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The iPhone 5 was announced three days ago and whilst, it had initially made some noise, some existing consumers found themselves sitting on the fence; indecisive of whether to purchase it. I on the other hand, was on a completely different boat. Prior to the announcement, I was eager to jump ship from Android so that I could give up the taste of Jelly Bean on my HTC One X for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 and after yesterday, I just simply wasn't impressed enough. Sure Apple's new iPod Touch and Nano look great, but the iPhone 5 is beginning to feel more mid-range than anything.
Yes, I know the iPhone and iOS do not need hardware to function well, iOS runs well on older iPod Touches, but what happened to pushing the boundaries of innovation? The iPhone 5 has an almost on-par HD resolution due to Apple's retina display but natively the device has a native resolution of 1136 x 640 at an 16:9 aspect ratio. Sure that's great, but a device without a native HD resolution at this moment in time is a game-changer even if it offers a real widescreen experience. It wasn't just screens and hardware though; I just felt Apple had nothing cool to show apart from the iPhone, especially seeing how well-executed Google's I/O conference was in June.
Image credit: Into Mobile
I'm not being a fan boy either, the difference between Google's conference and Apple's is quite substantial and I definitely think Google had a lot of great things to show, such as Google Now, revamped Google+ apps, Nexus Q, Nexus 7 and of course, Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). I was really looking forward to Apple nailing this conference, but to me it felt like they fell short software-wise more than hardware. Even the 4-inch screen upgrade seems irrelevant. My first 4-inch device was the HTC HD2 which I bought three years ago, so it's really hard for me to consider that an innovative step forward.
The term iSheep is used worldwide to describe the large number of consumers primarily paying for the Apple branding regardless of how good or bad a product may be or not, and I really feel that with the capabilities of the iPhone 5 considered, phones like the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X are better options, and if you should buy an iPhone it should be based on nothing but familiarity with the OS, because like I said previously; in terms of hardware and software, this iPhone seems to be lacking something.
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As we saw on Jimmy Kimmel, the advancements of iPhones is so minimal that the general public have problems identifying the new model from the older 4S model. This surely says something about both the phone and its consumers. The users claimed the device was superior than the 4S, when it actually was the device in question. You could argue that iOS runs very well on both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, but even with that considered, advancements should be noticable.
My summary of the conference lead me to believe that there haven't been much advancements since the iPhone 4S, and when you really think about it, the only real differences this year are Apple's 4-inch retina display, and the fact that Apple is embracing 4G as it begins to expand across more countries worldwide. Considering the fact Samsung has already manufactured a chipset capable of outputting resolutions greater than Apple's retina display, I'd say it's really only a matter of time before Apple devices are completely obsolete.
The marketshare currently shows Android owning over 50% whilst Apple owns over 30%; specifically over 500 million Android devices have been activated, so imagine what that'll be like next year or the year after. Android seems to be rapidly evolving and it really does seem; especially after Apple's conference, that Apple has nothing to implement into iPhones and iOS that can even compete with Google's refinements to Android. The only way I see Apple dominating the market again is by filing patent lawsuits against Google and its OEMs; which we can agree is something Apple will likely do after seeing it go head to head with Samsung and win.
Image credit: TechCrunch
However, I'm looking at the bigger picture. The fact is: I actually wanted an iPhone this year and I personally felt that Apple fell short, but that doesn't mean everyone else feels the same, so if there's anything you feel Apple should have incorporated or changed, let us know. We'd also like to hear from people actually buying the phone, and those jumping ships from other platforms.
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