-tiny 4in (10.2cm) screen? Wow. Knock me over with a feather. What do you do with the rest of your time, Jony?
This is what happens when a company is too cheap to invest in research and development. Did you know that Apple spends far less on R&D than any of its rivals - a paltry 2% of revenues, versus 14% for Google and Microsoft?
No wonder the Android platform, where new models appear every week, now represents 68% of the smartphone market, up from 47% a year ago, while Apple slid to 17% over the same period.
In case you're bad at maths, let me work that out for you: Android's market share is now four times that of Apple. Four times!
Worse, despite all its bluster about innovation, Apple has become a copycat, and not even a good one. Why is Apple making the iPhone bigger? To keep up with the top Android phones.
(Phones that, mind you, Apple fanboys ridiculed at first.)
The problem is that the new iPhone won't really give you much more screen real estate than the old one. Worse, it looks ridiculous.
Apple also has become a copycat in tablets. Jobs once said the iPad's 9.7in screen was the perfect size, and smaller tablets made no sense. Then the Android camp had success with 7in tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7, and now Apple supposedly will announce its own smaller iPad in October. Talk about thinking different!
What else is there to complain about?
Um, Siri still doesn't work. The oft-rumoured Apple TV doesn't exist yet, presumably because media companies won't let Apple take over their business.
The latest batch of Apple ads were such embarrassing garbage that Apple had to take them down from YouTube. Apple's new guy in charge of retail launched a plan to lay off workers and boost profits, then had to walk it back when people pointed out that this was stupid.
The big $1bn (£650m) patent "victory" over Samsung made Apple look like a bully, and also raised awareness of how good Samsung's latest products are.
Last month, Samsung's Galaxy S3, with its huge 4.8in screen, outsold the iPhone 4S in the United States, the first time any smartphone has outsold the iPhone in the States.
Apple got where it was by taking bold risks. Now it has become a company that copies others and plays it safe.
A company that once was run by a product visionary now is run by a number-cruncher - chief executive Tim Cook, whose claim to fame involves running an efficient supply chain and beating ever lower prices out of Asian subcontractors and component suppliers.
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.
Apple seems less interested in blowing people away than it is in milking profit out of the existing lineup. At this Cook is doing marvellously well.
Sales are booming and will top $150bn this year, with net profit margins of nearly 30%. That's incredible in any business, but qualifies as a miracle when you're selling consumer electronics hardware.
Apple has more than $100bn in cash. Its market value of $632bn makes it the biggest company in the world, bigger than any company in US history.
That's great for Apple's shareholders. But for customers, who cares? In terms of products, Apple has become the one thing it should never be. Apple has become boring.
Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming.
Apple are certainly not stupid and there must be a reason why they're releasing this phone now, with the specs it has (and if it's only to float the market with used Iphones, so that people who never had an Iphone would consider buying one.)
Really, where'd you hear that? I know someone who is desperately waiting for one as they just smashed their old one and were told by Verizon it will be the end of the month before anything is available...
Their store is "down"...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19572820
All my existing accessories won't work, but who cares! Icons! More!
Do people really get excited about that?
Anyway, thanks to leaks and sneak peaks there were no real surprises here.
According to its technical specs , the European version will support only one of the 3 initially major LTE bands. It will have:
-1 (2100 MHz)
-3 (1800 MHz)
-5 (850 MHz)
850 MHz is mainly for America.
2100 MHz will eventually be used 4G, but not yet as it is busy with 3G.
Right now there are 4G networks being built in Europe on 800, 1800 and 2600 MHz. And the iPhone 5 only supports one of them! And not even the one that will be specifically auctioned for 4G (800 MHz), and also the one that offers the best coverage because the lowest the frequency, the best the coverage.
And this, from the most expensive handset out there.
Good stuff Apple.
You won't have the best LTE experience with an iPhone 5, because it won't be able to connect to 800 MHz.
In cities it will be great (I suppose), but if you go to the mountains it will lose 4G signal before a phone that can connect to 800 MHz. The lower the frequency band, the better the signal propagates.
...and was completely under whelmed.
Its a little thinner, has Retina and a quad-core processor. Which are all things that have been available in Android phones for months now. But the Android phones generally have bigger screens.
Meh. Snore.
Apart from that: breaking compatibility with all existing accessories for no apparent reason is a moronic move. Yes, you can by the 40 fr. adapter, but that will make the phone longer by another inch.
it's despairing, calls and sms never sent or received, calls that can't get through, connection breaking for no reason at all...
I would consider switching to 5 only if the telephone quality has seriously improved.
The iPhone 5 supports HD voice. However, that only works if both ends have HD voice-capable handsets and if both are on Swisscom's or Orange's 3G network while you're talking. There are just too many factors involved to make this usable.