*** iPhone 5S/5C - September 10th ***

It was the mid cycle release, never going to be a redesign, just updated and a couple of new features, as per.

I'm currently reading a really interesting biography by Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft). He left MS quite some time ago but in the book he says the problem with MS is that, while their strategy in the early days was to innovate, they later and more typically switched to a policy of out-copying other companies... e.g. see that something is successful and then throw money at it to create a more successful copy (perhaps what a lot of people call "embrace and extend"). But in the current fast moving world of Facebook and Google MS aren't able to out-copy people fast enough and their Windows Phone releases are simply too slow compared to Googles constant and ongoing interations every few months.

How fast are the Apple cycles? Anything over 6 months is questionable in the current market and anything over a year is way to slow when competing with the likes of Google and Samsung in the same market.
 
32GB black 5S and an all you can eat data SIM from 3 seems to be the way to go, seems like a good step up from my ageing 4!

I think the best feature is the flash, it adjust to white balance ! You can't even do that with a £460 Canon Speedlite 600 EX-RT and have to resort to clear plastic gels that you put in front of the flash.....

I have 3 of these Canon Speedlite lol

That is clever.

I'll swap your kit for a 5S? :p
 
I can see your point about the 6 month cycles for Apple, but wouldnt be happy if i had spent a large chunk of money and 6 ish months later its replaced with a better version .I think that it would cheapen the experience if they fire out slightly updated versions even few months. A year is ok in my opinion as it gives a chance for technology to develop/mature and be integrated with the os .
The changes and upgrades for the 5s may not be the big wow everyone wanted ( I personally would have liked a decent much cheaper 5c ) but they may lead to a more substantial platform redesign in the 6 (if its called that ). The developers have the new engine so to speak to work on for X months when the next version will have most of the 5s internals with possibly a new chassis . The 5s was only going to be an incremental update not something hugely different whereas the 6 will be , I believe a new design externally.
 
Saw an interesting comment elsewhere that basically said that these iPhones are made to sell to iPhone users.

Sounds trite at first but on review it does make sense - there's very little to convince users of Android handsets to convert over to Apple especially with handsets like the Nexus 5 around the corner - if they manage to release a 5" 1080p quad-core LTE 32Gb phone for under $500 then it's a struggle to make a case to move to the 5C for $150+ more or the 5S for $250 more, whereas there's a fairly compelling case to move from say your 4S to a Nexus 5 instead of a 5C/5S given the respective prices.

To be fair actually, the fingerprint sensor if it works as promised and is integrated into the various apps which I'm sure it will be, is a pretty cool addition which is a good draw from 'droid phones. Really failing to see the appeal of the 5C though, get a 5 or 5S and stick it in a case if you're really that bothered about pretty colours :p
 
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Apple have been quite screwed by the rumour-mill when it comes to the 5C. The approach of not saying anything till launch or shortly before no longer works when everything leaks except the real price (which often does and might've helped here).

I'd have considered a 5C if it cost less, fed up with the size of my S3 and there being no decent Android phones with smaller screens.
These will still cost the networks a lot more than other handsets even though the retail price is closer still to high-end Android; so I expect the iPhone distinction on contract will continue.
 
Helluva a disappointment, looks like my 3gs will be going into it's 4th year of use.

The 5/5C or 5S would smoke that old hardware.

How can you look at them and justify sticking with seriously old tech, and proclaim them to be a disappointment? confused:

Back on topic.. The rumour mill has shafted Apple big time again. I'll state my argument again: the 5C hasn't been marketed as a low-cost phone, yet that's what the rumour mill has been banging on about for months.

They haven't got rid of the iPhone 5, it's just that you can only buy it with a plastic shell back and it costs less. The fact that the 4S still exists shows you it's not the low-cost alternative.

The iPhone 5C is a cheaper iPhone 5. Once people see this, it's not a bad alternative (if you previously were willing to get the top of the line iPhone 5). Saying it should cost £300 is laughable.

The only way they're making a £300 iPhone is if they stuck the guts of the iPhone 4S in to a new case or made massive losses per handset. Think if you bought a 5 at £500+ last week, and the 5C with the same internals came out st £300, you'd be livid.

I think people get wound up with the rumours and expect the earth. In fact, I know so.. There's a reason you buy on apple rumours and sell on the news ;)
 
If you bought a 5 at £500+ last week you'd be an idiot :p

The marketing execs at Apple are laughing right now - getting to squeeze more profit out of the mugs that buy the 5C by using pretty colours to distract from the fact that they should have been getting a iPhone 5 for the price they are paying :p

Tbf though, anyone believing the rumour mill that the 5C would be super-cheap must have been pretty gullible - just look at the iPad Mini price :p
 
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If you bought a 5 at £500+ last week you'd be an idiot :p

The marketing execs at Apple are laughing right now - getting to squeeze more profit out of the mugs that buy the 5C by using pretty colours to distract from the fact that they should have been getting a iPhone 5 for the price they are paying :p

Tbf though, anyone believing the rumour mill that the 5C would be super-cheap must have been pretty gullible - just look at the iPad Mini price :p

apple seem to be losing the plot with each release. Wont be long till they are no longer top dog anymore.

no one stays top dog forever
 
I'll still get the GF a 5C for Xmas, she's more interested in pretty colours than a fingerprint reader or playing Infinity Blade 3. Her old iPhone 4 is slow as hell now anyway, and the home button is knackered.

Personally I'm not sure I'll get the 5S, I skipped the 4S when I had a 4 and see no real reason to splash another £500 out on what are to me, new features that aren't that important (although the new camera features are nice).

Think I'll keep my 5 till the 6 next year, and just get myself a nice 5S leather case :p
 
I'll still get the GF a 5C for Xmas, she's more interested in pretty colours than a fingerprint reader or playing Infinity Blade 3. Her old iPhone 4 is slow as hell now anyway, and the home button is knackered.

Personally I'm not sure I'll get the 5S, I skipped the 4S when I had a 4 and see no real reason to splash another £500 out on what are to me, new features that aren't that important (although the new camera features are nice).

Think I'll keep my 5 till the 6 next year, and just get myself a nice 5S leather case :p

Get your missus a Moto x :) that has pretty colours too hehe
 
That's a tough one Raymond - I think that Apple is between a rock and a hard place because beyond doing something that knocks the game out of the park I think they've now got to swing a public and shareholder opinion. So much damage has been done through litigation and 'sitting on their laurels' with innovation (I know it's overused but I think it is justified) that they're now victims of their own success. I've said before that they created something far to close to perfection with iOS and the original UI that any changes for changes sakes would be a retrograde in user accessibility however they're also stuck because people like 'new' stuff. So what do they do, make it 'new' for the sakes of new and then live with all the hate for retrograding the user experience?

Delivering I think would be widening the scope of the OS UI - allowing for widgets and broader customisation. Accepting that people want a larger screen and a bit more cross platform interaction (at the risk of diluting the very thing that Jobs created with the Apple ecosystem and thus losing out on the corralled earning potential) and also an aesthetic shift - it didn't have to be huge but it needed to be more than a change in colour.

Overdelivering? I have no idea - but it would have to be pretty spectacular - it would have to be iPhone/iPad/Macbook Air all over again.

EDIT: I think they need to catch up significantly then build from a convincing platform rather than, excuse the term, rolling poop in glitter. (sorry a little harsh but it fits the analogy :p)

Personally, I don't really care with all the features as long as it runs smooth.

I think I would keep my iPhone 4 longer if the home button works as it should and if it is fast like day one. I use it not much more than a phone, casual web browser, email, Facebook, iPod, and a few other apps on there. Bigger screen albeit I would welcome with open arms, isn't a deal breaker.

The only down side to me is I am on a 3 years upgrade cycle personally, I went from 1 to 4 and now it's time for a new one.

As for blowing the competition out of the water by over delivering, I am not sure how one could do that, would making a phone 0.1mm larger be a winning blow? Or does it take some more?

The tech isn't here just yet to make the phone like paper, the large screen forbids folding like a clamshell and beside, that phrase is over. The next phrase is perhaps something more integral to personal and the user. The wristwatch is one idea (although I think first gen of it still looks very awkward), google glasses is another idea, the way things are going, in 20 years we might get implants to make phone calls, and contacts to display everything in front of us and our body's bio-electrical current will run it all.

But technology takes steps rather than leaps. We look back at the iPhone as a leap now but I recall everyone slate it for its bad points, such as lack of 3G, no memory slot. People were obsessed with memory slots. I mean I had a Nokia N95 and in theory that was a faster phone, with better hardware, better camera (really good in fact), memory slot, 3G but the UI sucks balls. I kept it for like 6 months and got the iPhone and kept that for 3 years.

Little incremental upgrades can be a good thing, we human don't like change, adding little upgrades at a time do stack up over time. I for one like where technology is going, and skipping a few phones between upgrade makes it definitely worthwhile.

P.s. it is never a drastic upgrade on an annual basis for any phone model, Apple or Samsung or otherwise.
 
Ray i disagree in some of your comments because i feel samsung offer more upgrade features then Apple.

Also, Google seem to push more features on there OS as well then apple.

I think Apple are still living in the past. They no longer seem to bring out a device that wow people.

Samsung and the likes have already caught up and continue to increase there market share day by day.

Like i said, No one stays top dog forever and i feel apple is no longer top dog.

I think Samsung are the new apple.
 
The betas have given developers plenty of time to make their apps compatible. In fact, it helps them test the current builds of their apps on iOS 7, see if anything causes them to crash, and fix it in the iOS 6 build and submit it to the App Store now, instead of when iOS 7 is released.

Today is the first day that apps using iOS 7 APIs can be submitted. There's 7 days until iOS 7 is released and the lead time on review is usually around 7 days. Can you imagine how many apps Apple is going to have to review over the next week? It's got to be hundreds or thousands of times more than normal.

There's no way that they're all going to get into the app store by the 18th.

It's also a good time to sneak something dodgy into your app. :p
 
Ray i disagree in some of your comments because i feel samsung offer more upgrade features then Apple.

Also, Google seem to push more features on there OS as well then apple.

I think Apple are still living in the past. They no longer seem to bring out a device that wow people.

Samsung and the likes have already caught up and continue to increase there market share day by day.

Like i said, No one stays top dog forever and i feel apple is no longer top dog.

I think Samsung are the new apple.

It's a long time since I had an android phone, yes I bought one and used it for a week, but what is "better"? Apart from bigger screen and NFC?
 
I'm by no means an Apple fanboy, they have their faults, but I detest Android so have no desire to support her when she breaks things :p

iPhone suits her needs despite the cost.

haha, the android devices are very stable and robust now.

You can even setup the UI to look and behave like an ios if your missus really loves the UI of an IOS :)
 
It's a long time since I had an android phone, yes I bought one and used it for a week, but what is "better"? Apart from bigger screen and NFC?

The OS is. And judging by your comparison between the original n95 and first iphone, You are quite interested in OS features and slickness.

The android OS is very slick and feature packed. Beats iOS is a lot of ways.

Cant judge an android device if you have not used it for a long time.

O and before you judge me, i use both an iphone 4s and a S4 android device :)
 
Not an overwhelming release but them it was never going to be, the only real surprise is the lack of NFC on the 5s I really thought apple would finally jump on NFC and do it well but I guess they are saving that for the iPhone 6's big feature!

Loving the people saying apple is finished and Samsung are the new place to be for innovation! If innovation is making a phone that is uncomfortably large and ruining android with so much bloat that it runs like a 486 then I'll give innovation a miss. I'm not an apple fan boi and previously enjoyed my htc experience but the lack of a pocket size high end model from any of the big players and the terrible things most of them do to 'improve ' android put me right off.
 
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