Could Apple really lose the race?

[PatriotInvasion]

So, for years now, I've been an avid Apple fan. I've owned the black MacBook, 15" MacBook Pro, and my current 27" iMac. Along with those computers, I've owned the iPad 2, iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and now the 4S.

I've always felt like I was on the cutting edge of technology and had a leg up on every sucker out there with a crappy Dell spyware loaded computer and clunky Android device that was kinda, sorta like the iPhone, but not quite as good.

Now, with increasing competition, Android handsets have really taken off to the point that they've surpassed the iPhone in a number of key areas. Behind multiple hardware manufacturers and some impressive software development by Google, I can actually say I'm a little jealous of phones like the Galaxy S3, HTC OneX, and some others.

My question is whether or not Apple feels a greater sense of urgency with this upcoming keynote given that Google is gaining ground in a hurry. And, is Google really positioned to make Apple #2 in the mobile space, or will Apple respond with some major counter-punches? I'm sure there are threads like this, but looking for some fresh perspective. Will you consider an Android device if the next iPhone is just "blah"? I think I might. I don't buy a ton of apps and my music collection is mostly DRM free. The ecosystem is not as big of a "barrier to exit" as it may be for others.

 

[MacDawg]

Will you consider an Android device if the next iPhone is just "blah"? I think I might.

My current 4s is far from "blah" to me, so no, I won't be getting an Android device
In fact, I will prolly get the next generation of iPhone as well

 

[CallOfDuty]

So, for years now, I've been an avid Apple fan. I've owned the black MacBook, 15" MacBook Pro, and my current 27" iMac. Along with those computers, I've owned the iPad 2, iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and now the 4S.

I've always felt like I was on the cutting edge of technology and had a leg up on every sucker out there with a crappy Dell spyware loaded computer and clunky Android device that was kinda, sorta like the iPhone, but not quite as good.

Now, with increasing competition, Android handsets have really taken off to the point that they've surpassed the iPhone in a number of key areas. Behind multiple hardware manufacturers and some impressive software development by Google, I can actually say I'm a little jealous of phones like the Galaxy S3, HTC OneX, and some others.

My question is whether or not Apple feels a greater sense of urgency with this upcoming keynote given that Google is gaining ground in a hurry. And, is Google really positioned to make Apple #2 in the mobile space, or will Apple respond with some major counter-punches? I'm sure there are threads like this, but looking for some fresh perspective. Will you consider an Android device if the next iPhone is just "blah"? I think I might.

I am considering the S3 as the next candidate to replacement my iPhone 4 if the next iPhone is not up to my expectations. I simply REALLY want a newer processor, and maybe a larger screen. (Strange, right? I simply love specs) But many are saying that it will be simply a die shrunk A5 chip which will be a deal breaker for me. I would be better off getting a 4S in that case!

But of course, getting the 4S does not mean being ahead of everyone else, so probably the S3 for me!

I would have gotten the S3 as my prime candidate for my next phone, but I'm currently stuck in the ecosystem. Can't get out, but yet don't really want to . Its simply so seamless to sync with my iPad and Macbook pro over the air and having my things on all 3 devices. Oh yeah, theres my iPod touch too.
Once you get in, you will find it hard to get out.

 

[pblakk]

Kinda hard to say, but just on a very basic level anyway I think the iPhone is just too polished and refined to lose any significant users/followers. The masses love the ease of use, and balanced product that the iPhone has been. I'm sure the iPhone 5 will be another powerful device with outstanding browsing, gaming, and overall performance.

 

[navajarunner]

If the keynote announcement for the new iphone wasnt so close, I would've already gotten the Galaxy S3. I've had the iphone since the 3G and if the next one is indeed what the leaks have shown, hello Android.

I really want to run out and get the S3 now but I keep telling myself to wait until the official announcement to confirm how I want it to play out.

...then again I may fall into the apple trance :/

 

[pblakk]

I am considering the S3 as the next candidate to replacement my iPhone 4 if the next iPhone is not up to my expectations. I simply REALLY want a newer processor, and maybe a larger screen. (Strange, right? I simply love specs) But many are saying that it will be simply a die shrunk A5 chip which will be a deal breaker for me. I would be better off getting a 4S in that case!

But of course, getting the 4S does not mean being ahead of everyone else, so probably the S3 for me!

I would have gotten the S3 as my prime candidate for my next phone, but I'm currently stuck in the ecosystem. Can't get out, but yet don't really want to . Its simply so seamless to sync with my iPad and Macbook pro over the air and having my things on all 3 devices. Oh yeah, theres my iPod touch too.
Once you get in, you will find it hard to get out.

All you can do is try living with the s3 for a couple weeks or so, and see if you can survive. Then you'll know for sure or have a much better idea. The new androids are FAR too large for me. I think they're designed for powerful portable gaming but of course are 4g powerhouses too, IF that's a major thing for you. I can live with a longer iPhone, but anything wider gets annoying very quickly for me.

 

[Tones2]

The Galaxy Note 2 is being announced Aug 29. Even better than the S3. I switched to the S3 this year and I am EXTREMELY happy with this choice, but now the Note 2 is making me drool.

i.e. If you want a big screen, don't wait. We all know what the iPhone 5 will look like.

 

[mattopotamus]

All you can do is try living with the s3 for a couple weeks or so, and see if you can survive. Then you'll know for sure or have a much better idea. The new androids are FAR too large for me. I think they're designed for powerful portable gaming but of course are 4g powerhouses too, IF that's a major thing for you. I can live with a longer iPhone, but anything wider gets annoying very quickly for me.

The Galaxy Note 2 is being announced Aug 29. Even better than the S3. I switched to the S3 this year and I am EXTREMELY happy with this choice, but now the Note 2 is making me drool.

i.e. If you want a big screen, don't wait. We all know what the iPhone 5 will look like.

Size really seems to be the deciding factor for a lot of people. Also, like someone else mentioned they have bought into the apple ecosystem, which I have too and when I went to the S3 it was something that immediately annoyed me. I left my appletv remote at my house when going to my girlfriends house....my iphone has an app for that, I was **** out of luck with the S3 in hand.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

I'm actually sort of considering the Galaxy Note II. I had an iPhone 4S and an iPad 2 but ended up selling the iPad due to feeling like it was just a luxury device that was overkill given the iPhone. I like the idea of a "phablet" and I have the pocket space to support a 5.5" screen.

We'll see. Odds are I am preordering the next iPhone, but if the keynote is as predictable and lame as some are expecting, I may be doing the unthinkable and going Android. For someone as Apple-crazed as I am, it should worry Apple that someone like me feels this way.

 

[Tones2]

This is definitely the very first year that I've seen so many people both switching or thinking about it. Yet Apple set a stock market capitalization value record yesterday and had their all time highest stock price, so go figure.

I certainly don't think Apple's in any short term trouble - the iPhone 5 will sell like hotcakes - but if they don't start to get more timely with modern cell phone features, they could be in for trouble on the phone side in a few years. They'll probably have switched focus to TV by then, though.

 

[Small White Car]

Apple is still making more money than any other phone manufacturer by a long shot.

You'll say "Well, I don't care, I judge a phone, not the company."

Yes, but what are you really asking in your original post?

Is Apple going to be forced out of the market? No
Is Apple going to have to change what they're doing in any way? No
Is Apple's influence over the carriers going to wane? No


So while you don't have to care about profits, per se, the fact that they are so absurdly high answers a lot of your questions outright.

 

[Apple OC]

have you heard the latest Apple news ... 660+ billion dollars

Apple is not worried that you feel the way you do ... for the majority of cell phone users, an iPhone is overkill anyways.

IMO ... Apple has nothing to worry about and I believe the upcoming iPhone will be their biggest seller ever

 

[THE JUICEMAN]

I went through this same delimma over the last few months. I saw iOS6 and the leaked parts and was not impressed.

So I went out and bout a Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Returned because of poor battery life, Pentile screen quality, and no Jellybean.

Got myself an unlocked Galaxy Nexus. Returned because of a completely different reason. I had jellybean now and better battery life. But I missed little things about my iPhone. A few things were the mute switch, tap clock to scroll to the top anywhere in the OS, the keyboard, scrolling, zooming, text editing, screen quality, etc.

Then I thought I'll see what the hype is all about and try a Galaxy S3. I went to the store and played around with it (I had done this several times before). As I was issuing the device it was fast and nice but some of the features i.e. tap to scroll to the top did not work very well at all. Then just using the OS in general was kind of blah to me as the OP says. Widgets and all the extras are okay but not great. Plus, I will jailbreak to get what I need. So, I put the S3 down and went to the iPhone 4S display (I own a 4). As soon as I picked up the phone it felt better. Not only the hardware build quality but the software as well. I admit I am used to iOS but it was just so smooth, fast, consistent, everything worked well and looked beautiful even on the smaller screen. It sounds cliche but it was just a pleasure to use.

I don't have much invested in the ecosystem so what I described above is what is keeping me with iPhone.

Overall I am VERY glad that I tried these phones and got the geeky "itch" out of me to get a new phone. It made me appreciate iPhone even more. This is my opinion. I hope it helps.

 

[xmarcuswildx]

Problem is i think alot of people expected a complete redesign of the iPhone 5. And as far as the leaks go theres not much different going into this phone other then an elongated screen and iOS6. OS6 is much different from previous iterations of ios. It appears that apple seems to be falling behind in that aspect compared to the software of other phones companies. I have had an iPhone since day 1 of the original iphone and have swore by iphones and hated on droids since then. This is the first time I can officially say that I am clearly disappointed with the way apple is going with the next iphone. Hopefully these leaks are not going to turn out to be the actual phone but at this point im sure were all almost about 90% sure that this is indeed the next iphone. I may end up finally breaking away from apple on this next iteration. I still have my white iphone 4 because the 4s wasnt enough of an upgrade for me to even bother.

 

[cheesygrin]

I think you may be slightly missing the main appeal of Apple products. As someone working in the IT industry for the last 8 years, what drove me to Apple products was not an impressively long feature list.

It was the simplicity, the unparalleled build quality, the way each feature was carefully thought out and usually worked exactly as expected. Coming from a PC background, it was a breath of fresh air for me to have a computer and a phone that - and I hate to use an advertising slogan, but here goes anyway - just worked. I may not have the absolute latest or the absolute greatest technically, but what I do have works, is good quality and causes me no stresses whatsoever.

I still work in IT with regular PCs, laptops, servers, BlackBerrys and Androids each day, and if I didn't I would probably forget over time just how grateful I am to be able to go home to my Mac and iOS devices. They're not perfect by any means, but I wouldn't swap them if you paid me.

 

[Stuntman06]

The iPhone has a pretty large following. To switch from an iPhone to an Android or any other phone involves not just getting a new device. You have the leave the whole iOS ecosystem which you may have already be heavily invested in.

Apple has a very valuable and recognisable brand. For people who are getting their first smartphone, they recognise the Apple name and the iPhone name. My wife and in-laws know nothing about smartphones and yet they want to get iPhones which they did. Android and Android manufacturers are trying to gain ground here, but I feel Apple still holds the lead in this respects.

As for other top end phones like the SGS3, for people who are used to the iPhone, it will just feel different. You really have to make an adjustment when switching phones and phone OS's. When you pick up a different phone running a different OS, things don't work as you expect because it is different and you can get a little frustrated. It happens when someone familiar with iOS uses and Android phone and vice versa.

The one big advantage that other manufactures have over Apple is the variety of devices. Apple will likely only come out with one device. There are advantages to this, however the lack of variety is something that may make people look at non-Apple devices. I was one of them.

 

[MacDawg]

I'm not drawn to a "new design" just because I am "bored" with the current design of either the hardware or the software. And I am not looking for some new bell and whistle that drains the battery. (we want this, this and this AND better battery, sheesh).

I see the Android family throwing any and everything out there and certainly some of it sticks for different groups.

I like the iPhone
I like the current design
I don't need a longer screen, but hey, I'm OK with it
I like iOS
I like the new features coming in iOS 6

I don't see this as a race Apple can win or lose
I see it as choices, and I like mine

 

[tootall]

Personally, my old iPhone 4 does extremely well everything that I need so the only real reason why I might change it is to have a "new shiny toy". In that respect, the current new iPhone mockups really entice me much less than the androids (Note, S3, ...) phones. However, because I am very much invested in the apple ecosystem, if the new iPhone is not sexy (in its form factor) I will just be happy to keep my old iPhone.

I am sure there are some people that think like I do and those will be clients lost by apple until the following new phone...

 

[Dwalls90]

Americans have always had issues with "size". Bigger cars, homes, ect. Often sacrificing quality in the mean time.

The Galaxy phones felt like toys in my hand. Hell, even the GS II felt and looked like a more professional device than the candy blue GS III. I didn't miss the large screen of the Galaxy after switching to the iPhone again.

Apple won't lose, and it's not a race. They are the most profitable manufacturer, that's a win in my book.

BMW's aren't the most commonly sold car but are surely more sought after than a Honda, it's not about quantity sold. Similarly, they often have smaller engines than their American equivalent performance vehicle, yet are still high performin cars.

"Size" and "quantity sold" aren't indicative of the quality of a product, IMO.

 

[Geckotek]

How do you define a "loser" in this race? Apple is one company with one model against lots of companies with different models. Who are you comparing and what metrics are you comparing on?

 

[PatriotInvasion]

Good posts. These reactions make me feel better understanding that the grass may not be greener on the other side. I think I may be taking iOS for granted assuming Jelly Bean is just as polished.

I just think that the 3.5" screen was ground breaking in 2007, but is severely dated in 2012. Back then, going from a flip-phone to a 4.8" S3 would have been too drastic, but now people are accustomed to these touchscreen phones and appreciate bigger screens.

Apple has pinned themselves in a corner, worried about fragmentation of resolutions and developers getting mad when in reality, developers will adjust their apps if the market is there. Even the 16:9 ratio of the next iPhone is simply to make a bigger screen without having to mess with the horizontal resolution of 640 pixels. So we get this odd 1136x640 display. Apple should just go to 4.3 or 4.5" and say "we weren't the first to do this, but we think we did it the best" like they did with multitasking. The developers will adjust and there won't be this major point of differentiation that Android phones have. Problem solved for guys like me.

 

[willmtaylor]

I'm not drawn to a "new design" just because I am "bored" with the current design of either the hardware or the software. And I am not looking for some new bell and whistle that drains the battery. (we want this, this and this AND better battery, sheesh).

I see the Android family throwing any and everything out there and certainly some of it sticks for different groups.

I like the iPhone
I like the current design
I don't need a longer screen, but hey, I'm OK with it
I like iOS
I like the new features coming in iOS 6

I don't see this as a race Apple can win or lose
I see it as choices, and I like mine

The nice thing about the Android "family" is there is a different flavor for everyone. Want more bells? Get X. What more whistles? Get Y. Want better battery life? Get Z.

The issue with Apple is you have Ive & Co. making executive decisions (rightly so as they're well-compensated executives) on which trade-offs to make and what is the best final product. (B/c they make 1 product with a handful of variations.) Of course this involves hard decisions, but that's what they get paid to do.

So, yes, some people will be aggravated, b/c the latest iToy doesn't have their favorite widget & dongle, but that's the beauty of living in a free country with a free market: you piss & moan on these forums all day long and you can vote and show your allegiances with your pocketbook.

God bless America.

----------

How do you define a "loser" in this race? Apple is one company with one model against lots of companies with different models. Who are you comparing and what metrics are you comparing on?

I wondered the same thing; I think the analogy is a reach (or perhaps just a poor choice of words in an attempt for a clever and concise headline).

 

[asr10 user]

I think they could. I switched to a Galaxy S3 because ios6 is a joke to me. And the new I phone looks too similar to the 4.

I have to say this generation will be a turning point with Apple. They will probably lose this time, and regroup for something awesome next gen.

Ios and android are very similar both have lots of pros and cons. Don't let anyone fool you, android is almost as good as ios. Apple still has the best looking and feeling hardware.

 

[faroZ06]

I'm using an iPhone 4, and I must say that it's better than the Nexus in many ways, and it's definitely the best phone for me. Syncing to the PC is a big deal, and the only way to make a Nexus talk to a PC is with the buggy Android File Transfer (Yes, it no longer shows up as a regular storage drive ).

 

[BaldiMac]

I have to say this generation will be a turning point with Apple. They will probably lose this time, and regroup for something awesome next gen.

Lose what?

Ios and android are very similar both have lots of pros and cons. Don't let anyone fool you, android is almost as good as ios.

Almost as good at what?