Will the iPhone 5S be enough to compete against S4, One, N5?

[bmac4]

Since when did I say anything complaining about the difference/leap from S3 - S4 hardware wise?

Having thought the Samsung presentation was diabolical shambles is one thing, it does not mean I don't appreciate the S4 even if its not my own personal favourite of the forthcoming android handsets, or the one I am buying.

The reason I said nothing has changed Apple wise is because despite all your assertions that everyone is bored of the iPhone and the iPhone 5 was a dissapointment, at no point is that reflected in the actual sales figures. There is a complete disconnect from your assertion that there is mass boredom of iOS and iPhone and the actual sales figures which have increased year on year and continued to sell more units than the previous generation.

The very fact that Apple still gets this appreciable increase in units sold means that they must still be attracting a lot of new users - just like Android. Whilst undoubtably there will be migration between both Android & iOS on both sides - real growth is based normally on new users who never had a smartphone before.

Apple is not in trouble until they no longer attract new users or their sales figures from generation X are not greater than the generation before it. There is no real indication that this is the case and therefore despite Samsung's increasingly great performance sales wise too so its unlikely this year that Apple will see much change, and that is exactly what the thread title asks.

If anything Samsung's almost monopoly/success on Android sales could be argued be far more of a problem for other Android handset manufacturers than it is to Apple.

The second part of my post was directed at all the people on this thread that said that were complaining about the small leap. What I was quoting you for what the fact that you seem so sure the iphone will out sell everything. The S line has gotten more and more popular year after year and I see no reason they want this year. Let's just see about how well that iphone 5s does. And I never said anything about people being bored with iOS. I said a lot of people were saying the iphone 4s was just a spec bump. It still sold.

 

[jamojamo]

I have a lot of older family members and older aged friends that have been huge iPhone fans for years.

For the first time ever, I heard most of them say the past several months, their next phone will most likely be an Android for the first time, mainly for the screen size, they feel the iPhone screen is too small. And some said iOS feels a bit stale and boring, but overall saying the screen size.

My wife is planning to switch to a Android device in the late spring/summer, mainly for the screen size since she browses the web a lot on her phone, but also because she has used my Nexus 7 and seen that for her it will be a relatively straightforward switch. We've only found one App she uses that isn't on Android and she can use the iPad for that.

She's got the unlimited plan on AT&T and has been on iPhones since the plain old 3.

 

[Tig Bitties]

When I tell my family and friends I own a Nexus phone, they are like WTF is that I said it's Google pure phone, they look at me like, uh ok I said Google Android, they say oh ok heard of that, is that like a Galaxy or Droid phone ? LOL

Google did that to themselves. Isn't Google known for marketing and advertising #1 ? They sure screwed up the Android phone branding to the general public. Samsung's "Galaxy" brand name, is a household brand now.

Only people that know of a "Nexus" phone are [H]ard core geeks, no one else.

 

[marc11]

When I tell my family and friends I own a Nexus phone, they are like WTF is that I said it's Google pure phone, they look at me like, uh ok I said Google Android, they say oh ok heard of that, is that like a Galaxy or Droid phone ? LOL

Google did that to themselves. Isn't Google known for marketing and advertising #1 ? They sure screwed up the Android phone branding to the general public. Samsung's "Galaxy" brand name, is a household brand now.

Only people that know of a "Nexus" phone are [H]ard core geeks, no one else.

I disagree that the only people that know Nexus are hardcore geeks, with a capital H. It sold several millions, and if you add in the Nexus tablet, even more millions, they are not all geeks. While it may not be as well known as th Galaxy or iPhone, a lot of people know about the Nexus line especially after the success of the N4 and N7.

Also, look at the way you answer the questions from them "Google pure phone" even I said WTF? Then you say "Google Android Phone" again, WTF? Why not just answer it correctly, its a Nexus 4 phone, made by LG. Not much more to say really, is there?

 

[bmt134]

Apple has been out of the game with the launch of the 4S. Not sure why people are clinging to the 5S to save the day.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I disagree that the only people that know Nexus are hardcore geeks, with a capital H. It sold several millions, and if you add in the Nexus tablet, even more millions, they are not all geeks. While it may not be as well known as th Galaxy or iPhone, a lot of people know about the Nexus line especially after the success of the N4 and N7.

That's new in just the past 6 to 9 months. The Nexus 7 tablet being very popular, and the Nexus 4 is now popular.

But overall Nexus phone sales are super low, barely nothing overall in the smartphone market. Samsung's Galaxy Nexus was said to not even have sold 1 million in 12 months worldwide, I think I heard around 800,000 total, and the Nexus-S like 500,000, and Nexus-One even less.

How many Galaxy S3's sold last year, like 40 million or so. And the iPhone 5 even way more than that number. If you ad up all Nexus sales for four years straight, phones and tablets, I'd be surprised if the grand total was even five million.

Apple has like 320 million iPhone's sold since 2007, and Samsung like 100 million Galaxy S series. The Nexus maybe a few million.

 

[Tig Bitties]

If iOS7 is all new, or much different than iOS6 should see the changes before the phone release, with the beta ? Doesn't Apple release the beta a few months before the new iPhone release ?

If the iPhone 5S is going back to the traditional June / July release, wouldn't iOS7 beta be out very soon, or leaked soon ? But if going to the delayed October release, we wouldn't see iOS7 until Summertime ?

How true is this iPhone 5S news site, pure BS and fabricated, or somewhat close to the truth ?
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/smar...-release-date-features-price-and-news-rumours

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/ph...hone-5s-release-date-news-and-rumours-1111911

Rumors saying same design as the iPhone 5, but possibly .05mm thinner, and same size screen, but new display technology, with higher resolution and better colors, and brightness, better than the current iPhone 5 screen. And iOS7 being the big deal here.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I have a feeling the S4 is going to Hulk Smash the 5S.

 

[tjl3]

If iOS7 is all new, or much different than iOS6 should see the changes before the phone release, with the beta ? Doesn't Apple release the beta a few months before the new iPhone release ?

If the iPhone 5S is going back to the traditional June / July release, wouldn't iOS7 beta be out very soon, or leaked soon ? But if going to the delayed October release, we wouldn't see iOS7 until Summertime ?

How true is this iPhone 5S news site, pure BS and fabricated, or somewhat close to the truth ?
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/smar...-release-date-features-price-and-news-rumours

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/ph...hone-5s-release-date-news-and-rumours-1111911

Rumors saying same design as the iPhone 5, but possibly .05mm thinner, and same size screen, but new display technology, better than the current iPhone 5 screen. And iOS7 being the big deal here.

While I doubt we'd get a drastic change in iOS 7, just because Apple revamps its interface doesn't mean it will affect developers nor does it mean they'll need to know. I would think that Apple is a little more private and secure w/ their own leaks than a supplier.

As for their design (my opinion once again ), they've made their bed w/ the whole external antenna. I think it's time to move on.

 

[Tig Bitties]

While I doubt we'd get a drastic change in iOS 7, just because Apple revamps its interface doesn't mean it will affect developers nor does it mean they'll need to know. I would think that Apple is a little more private and secure w/ their own leaks than a supplier.

As for their design (my opinion once again ), they've made their bed w/ the whole external antenna. I think it's time to move on.

But if iOS7 is a revamp, and freshened up iOS, like Johnny Ive's is rumored to have been saying, would the beta tell us that right away, or could they keep those changes a secret to final release once the iPhone 5S comes out ? I would think if iOS7 is all new, we'd know on the first beta install immediately ?

But doesn't Apple have an event just to announce the new iOS beta, and sort of preview it publicly, before releasing it to developers ?

 

[Krimsonmyst]

Even if the SGS4 and the HTC One cooked a meal for your whole family, printed money and gave you X-Ray vision - people would still buy iPhones in the millions, purely because of that little logo on the back.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Even if the SGS4 and the HTC One cooked a meal for your whole family, printed money and gave you X-Ray vision - people would still buy iPhones in the millions, purely because of that little logo on the back.

Totally agree, if you put a little green droid on the back of the iPhone 5 last year, and Google sold it, that phone would have been trounced and laughed at, as mediocre, missing features, outdated, and lame

But put a fruit logo on the back, and WOW, holy cow, it's magical, no, it's revolutionary, I can't believe my eyes, I just jizzed in my drawers I will wait in line outside the store for six hours so I can be first to get my hands on one.

 

[knucklehead]

I agree, iOS7 should better be updated, I've read that Johnny Ive's is working on a revamped iOS with his style and design fully now. But does he have enough time to do everything for iOS7, or will Apple wait to unveil a brand new iOS8 on the larger iPhone 6 with a brand new designed iPhone in 2014 ?

And Samsung will be big competition to Apple this year. No one will remember the silly presentation Samsung did last week. Samsung will nuclear bomb everyone with a Billion dollar ad campaign like no other. That's where HTC will get hurt, they are low on ad money, and coming out the exact same month with the One as the S4 will be brutal for them.

I am very curious what Apple has in store with the 5S, hopefully a new iOS7 with nice changes and updates, add jailbreak stuff to stock, maybe a Widget on one home screen or some live tile app icons ?

Speaking as someone who's never owned an iPhone (I've been happy to let others drive Apple's obscene margins...), what might get me to purchase the the 5S?:

OS7? Don't really care _all_ that much. There's certainly plenty of room for improvement, but I don't really expect a radical change in OS7. I don't really care about cosmetic changes (which I assume there will be), but I can already pretty well do what I need to in OS6. Functional improvements welcome, but not desperately needed ... or a deal breaker.

How any phone/manufacturer/platform might stand as a fashion trend thingy (which is largely influenced by advertising budget applied), does not concern me --- although, that largely determines the "big numbers" metric of success. The phones are all pretty much functionally competitive.

What would tempt me to buy the iPhone5, is if it comes with a good fingerprint scanner, and offers secure proximity unlocking for my iPad, Air and iMac. Convenient, solid security - for my digital life - is something that is lacking right now. Something like this would significantly improve that ... and I'm willing to pay for it.

The other key thing that would tempt me to buy it, would be if I could take the $30 month t-mobile sim out of my Nexus 4, and have it work just as well in the iPhone 5. The overall 2year cost of ownership in the US has been absurd up to now -- thankfully, that's starting to change.

 

[Kariya]

Even if the SGS4 and the HTC One cooked a meal for your whole family, printed money and gave you X-Ray vision - people would still buy iPhones in the millions, purely because of that little logo on the back.

Totally agree, if you put a little green droid on the back of the iPhone 5 last year, and Google sold it, that phone would have been trounced and laughed at, as mediocre, missing features, outdated, and lame

But put a fruit logo on the back, and WOW, holy cow, it's magical, no, it's revolutionary, I can't believe my eyes, I just jizzed in my drawers I will wait in line outside the store for six hours so I can be first to get my hands on one.

Has to be the most ignorance-filled drivel I've read recently.

 

[knucklehead]

Has to be the most ignorance-filled drivel I've read recently.

It was a pretty reasonable thread up till then ...

 

[maxosx]

I have a lot of older family members and older aged friends that have been huge iPhone fans for years.

People in SoCal are very active & health conscious. Therefore the 60 & 70 year olds are everywhere, deeply enmeshed in keeping up with their adult offspring.

iPhones are the defacto choice for most since they feel threatened by computers even though not a word is said. Simple & easy, an iPhone seems to be in demand especially due to hand holding & classes the Apple store offers. Just owning one, even if only for phone calls (seniors fav use) makes them feel hip & young. Smartphones to us, must have accessories to them.

Another wildly popular demographic are the upscale soccer moms. iPhones ego boosting camera, video, and face time is their draw. Steve knew it would be a narcissists dream and went to great lengths to insure every iPhone model has had the best camera tech of the period.

At the end of the day, the customers lack of awareness when it comes to current smartphone tech possibilities is Apples advantage. Masters at marketing, Apple will prevail no matter what they deliver.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

Totally agree, if you put a little green droid on the back of the iPhone 5 last year, and Google sold it, that phone would have been trounced and laughed at, as mediocre, missing features, outdated, and lame

But put a fruit logo on the back, and WOW, holy cow, it's magical, no, it's revolutionary, I can't believe my eyes, I just jizzed in my drawers I will wait in line outside the store for six hours so I can be first to get my hands on one.

So true. I have a friend who has always owned iPhones, and recently he was complaining about iOS' lack of file system, lack of proper integration with a lot of his web services (Google Drive and Dropbox mainly) and frustrating it was to toggle simple settings on and off (Wifi, Bluetooth etc).

I showed him how easily I could do all of those things on my S3, and he just made a quip about how android is inferior to iOS, laughed and walked away.

No sense in beating a dead horse, but man, Apple have trained some people to be painfully accepting of compromise.

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Has to be the most ignorance-filled drivel I've read recently.

Oh come on. You don't think there are people that buy iPhones purely because they're iPhones?

 

[matttye]

Oh come on. You don't think there are people that buy iPhones purely because they're iPhones?

Sure, but I think the majority buy phones because that's what they want (feature wise).

Did you ever stop to consider that maybe people just like iOS and that's why they keep buying iPhones, even with minimal hardware upgrades?

 

[sagar4995]

Oh come on. You don't think there are people that buy iPhones purely because they're iPhones?

i do. but i also know there are people that buy the galaxy phones purely because they're 'galaxy'.

 

[surjavarman]

How exactly is ios7 going to be a selling point for the iphone 5s since its also going to be available for iphone 5 and 4s and most likely the 4 too.

The iphone 5s is going to come with the mandatory spec bumps and maybe a fingerprint reader and thats it. Nothing revolutionary. However that is going to be enough to sell millions of them. 2013 is a transition year for smartphones.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

i do. but i also know there are people that buy the galaxy phones purely because they're 'galaxy'.

Perhaps, but we're not talking about who buys the Galaxy brand because it's a Galaxy

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How exactly is ios7 going to be a selling point for the iphone 5s since its also going to be available for iphone 5 and 4s and most likely the 4 too.

The iphone 5s is going to come with the mandatory spec bumps and maybe a fingerprint reader and thats it. Nothing revolutionary. However that is going to be enough to sell millions of them. 2013 is a transition year for smartphones.

Because it will have features that won't work on the iPhone 4, some that will won't work on the 4S and a bunch that won't work on anything but the 5S.

Don't let the iOS naming system fool you. Fragmentation is alive and well in the Apple world.

 

[Tig Bitties]

iPhone 5S said to launch in Q3 with upgraded camera, new chipset
http://bgr.com/2013/03/21/iphone-5s-release-date-q3-rumor-388837/

According to the report, the iPhone 5S “will not receive a major update” and will instead be an incremental bump, as expected. The iPhone 5S will remain the same size and design as the current iPhone 5.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Jony Ive reportedly pushing 'flat design' in a newly collaborative environment at Apple
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/4132972/jony-ive-reportedly-pushing-flat-design-at-apple

While details about Ive's influence on the next version of iOS are minimal, the WSJ's source does say that he's pushing a more modern, "flat" design (an aesthetic that sounds similar to where Google has moved recently) — but overall, changes will be fairly conservative. That may come as a disappointment hoping for more radical changes, but it seems that Ive and Apple aren't willing to alienate iOS users who have become familiar with the software over the past six years. Despite the lack of major changes so far, the new working arrangement is exactly what CEO Tim Cook had in mind when he dismissed Forstall last year.

 

[Tsuchiya]

I think people were too quick to critisise the iPhone 5.

Technically it was a massive step forward and is an impressive piece of hardware.

The software let it down. While functional, it just doesn't really come up to par anymore.

OS will be key.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I think people were too quick to critisise the iPhone 5.

Technically it was a massive step forward and is an impressive piece of hardware.

The software let it down. While functional, it just doesn't really come up to par anymore.

OS will be key.

I agree. The iPhone 5S will be all about the revised updated iOS7. There is now way Apple releases the new 5S, that looks just like the current 5, with iOS6.5, or a barely changed, pretty much the same iOS on the 5S, no way.

iOS7 is the big deal here. Not the new phone.

But how do you get people to buy the 5S, if they already own the 5, and can install iOS7 on it too ? The current iPhone 5 with iOS7 will probably not be much different than the iPhone 5S with iOS7 too ? So the 5S will have to have some special differences hardware wise, not just faster processor and more RAM.