Apple is more excited about the iPhone 5C and so am I.
blog.joshkerr.com
blog.joshkerr.com
Let me just quote my previous post, it's equally applicable here:
> Apple has never been able to make enough iPhones of each successive generation for people to get their hands on during the first few months after release. Whereas, once they've ramped up production, they tend to have all these parts left over in the pipeline that they have to sell off as N-1 gen hardware to price-sensitive late adopters. (This is also why the iPod Touch was originally created, to serve as a sink for N-2-gen parts.)
> Now, Apple are trying to shift the purchase frenzy to the N-1 gen, and position their new gen-N tech -- whose production hasn't yet been ramped up -- as something for early-adopters only. In other words, to switch from an (N-1, N) view of the world, to an (N, N+1) view.
> Everything in the S will filter down to the C of the next gen. They'll get their pipelines saturated with 5S parts just in time to wrap them in plastic and call them 6C parts. As long as more people buy Cs than Ss, this works out perfectly.
This is their strategy, working out perfectly.
I still wonder how they will position themselves now. Before, they had it simple. Last years model and the new one. And the new one was divided into "This year the spec bump of the old model, next year a brand new phone"
But now, they canned the "old model" and went with the "C" variant. So right now, there is the 5C and 5S. So what'll it be next year? Do they then use a 3 device line up? Will it be: 5C,5S and 6? And the year after that: 5S, 6C and 6S?
That's about 90% bathwater and 10% baby.
Yes, the vast majority of the time ordinary people use their flash, they really shouldn't be. But there are genuine situations where even snobs like us to need to just suck it up and break the no-flash streak.
The most obvious is when you're not trying to take a beautiful photo; you're just trying to take an accurate one -- like inside a crawlspace where something needs to be repaired.
And then there are the times when you only get one chance to capture something amazing, and there's not going to be time to set a long exposure and pray for no-blur. This happens a lot when children or animals are involved:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18575617@N03/2281710004/sizes/z...
But even in broad daylight with relatively still scenes, there are still flashworthy situations. For example, when all the light is behind the subject:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18575617@N03/2408341744/sizes/z...
(That one is from the days before HDR -- if the flash hadn't fired, either the subjects' faces would have been underexposed, or the sunny background would have been overexposed.)
Now, just to give equal time to the opposing side, this non-flash photo would have been absolutely ruined if the flash had been used:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18575617@N03/2407218105/sizes/z...
> In my book, there is never a scenario where it is okay to use a flash, if it is too dark to take the photo, then don’t take it.
Statements like this reminds me of audiophiles that refuse to listen to music on "substandard" audio gear. Real music lovers enjoy the content, and would rather have poor quality than no music at all. They love the music and not the equipment. The same applies here. No photo vs photo with suboptimal lighting, I'll take the latter.
Or, spend ten bucks and get a blue plastic case.
Every year a new phone is released, which has marginal improvements over the previous ones. But you know what? People will still buy it and Apple knows that very well.
At least Android devices give you the option to upgrade. I've been forced into iOS upgrades on devices we use in the enterprise that have been made obsolete because of new bloat we didn't need (nor can we downgrade).
Other than nexus phones, all android phones are at the mercy of the carrier and manufacturer. None of them get updated on the day a new version of android comes out, most experience long delays, and many see no major version bump.
When iOS 7 comes out next week there is no doubt I will be able to install it on my iPhone.
I own a nexus 4 and can not think of a single thing which i would switch to an iPhone 5 for. The only thing it is lacking is LTE support, which ill be happy without until my next phone.
side by side, they are very similar - http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5048&idPhone2=...
But the amazing thing is, the Nexus 4 (16GB) is now less than half the price of the iphone 5c (16GB). I cant justify ever looking at it compared to what i already have.
But I will say buying an overpriced iPhone is 1. kind of a status symbol, and that 2. for most people it is safer to have an iPhone because they don't know (and don't care to deal with) policing every single Android app's permission settings. So it's not like Apple's making a fool out of them (even though I see it that way and you seem to also).
I would be amazed if folks were upgrading from the iPhone 5 to the 5c in significant numbers.
I think the fact that you (and I) don't trust current camera flashes to make photos worth keeping is actually an argument that it's a problem worth fixing. It remains to be seen how successful the 5S flash will be, but I think it's cool they're trying. I'm also glad Apple made the sensor elements larger rather than cramming in more mega pixels. Normally that's a concern of the geeky DSLR consumers, and point & shooters suffer with noisy low-light performance and more pixels than they need.
However, I do see a couple of possible markets where the 5C may succeed. There's the Hello Kitty "anything in pastels is squeeeeee" crowd. This market includes little girls, people buying phones for little girls, and Josh Kerr apparently. IF the 5C proves more durable than the 5S it might also capture the tough-wear crowd that wants a phone that doesn't have to be hidden inside a giant blob of silicone to survive a 6" fall onto concrete. Let's face it, not many people are going to want the cases Apple is trying to sell for the 5C. I'm just speculating about the 5C's durability though. Plastic phones might not feel as nice in the hand, but if they use high quality plastic and are well built they do tend to survive better than phones made entirely out of metal and glass.
Will it sell? Never underestimate the Hello Kitty crowd!
For me, personally, that's worth paying extra money for, discounting all other differences at the hardware level, and it seems to be worth it for millions of other people too.
You have to understand that there are people in the world that make a solid value judgement that the iPhone is what they want and they can afford it, it's not bad value for their money, they want iOS, they don't mind being locked in to Apple's world _and_ that those are very sane choices to make.
That reasoning works, even in the face of a $199 unlocked Nexus 4.
Interesting observation on the 64-bit processor. From an enduser's point of view, what advantage does a 64-bit CPU have?
I haven't seen much other technical information about the A7 core, but it's likely this chip will be used in upcoming iPads, so perhaps there are other significant improvements.
Does anyone else know more about this?
Do people care about the color of their phone? Not enough color choice is not something I've heard as a complaint about the iPhone 5.
Are the millions of cases available not a reasonable solution for those who care about color?
Would I really buy an iPhone instead of an Android because I can get it in yellow and it ships with a yellow background screen?
The more likely explanation for the marketing difference is the lack of production capacity for the 5S and/or lower margins.
Wow, really? The iPhone 5C hasn't even shipped yet!
As it is I'm skipping the iPad Mini and getting a Nexus. Unless Apple suddenly comes out with one tomorrow with both Retina and fingerprint sensor the Mini is useless for everything but as a Kindle reader.
I am less worried about the NSA having my fingerprint as I am about crackers getting my passwords. If I was worried about that I'd go all Snowden and keep my phone in the freezer. But if even one instance of fingerprint information leaking out of the box Apple's keeping it in on the CPU surfaces, I may never trust Apple with that information.
Have you heard of Lumias?
A plastic colored body does not appeal to me in the least.
Even if you don't use the Touch ID and camera flash, the improved camera sensor size/aperture and processor speed in iPhone 5S is enough to justified the price difference.