TechnologyCategory Archives

Lackluster Reception

Well the iPhone 5 has been released to the world and the amount of flack the phone has copped in the last 24 hours is beyond incredible! The last release was surrounded with so many people desperately trying to get theirs first whereas the iPhone 5′s release paled in comparison.

Apple as a company has
been acting like a bully

Apple as a company has been acting like a bully company of late and the animosity generated from this type of behaviour has more than likely attributed to the lackluster reception.

We expected Android fans to hit the iPhone 5 hard, but after recent events it seems that everyone from every other camp has joined forces and is laying it on exceptionally thick!

Apple bullying the little guy

Just when you thought that Apple couldn’t go any sink any lower we find out that the billion dollar company has decided to come down like a tonne of bricks on an Online Grocery Store in Poland because of their domain name!

The polish grocery store registered a.pl and according to Apple, apparently Apple customers might get confused IF a.pl comes up in a Google search for “Apple”.

that Apple honestly does
not believe that its customers
are smart enough

First I find this incredibly degrading (for Apple customers) in that Apple honestly does not believe that its customers are smart enough to know one search result from another, otherwise, why would they pursue such a lawsuit!

Secondly, what does Apple think will happen when their lawsuit wins (due to the almost unlimited resources Apple has at their disposal as opposed to the “lesser” resources that Delikatesy Internetowe have at their disposal)? How does that effect Apples’ image? Going after anyone and anything?

Lack of Geek Support

Whenever a new tech device comes on the market we expect a certain level of support from the Geek Community, but when you fail to conjure enough Geek support as well as have the general public question your capacity to innovate you’re already spiraling towards the event horizon of the public relations nightmare black hole!

According to this article, “is this really the best we can expect from an outfit that claims to be the most innovative company in the world? This is the sixth version of the iPhone, and the user interface still looks almost exactly like the original iPhone in 2007.”

Looking towards the mobile market in general we have, “No wonder the Android platform, where new models appear every week, now represents 68% of the smartphone market, up from 47% a year ago, while Apple slid to 17% over the same period.”

chief executive Tim Cook,
whose claim to fame involves
running an efficient supply chain

What’s more is the lack of confidence in Apple’s new leader, “A company that once was run by a product visionary now is run by a number-cruncher – chief executive Tim Cook, whose claim to fame involves running an efficient supply chain and beating ever lower prices out of Asian subcontractors and component suppliers.”

Customers Respond to the new iPhone 5

When Jimmy Kimmel played this practical joke on the general public it was a clear indicator that not only is the phone completely indistinguishable from iPhone 4S but more importantly customers wouldn’t notice the difference if they were to purchase one or not as the experience would be more or less identical to the iPhone 4S. Does that warrant forking out for a device that is almost identical to it’s predecessor?

A word from the Apple camp

Though my article thus far has been extremely negative against Apple and the iPhone 5 it’s vital that we consider both sides of the coin and hear from an Apple supporter as to how he feels Apple is still pushing the envelope.

In the following article, “Apple isn’t a company that flails around for new ideas and rushes them to market. It conceives products before the technology exists to make them. Then it refines them for as long as it takes to get them right.”

I feel this is just a cop-out
in that he’s claiming that
the only reason there are
only a few improvements
on the iPhone 5 is due to
the fact that it takes so
long to actually make
those improvements

This suggests that Apple have already thought of the next big thing but aren’t rushing it to market because they feel it’s not perfect! Unfortunately I feel this is just a cop-out in that he’s claiming that the only reason there are only a few improvements on the iPhone 5 is due to the fact that it takes so long to actually make those improvements.

He also mentions, “The “upgraded guts” of the iPhone 4S included a CPU chip twice as fast as its predecessor, powered by a battery redesigned to keep it going for the same amount of time per charge, shoehorned into a case that was still the world’s slimmest, since no other smartphone maker had been able to match it.”

Again these improvements are hardly revolutionary. Every mobile hardware manufacturer is looking to do the same and will most likely succeed soon. This argument he makes is like saying the iPhone 2 was such a revolutionary step forward, but compared to the iPhone 3G it makes the iPhone 2′s hardware look pathetic. All improvements on hardware will make its predecessors look the same so I hardly think that CPU speed and improved battery design is enough without significant UI upgrades or other features that are different enough.

The article also makes the argument of, “By moving to a larger screen, reckons Lyons, Apple is merely being a “copycat”, since makers of rival devices based on the Android platform have already moved to larger screens. But those makers – including Samsung, the copycat that faces paying Apple $1.05bn (£665m) in patent damages – have given app developers a nightmare by proliferating the number of screen shapes and sizes they have to support.”

But this is the same thing Apple has just done, increased the screen size and changed the screen shape, something iOS developers are also going to have to contend with.

I don’t feel that any of this articles points do anything other than compound the problem in that the Apple community in general just can’t see the forest through the trees. I also feel that the comments on his article speak to the man in that they have completely picked the article to pieces (as I expect this one to be :))

Conclusion

The barrage of ridicule, the constant jokes and digs at the device itself, and the hole Apple continues to dig itself by suing anyone or anything that is different will end exactly where it is meant to end, a company who’s products are boring, lack the ability to compete with their most basic competitors and in the end, will replace Microsoft as the “evil” company.

If you are looking to waste a couple hundred bucks on an iPhone 5, my recommendation is to check out ANY Android device before you do. Compare the features and performance of the devices and then decide whether you want to support a company who would sue you just for looking at it wrong or a community supported device that is better in every sense of the word!