Some things happen once a year; Christmas, Easter, your birthday, your anniversary or your family holiday! In the same category is Apple's iPhone release! (Obviously it's importance equals the previous bunch!).
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| Wouldn't you love it to look like this? |
But, what does Apple's iPhone need to be to maintain their dominance and hold the position of the highest selling single handset?
Before we tackle that it's worth remembering that Apple makes and sells millions of devices at premium price points and it's this premium that means they cannot afford to get complacent! The iPhone 4S was widely viewed as a disappointment; on the surface the device didn't change, the internals changed slightly. Some viewed it as Apple putting in minimum effort, others viewed it as a genius stroke and asked why change something that is 'exceptional' already? Apple can't afford for the next device to be average, it needs to blow people away again.
Who needs to be wow-ed?
You may ask why? Yes Apple will always have that core of people who buy anything Apple produces, the fanboys, if you will. But, Apple has competent challengers like never before. There are lots of people out there who have had their heads to Samsung's high end devices and the wonders of Android. I'm sitting in a room now with, 5 Samsung phones, a HTC and a dumbphone. The Samsung's sales to us have included 2 Galaxy S3's and some lower-end Android powered phones.
"It's very hard to justify buying an iPhone 4S over a Galaxy S3, unless you're very heavily invested in iOS."
We are the people Apple needs to win back with larger, more appealing devices because at the moment it's very hard to justify buying an iPhone 4S over a Galaxy S3, unless you're very heavily invested in iOS. Apple must reverse this to ensure their dominance. The next iPhone needs to wow people in a way the 4S doesn't when faced with the competition.
Apple releases the iPhone at a challenging time of year!
It's also worth remembering that Apple's releases are effectively half a year behind HTC, Samsung, LG and their crop of Android power houses. HTC and LG tend to release their phones in late January/early February, while Samsung has their Galaxy S range announcements in May. These guys have a whole half a year to offer up superior phones before Apple can come back with something just as good. Apple should try to best these competitors with their September release instead of playing catch up to the ones that their competitors just release! So please bare in mind that next year will usher in quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro's as standard, 1080p screen as standard, so the iPhone will have some serious competition within 5 months and the new 'set' of Nexus' within a couple of months of the release!
Will patents affect anything?
There's not just pressure from other companies devices, Apple as a whole company needs to be wary of patent lawsuits too. If the company decides to go on an offensive and get hoards of devices banned from sale for various reasons they will become 'the bad guy' and consumers will start to punish them. But, this is something Apple should have the foresight to both predict and avoid. This is pretty much the only way Apple can go wrong with the next iPhone!
So what would TheTechFella like to see from Apple's 'new iPhone'. Well if I had my way I would have a lot more than we're expecting.
What I want!
| Which would you go for? |
- I would love to see Apple step up to a 4.3" screen, this is almost the perfect size for ease of handling and giving you ample size to read everything you need to on your phone.
- On top of this I would love to see a good processor in this one, maybe the A5X or even a slightly more updated version of this chipset!
- On the storage front there has to be a minimum of 16GB's of storage and an SD card would be a dream come true, but it'll probably remain as just that, a dream.
- A metal chassis would be good, but anything that will make iPhone's less likely to smash than the current crop is!
- A metal chassis doesn't have to be dull and understated either! What about a range of colours like the iPod's have?!
| This is something like what Apple will release! |
- A 4" Retina display.
- Metal chassis, no glass in sight.
- An A5x chipset, the same one that's in the new iPad.
- A new charging/docking connector.
As a final word I'd just like to mention that whatever Apple makes it'll sell by the bucket load because it's a premium, high quality, well made, well supported and all round great device. Apple is now what Nokia used to be; the leader, the innovator and the top dog. But, the question is 'will Apple be able to cement their position as we head into 2013 and the next wave of superphones.
There's probably tonnes I've missed and there's probably things you'll disagree with in this post, let me know what you think in the comments!
There's probably tonnes I've missed and there's probably things you'll disagree with in this post, let me know what you think in the comments!
