The iPhone 5 is certainly no game-changer. The much awaited and much talked about iPhone 5 has generated the hype that always precedes the announcement of any new phone(s) by Apple Inc. But the question remains: Is it something really different from its predecessors? Will it pass the current high standards (set by the other rival cell phone companies) and provide something new and interesting to gain the new customers?
The answer is presently a big NO. The truth remains that Apple has hit that point where the iPhone has got about as good as it will get. An iPhone 4S does everything needed quite well indeed; there seems absolutely no reason for the current user to upgrade to a 5. There are numerous technical glitches that were reportedly admitted by Apple themselves.
There is no wow factor innovation on display here, it was certainly more evolution than revolution for the iPhone 5. It is heralded as the next big thing in technical circles.
The entire world waited with bated breath for the launch of iPhone 5 and there were reasons to label it as the “Next-Big-Thing” in the domain of mobile phones. The moment it was released however, even hard-core Apple lovers knew that the iPhone 5 didn’t have so much more on offer over the iPhone 4S. In other words, it was a mini-upgrade nobody would be willing to pay a bomb for. Here are the top reasons for the failure of worlds most talked about mobile phone.
The iPhone 5 aren’t that different from the iPhone 4S. First things first, with 4G LTE service and a 4 inch screen with resolution of 1136 X 640 and 326ppi , the iPhone is faster and visually much more enriching than its predecessor. But the stinker: It has the same iOS 6 that was inbuilt within the 4S. It also incorporates various features that newer versions of Android phones already have.
The iPhone 5 is made with aluminium. It is very well known that Aluminium is not as scratch-resistant as stainless steel(iPhone 4S). It therefore is exposed to nicks and scrapes and scratches and shows more visible signs of wear and tear especially on its black color model.
And as per the confessions by many Apple users on the Apple support Community, the phone complained “no SIM” four times a day. The phone resorted to a SIM failure mode more often than not and the user had to reboot the phone to make it work again. Apple has been working overtime to replace these phones by admitting that it is a hardware problem.
Apple included a free Lightning-to-USB cable with the iPhone 5S to plug the phone into PCs, outlets and other devices with a USB port. The worst part being that all those docks, speakers and other bases for an iPhone will be useless with an iPhone 5S unless the customer shells out an extra $30 for an adapter or $40 for a cable.
Due to the well-known conflicts between Apple and Google, Apple bought mapping data from about 24 suppliers and displayed it using Apple’s own home grown software. There are horrendous errors on the maps including an incorrect address for Washington DC’s Dulles Airport, a Florida hospital replaced by a supermarket, Cape Cod bridge detached from the road and even the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, unacknowledged as a place in any part of the world. Google and Apple have split up big time and it has seriously hurt Apple’s chances of coming up with a winner. What it has come up with in the end is just a serious waste of money.
Probably the worst thing to happen to Apple after the major failure of its mapping service is that there is no YouTube integration too.
Apple iPhone 5 users on Verizon complained that the phone uses the LTE network even when on Wi-Fi that causes additional data usage charges. Similar problems were reported by even the users of AT&T mobile service on Apple phones. A major talking point about the relevance of the iPhone 5 in India and other developing countries is that they are still using the 3G technology for mobile communications therefore making it practically worthless to shift over to the new iPhone.
Many hypothesized, for example, that Apple might match competitors’ attempts at radical upsizing. Instead of faster functioning, Apple was expected to offer entire new classes of applications. Apple might have legitimized mobile payments by including an NFC chip and, with its singular simplicity, helped to mainstream the long talked-about mobile wallet. It might have revolutionized user interaction and gaming with advanced hap tics. Or, it might have revealed the iPhone 5 as some prime component to its long-anticipated move into TV.
iPhone 5 fails in most of the aspects in terms of expectations of the current users and potential buyers.