Apple announced a new iPhone yesterday. It has a 4″ screen and LTE (the latest hotness in 4G cellular networking). For those of you who give a shit, my thoughts after the break.
I don’t think it’s quite fair to Apple to say what a lot of people have been saying, that this is a “catch up” device. In the US, Verizon hurried their LTE rollout to try to gain a competitive advantage: they wanted to say they had the “fastest” network, and because the amount of control Apple has over devices absolutely slays them, they wanted to have a reason for people to buy something other than the iPhone. Phone manufacturers created LTE phones to run on Verizon’s network using shitty first generation LTE radios, and they put huge screens on their phones just to differentiate them from the iPhone (“it’s bigger!”). Neither of those features was well-executed, because the crap LTE radios combined with giant screens murdered battery life. It’s only “catch up” if you’re catching up to an excellent implementation of a new technology. In both screen size, and LTE, the main new hardware technologies on the iPhone 5, Apple put out a phone when the chip and battery technology allowed them to do it right.
It is fair, however, to say that Apple’s new connector, Lightning, is a big disappointment. It might be technically better than the de-facto standard (USB micro) but the world needs another connector like we need another goddam folk singer. When Apple created the iPod, it made some sense to use a proprietary connector. Today, when microUSB is a standard across the board, creating your own connector is just a complete fucking annoyance to anyone who wants to carry one charger for multiple Apple and non-Apple devices. Apple just threw down on another few years of tons of wasted cables, inconvenience and general social entropy just to have a proprietary connector.
I’ll let you read the in-depth discussions and reviews of the device elsewhere and just touch on a few more high points:
* IOS 6, the new operating system of all supported iPhones (the 4, 4S and 5), was refreshed to included turn-by-turn navigation in Maps. This is an absolutely key feature and long overdue. I still question whether the quality of Apple’s self-made mapping solution will rival Google Maps, which is frankly amazing on Android 4, but this is a good start. Google has released a stand-alone YouTube app for IOS, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them release a Maps app with turn-by-turn, since free turn-by-turn no longer differentiates Android devices. That would be good for consumers, since it will keep native IOS Maps de-crapped and up-to-date.
* Nobody gives the iPod Touch its due, but I will here: it’s a key device and Apple is smart to refresh it with the iPhone 5. In the US, kids use this device as a gateway drug for the iPhone. The same apps that run on iPhone run on the Touch, and once you have a kid hooked on a set of apps, they want an iPhone. Creating a device that’s just like a smartphone without the cell radio seems like a no-brainer, but only Apple does it with any consistency. Samsung apparently does it abroad, but I have yet to see one of those devices for sale here.
* No manufacturer other than Nokia takes smartphone cameras as seriously as Apple and the camera in this phone is no exception. The iPhone 4 was already good enough to be a point-and-shoot camera replacement, the 4S was an improvement, and this is even better.
* Apple still fucks you on storage (the jump from 16GB to 32GB is $100, and it’s another $100 to 64 GB), but they’re keeping the $199 price point for the 16 GB version. Verizon has been trying to raise that price point on its flagship phones, and it’s nice to see a little “fuck you” from Apple here. The price you end up paying for a cell phone on contract is already obscene. There’s no reason to add insult to injury by charging $249.99 or $299.99 for a the base product.
* The different standards (GSM, CDMA, LTE) and bands that the iPhone supports are very confusing. Here’s some help if you’re an international traveler.
Overall, iPhone 5 is the Obama 2012 convention speech of smartphones: nobody’s swooning in the aisles over it, but Apple did what they had to do. Since the tech is new, I’d wait a few weeks to buy one just to make sure there’s no bleeding edge issues, but I see no reason to doubt that Apple will continue to prosper in the smartphone market for the next few years. Part of that is due to the incompetence and/or fragmentation of the competition. Nokia and Microsoft just “announced” a new Windows Phone but the software isn’t done. There are a few good Android phones on the market, and the latest versions of Android are great, but manufacturers are still slow to update and insist on adding useless “skins” to their custom versions of Android. Android powers 70% of the world’s smartphones, but I’d be surprised if more than 1/3 of those phones have a user experience that rivals one of the recent iPhones.
Also, too: I wonder how much Of Monsters and Men got paid to use their music in the iPhone introductory video. (Here’s the song.)
MattF
On the price question, note that the iPhone 4 is now free-with-a-contract, and the 4S is $99. If you don’t care about LTE, either one is a good deal.
TheMightyTrowel
Where i’m at in Australia the Samsung galaxy series are obviously better, lighter, less buggy and easier to use phones/mini-computers/cameras than iphones. People buy iphones because they want the mac-xperience. I think you’re a little US-centric in your assessment. That being said, we haven’t seen an iphone 5 yet (and god knows we may not see it for another couple of years…), so things might change.
I think you’re spot on about the proprietary cables though – one of the reasons apple drives me nuts is stunts like that.
Cassidy
I love my 4S and have zero interest in upgrading just to get a bigger screen. And my connection works plenty fast on wi fi and 3G. I don’t now about 4G as I’m not entirely convinced we have it here.
Soonergrunt
During the recent patent lawsuit bullshit, Samsung’s president stated that if iPhone5 dropped with an LTE radio that Samsung would sue for patent infringement.
Leaving aside the fact that these patent lawsuits don’t really do anything other than stifle innovation in my opinion, the Judge in the current Apple vs. HTC lawsuit has signaled that Apple will likely not prevail in their effort to get HTC’s LTE patents voided.
If Samsung has a case, we might not see an LTE-enabled iPhone in the US any time soon. Or the phone will become a lot more expensive to cover licensing costs.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57510080-37/samsung-will-reportedly-sue-apple-over-lte-use-on-iphone-5/
Walker
LTE is still largely irrelevant in this country, given pricing plans.
I agree the dock is stupid. It is lock-out move that has nothing to do with quality control.
Besides, you should always be on the S cycle for Apple if at all.
The real thing right now is iOS 6. Will the Google break work, or won’t it? I am still skeptical about Apple’s cloud tech.
Walker
Subjective claim is subjective.
burnspbesq
I’m almost certainly in for both a new iPhone and a new iPod Touch.
I’m not that annoyed about the Lightning connector. I carry mostly CD-resolution or higher music on my devices, and the issues with USB audio are well known.
jibeaux
The feature I would really like apple to add is a battery that lasts more than half a day.
burnspbesq
@TheMightyTrowel:
Australia is in stage one of the rollout. You can pre-order on 9/14 and phones will ship on 9/21.
cathyx
I have a question. I don’t get good cell phone reception at my house. I also have a dsl connection for my internet. Is there a way that I could get a cell phone signal through my dsl connection without having to pay more for the service? I have a land line, but I would like to eliminate it if I could get better cell reception.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
For the win!
burnspbesq
@Cassidy:
I sprang for 4G LTE in the last iPad upgrade. I think it was worth it, but I live and work in an area where AT&T’s coverage is pretty good.
Raven
In looking at the IOS6 page on the Apple site it looks like this camera function:
“The new panorama feature for iPhone and iPod touch lets you capture everything from a momentous family reunion photo to a sweeping vista.6 With one simple motion you can shoot up to 240 degrees â even vertically, to get that redwood tree, say. Then hardware and software work together to create one seamless, high-resolution panorama.”
is a function of the OS rather than the phone, anyone know?
arguingwithsignposts
Apple has been fucking people on the connector issue for YEARS. The iPod Touch is the only serious refresh. Thing still had a tiny camera last go around, but raising the price to $299 is a bit much.
AxelFoley
I’ma have to upgrade. I got my iPhone 4 last year right before the 4S came out, but decided to pass on the 4S and wait and see what the 5 would bring.
Yeah, the 5 looks like it’s gonna rock. Oh yes, it will be mine. My…precioussssss….
Robert Sneddon
@jibeaux: The bad news is that the iPhone 5 is slimmer and lighter than previous models. That means the battery is smaller and will have less capacity to drive the larger screen as well as the extra radio stage for LTE which is known to be thirsty due to the higher data rates passing through it. There will have been some offsetting improvements in power consumption elsewhere but long call/operating life between charges is really not achievable within Apple’s signature compact slim design paradigm.
pseudonymous in nc
@MattF:
But only an 8GB model, which is really tight for most people. I was surprised that they haven’t kept the 3GS around for emerging markets, but perhaps Apple doesn’t want to compete with Huawei and ZTE there — and wanted to clear the manufacturing decks to handle the iPod touch upgrade.
Once again, any lust for an iPhone is tempered by my refusal to give money to American carriers for a smartphone plan; if I were in a country with a functional mobile market, that might change. And the clusterfuck of LTE protocols worldwide (which means three discrete iPhone 5 models) also doesn’t help.
jeffreyw
I have the last generation Touch and I like it but the screen is just too small for anything but the most simple web tasks. I hate mobile web browsers. I like the Android 10″ pad for reading and casual surfing. The Android maps app and turn by turn are just killer. Brand new Nexus 7 that I’m liking for travel using the LTE Wifi hotspot from Verizon. Tracfone for my limited telephone needs. We maintain a land line with minimal connectivity past the local neighborhood, but do have 911 and the 800 numbers for tech support or questions about this and that. The LTE hot spot is also a backup for our DSL. It’s way faster than the DSL but the caps are just killer. Those bastards.
debit
Call me crazy, but I’m still very happy with my 32 gig 3GS.
ETA: And not just because it’s jailbroke.
mistermix
@burnspbesq: I thought high-end audio was all going AirPlay and/or Bluetooth.
@cathyx: T-Mobile has a feature with some phones that allow them to use WiFi in the home.
http://t-mobile-coverage.t-mobile.com/4g-wireless-broadband-service
Verizon and AT&T will install a device in your home that connects to your Internet connection and functions as a tiny cellular tower (called a “femtocell”).
http://www.pcworld.com/article/194059/boost_weak_cell_service_at_home_your_options.html
jhaygood
“waze” is an awesome turn by turn map app for the iphone. kinda “hello kitty” interface, but it provides really useable driving directions – i live in LA and it’s fantastic.
Nina
I’m a luddite with a 6 year old cellphone that I only have to charge once every two weeks. If that. I’m amazed at how many people seem to find the money to buy new device after new device.
Then again, I waste my own money on other things so I shouldn’t be smug about anything. Don’t take my video games. Please.
Raven
Clark Howard has some interesting info about the 5 and other options.
“Amazon is offering Amazon gift cards if you trade in a fully functional iPhone. They’re paying $85 in gift cards for the iPhone 3, and up to $500 for a well-preserved iPhone 4S.
The marketplace value of a used iPhone is high enough to cover a contract break fee with one wireless carrier so you can go to another and keep your number.
This is your chance to exit from AT&T for iPhone service that is too costly and too unreliable!
Or you can take an unlocked iPhone to a no-contract carrier and lower your monthly costs by about 50%. For example, you can buy a SIM card from Straight Talk and use an unlocked iPhone on their network for $45 a month with the service being provided by T-Mobile or AT&T.”
quannlace
Annnnnd…how much is it?
RaflW
@cathyx:
I’m wading in where I don’t belong, but a friend is an uber-geek and he does this, or in effect does it, with a Nexus phone: he has his phone set up to use google voice and Wifi when available to make calls, rather than over the cell network. He’ll be in a Starbucks and doing all his phone and app stuff on their WiFi in stead of using up minutes. So you should be able to do similar at home.
I just don’t know how. But geekier ppl than me could help you, so go start asking!
Peej01
I’ve been waiting for the new iPhone so I can ditch AT&T for Verizon. I currently have an iPhone 4, and had no choice to stay with AT&T when I bought the phone. The LTE is what’s selling it for me (that and the ability to switch carriers). I probably wouldnt have bothered otherwise.
gbear
As ususal, The Onion has the perfect response to the need to upgrade personal elecronic devices.
artem1s
got the 4s when it came out. it was my first smartphone but by no means my first Apple product. Their complete redesigns do make me crazy but they pretty much seem to be worth it in the long run. For the record I believe the new charger port let them slim it down and fit better stuff in there. But maybe it is naive to believe them there.
love my iProducts forever but seems like a good time to rerun this take on the iExperience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF-qX72om5w
RaflW
@Nina:
Yep. My LG flip phone is 6 years old, has been to the bottom of a DoubleTree swimming pool, and keeps on truckin. Battery life is down by perhaps 40%, but still lasts several days btwn charges even with fairly frequent calls.
dmsilev
@cathyx: Some carriers sell what are called nanocells, which are basically little cell-phone base stations that plug into your network connection and generate a small bubble of coverage for your phone.
Litlebritdifrnt
OT but the hypocrisy is stunning, Mitt asked for ten years of tax returns from his short list of VP candidates
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/13/romney-asked-vp-shortlisters-for-ten-years-of-tax-returns.html
paulj
@Soonergrunt:
Of course Apple can move away from Samsung as a supplier (which they already appear to be doing). Wonder which company is going to be hurt the most.
It’s fun to watch these huge companies beat each other up. More please. Trouble is Apple seems to be winning most of the fights so in the end the only one left standing may be Apple.
These other companies with no vision other than short-term profits have been caught with their pants down and it will be interesting to see who survives.
RIMâŠgone (for all practical purposes).
.
MotorolaâŠnothing left but the carcass.
NokiaâŠnext on the que. Toasters in their future?
Windows phoneâŠnot even out of the gate yet.
My bet, some new company (or Amazon) will come out of nowhere to challenge Apples business model.
Soonergrunt
@cathyx: Your DSL provider may support a device called a pico-cell.
Basically, it’s very short range (100m or less) cell node that connects to your DSL connection.
Steve
We already have “a device thatâs just like a smartphone without the cell radio.” It’s called “my old iPhone that the kids play with.”
gussie
I’ve been considering going back to a landline. The apps aren’t quite as good, but it’d be nice to actually understand the words people say.
curiousleo
@gussie:
haha. My housemate & I had that exact conversation yesterday. Cell coverage isn’t 95% solid in our area but he wants to drop the landline.
Culture of Truth
Well I like the iphone but I don’t think the competition was that bad. I’m not as concerned with battery life so I really liked the GSIII and One X. I even like the Note. Having said that, I want to try this new iphone and the Nokia before I make up my mind.
mechwarrior online
@paulj:
It’s more than just Samsung, HTC also makes phones that are better than the iphone. A few motorola android products are better as well.
But the real dangers are in Asia. Asia is still years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to smart phone tech… and the iphone really isn’t a big deal there. However many of their top brands are moving over to Android devices.
Having to use and support these for work… the iphone is better than bad android phones, but it doesn’t stack up at all to the top end android phones.
Which sums up apple all in all. Their product line is pretty stable, but it’s mid range. It’s better than the low end of their competitors, but can’t compare to the high end.
Oh well. life moves on. Limbaugh will buy up another iphone, apple users are in good company!
Culture of Truth
@gussie: Mfffrrr ggghh sstt kkrrrccc
Culture of Truth
Yes I’m still using a primitive phone. Solid as rock, my Ericsson.
scav
@Culture of Truth: hlehlhgss!
Culture of Truth
I’m not too worried about Apple’s future. People I know who have the iphone love it. and they seem to doing ok financially.
Raven
JCT
@Raven: My understanding is that the 4s (not sure about 4) will pick up the panorama function with IOS 6 .
Amanda in the South Bay
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yeah, Apple is puling a bait and switch with the cheapest iPod Touch-the 199 model is still around, but its last years. And trust me, I have one of those, and it sucks-its seriously underpowered RAM And processor wise (specs dont matter until they do, like with the 4G Touch, where its seriously slow and buggy). Apple did the same thing with the 2nd and 3rd Gen touches.
Raven
@JCT: Thanks!
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@gussie:
You actually use your phone to talk?
How quaint :P
James K. Polk, Esq.
Having a smartphone is a game changer. I am no Luddite, but I am cheap and unwilling to be locked into an expensive contract.
My current solution involves Virgin Mobile (a division of Sprint) and a $100 dollar off contract LG Optimus. I pay $25 for unlimited data/texts/300 mins after tax. Compare that to buying a new iPhone and resulting contract over two years and it breaks down to over $1500 savings.
Despite my gadget lust, I never really see anything that is substantively different among modern smartphones. They all do the same basic shit, just a little faster.
Fuck keeping up with the Joneses!
Liberty60
@Nina:
So given what we know about how the Iphone is produced, in Foxconn factories in China, a serious question we should all ask ouselves:
Why exactly do we need a new phone? Is our old one broken? No longer able to make phone calls?
We endlessly complain about the power of the corporations and the 1%, but how do they exert such an iron fisted grip over us, that we rush out in a mad scramble to give our money to them, and throw into a landfill our existing phones that work perfectly well?
Is it need, or is it our own vanity, ego, and childlike lust for a new shiny object?
Sentient Puddle
@Raven: Per the footnote:
BrYanS
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
Look into Ting mobile. They resell Sprint service with Android phones. It’s $6 a month per phone just have a phone. It has separate tiers for voice/data/text. Once you use it, you go to the next tier, which, starting out is pretty minimal. There are no overages, you just keep moving up to the next tier, which is shared on all your phones. I now a couple with 2 Android phones who use wifi mostly that get by with a cell bill for $24/month. Once my VM phone breaks or dies, I will probably go to them
The Moar You Know
I have the iPhone 4. The 4S didn’t have nearly enough bang to make it worth the cost of upgrading and the 5 has even less, plus a connector that doesn’t work with any of my existing accessories.
I’ll keep the 4 til it dies, use my iPod touch for my two must need apps (Peterson Strobe Tuner and of course music playback) and my next phone will almost certainly be an Android.
tBone
Unlike most people, I’m glad they switched to the new connector, for one very simple reason: it’s orientation-agnostic, so it doesn’t matter which side is up or down when you plug it in.
I know it’s a really minor thing, but I hate fumbling with the Apple 30-pin connector to make sure it’s right-side up, and the microUSB that my Android devices use is even worse – smaller and even more fiddly to get aligned correctly. A charging port that can be plugged into without even looking at it is one of those small usability things that can actually end up being a major improvement.
{/firstworldproblems}
bago
@cathyx: Try this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_point_base_station
Although if DSL is your channel, you might be better off on your 3g with the power cord plugged in.
bago
@Raven: The CCD samples the light at a known rate. From here it moves to software to stitch the samples together into a coherent picture.
Beyond that distinction lies a semantics argument.
Robert Sneddon
@tBone: Wireless charging was one of the things folks were expecting (or hoping for) from the iPhone 5, and they didn’t get it. The new Nokia Lumia phones have this option — put them down on a mat and they start charging, no plugging in or docking required.
Peej01
I have a landline that I’ve seriously considered ditching until I realize it isn’t costing me that much since it’s bundled with my tv and Internet. And my last computer purchase was a desktop model. The large monitor is easier to read (yeah, I’m 50-something) than a laptop screen and the keyboard is easier to move away from the cat that invariably wants to sprawl in between me and the computer. I have an iPad, and that’s what I’ve been traveling with lately due to the weight….even though the netbook I have is much more functional IMO. No, I’m not an Apple fan girl…I still like Windows based PCs.
Brachiator
@mistermix:
Great point. But here also is where Apple may have stumbled.
Why buy an iPod Touch if you could buy a mini-iPad with the same feature set (also a kind of smart phone without the cell radio).
I bet that one of the reasons the Touch is still around is that it allows Apple to keep prices down for the main device which uses the same form factor, the iPhone 5.
And the prices for the Touch are too high.
I heard one supposed tech analyst note that Apple did not release an iPad mini right away because they were not that concerned about the “low end” tablet market.
But the google Nexus 7 is not a low end tablet in any way. It runs the latest Android operating system on a very good technical platform at a reasonable price.
On the other hand, the pricing for the iPod Touch makes it unlikely that an iPad mini, supposedly coming in October, will be competitively priced in relation to other 7 inch tablets.
Other notes: the new connector would have been a winner if it offered USB 3.0 support.
And writers who got to use the iPhone 5 after the presentation noted that the device felt very good in the hand. That’s part of usability. It should have had a bigger screen. The other part of usability is not just holding the thing, but looking at it.
The phone will sell well, but I am predicting more defections to Android from formerly big time Apple supporters. The musings of Chicago Tribune tech writer Andy Ihnatko have been very honest and informative on this issue.
ETA: the iPod Touch also pushes some kids towards the Macbook Air and other laptops. Intelligent marketing.
Socraticsilence
I gotta say I still like my Android 4, the keyboard is just so good (much, much better than any other phone i’ve used) synced with Google Docs I can basically leave my laptop in the office and still do all the offsite work I need, but if I didn’t use spreadsheets and the like a lot I’d go with a Galaxy 3 or the Iphone 5.
? Martin
@Robert Sneddon:
No, the iPhone 5 has a slightly higher capacity battery than the 4S – Apple further shrunk the size of components to accommodate it, and the connector was part of that change (the old connector was one of the largest components in the phone). And the reason Apple waited so long to roll out LTE was to wait for chipsets to be available that weren’t big power drains. Battery time using LTE data is the same for the iPhone 5 as 3G data is for the 4S. Don’t automatically apply Androids failings to Apple here.
@Robert Sneddon: I’m skeptical of the real benefit of induction charging. They’re very slow, and operationally there’s very little difference between dropping it in a dock. There’s been lots of induction charging solutions out there – including for the iPhone – and none are really taking off.
Brachiator
@paulj:
Neither. Both are huge and Samsung is a diversified giant. This was one of the things which let them become dominant in the smartphone market so quickly (that, and copying the shit out of Apple).
This isn’t true at all. Funny how it becomes the standard issue conventional wisdom.
RIM flat out missed the challenge to the iPhone. They were like a mighty passenger rail line laughing at that newfangled auty-mobile that the young folks were driving.
HTC has been largely pushed aside by Samsung because the latter company has the money and the technological might to dominate the market.
Nokia was solid in other world markets, but could not crack the US smartphone market, and now is desperately playng catchup. Unfortunately, there big partner, Microsoft, appears to be as clueless as Nokia. Despite having some good products, they may simply be too late to the game to play.
But none of these challenges have anything to do just with chasing short term profits.
BTW, Amazon is an odd duck. Their apps (Kindle on any device anytime anywhere anyhow) are nimble, but hardware devices are not their strong suit.
? Martin
@Brachiator:
Two reasons:
1) The addition of a decent camera helps wipe out what’s left of the low-end digital camera market. For $299 ($199 next year) you can get a decent camera that can also edit photos and video, upload to social services, and do almost everything that an iPhone can do. I don’t expect the iPad Mini will have this feature, nor will it be pocketable like the Touch is.
2) I expect the Touch (now that Apple has split it into tiers with the higher tier at $299) will gain LTE in the next model (but no voice radio). That will allow it to replace the iPhone for users that are willing to use a VOIP service for voice calling and go with a $15/mo data plan like the iPad. This would be Apple’s entry into the prepaid market by eschewing the traditional voice/texting services.
The Touch is still the perfect device for kids.
Rorgg
So, I logged onto att.com yesterday to check what my upgrade eligibility is. Answer is: all clear, I’m outside my latest 2-year commitment.
But I don’t really have a spare $400 right now. So, I’ll wait a while to upgrade. But in the meanwhile… I’d heard that T-Mobile was working hard on bringing in iPhone users who were no longer tied to their carriers. So I checked on it. Counting my wife’s existing T-Mobile plan, I’d cut my $100/month cost essentially in half by swapping. And cut down on my number of bills by one. And I wouldn’t have to deal with the monthly “hey, you Unlimited Data user! You’re using a lot of data! STOP IT!” messages.
And hey, a year on that would save more than the cost of the iPhone 5, which I could get all the same perks on as a new user. So, I put in my request last night for AT&T to unlock me, and I’ll make the switch in a week or so.
burnspbesq
@mistermix:
AirPlay is limited to 44.1/16. I believe Bluetooth is as well. That’s not high-end. The bigger problem in the high end is that Logitech discontinued the Squeezebox Touch.
The closest you can get to true high-end from am IOS device is 48/24, taking a digital signal out the dock connector and sending it to an external DAC using an asynchronous USB connection. There are, AFAIK, exactly two such devices available: the Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo (a standalone DAC) and the Fostex HP-P1, which also includes a pretty good headphone amp. Audioquest is expected to ship an IOS variant of the Dragonfly in Q1 of 2013.
Someday Apple will allow 96/24 on IOS devices. Maybe. “Would it matter” is a fair question. YMMV, but I use IOS devices primarily in three locations: in the car, in the gym, and on airplanes. In all of those environments, ambient noise makes it difficult to hear the subtle things that separate hi-res from CD-res.
tBone
@Robert Sneddon:
Inductive charging would have required a thicker device. Anyone who thought Apple was going to do that was nuts.
I have a firesale HP Touchpad with inductive charging – it’s a nice option, but not really worth the added bulk, IMO.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
RE: Why buy an iPod Touch if you could buy a mini-iPad with the same feature set (also a kind of smart phone without the cell radio).
Many of the smart Apple observers agree that the iPad mini will not have a camera. This is stupid. Adding a camera (rear camera) would give it an edge over the google Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD. And a camera makes more sense on an iPad mini than on the bigger one.
People who use the 7 inch tablets find the smaller size to be eminently practical, even if it is not pocketable.
Possible. I don’t see this as being useful. It could also easily be a feature of a small tablet.
a reasonably priced iPad mini would be an excellent device for etextbooks and other uses, and is potentially far more versatile a device than the Touch. And if google and other companies exploit this niche market, they could do some very interesting things. Note here that I am not so much concerned with whether they compete well with Apple.
Everyone I know who has a google Nexus 7 loves it and is looking for new uses for it. This should tell the various device makers something.
My niece and nephew both have iPod Touches and love them. But they would have been prime candidates for a reasonably priced iPad mini. Their next devices will probably be the Nexus 7. With Dropbox and a few other apps, they will be good to go for a while.
Bottom line, I understand the decisions Apple made here, but I think it is a long term strategic mistake, especially if they come out with the iPad mini in October and it is pointlessly overpriced.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@? Martin: For $300?
I respectfully disagree.
Try a $99 android phone that is more durable and does just about everything an iTouch does. That way, when your kid inevitibly drops it in the water, you aren’t out an extra $200.
Alernatively, you can get a new Galaxy S2 with a better camera, bigger screen, SD card slot and a cell radio for $299 (off contract, no commitment required) from Walmart today! With the 3G radio off, the battery life is incredible.
mattH
@Raven: Family Mobile offers something similar, but I’d never take an iPhone to it, everyone who has complains about data connectivity and speed. I’m not sure if this is an artifact of the T-Moblie backbone or something else.
? Martin
@Brachiator:
I don’t think so. The iPad as now has some pretty good markets where the large size and camera are used. Contractors, for example. Insurance adjusters. An 8MP camera works as a passable scanner for students as well to submit homework, etc. The mini is designed more for ereader functionality and K-12 penetration. I think it’ll get a camera, but the old iPod Touch camera – fine for video, crappy for stills. If you want the good camera, upsell to the iPad – or jump over to the Touch.
The mere existence of the Touch now at $299 tells you that they aren’t going to introduce an iPad that renders it irrelevant. Apple doesn’t step on their own dick. And the iPad already has an advantage over those other devices – it’s an iPad. It’s already outselling everything else on the market. It’ll command a higher price on account of it being much more functional due to a much larger software base. I’m expecting $349 for an 8GB iPad Mini wifi. They might do $299, with some upsell models – 4G, etc. The $399 iPad 2 gets discontinued. That’s the slot they’re really looking to fill with this.
tBone
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
With kids, it’s all about 1) the apps and 2) ease of use. iOS still beats Android about the head and shoulders on both of those points, at least when it comes to kids. And for parents, it’s much easier on iOS to lock down apps/parts of the device you don’t want kids accessing.
RareSanity
Some random dude, think his last name was Wozniak, seems to think that the Galaxy S3’s camera is better than the iPhone 4’s.
But what the heck does that dude know about technology?
James K. Polk, Esq.
@tBone: If you think that kids don’t know that they can go to their friend’s house and do all the things that you have “locked down” on their mobile device, I have a very nice bridge to sell you at a HIGHLY discounted price…
Ease of use is an insane arguement at this point. People have preferences for OS, but they are mostly equivalent.
Number/quality of apps is an equally spurious arguement.
tBone
@? Martin:
If they had been first to market in the 7″ space, maybe they could have gotten away with that. If they try it now, when you have a lot of decent-to-very-good options for $200-$250, they’d be crazy to price the Mini that high. Even $299 would be a stretch, I think.
? Martin
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
I don’t know. My daughter is 11. She’s had an iPod Touch since she was 9. She’s seriously not cautious about things and her iPod looks brand new and she takes it everywhere.
I’m not looking to save $100. I’m looking for a functional device that doesn’t send her running back to me every 5 minutes asking for help. And with iOS, she gets all the apps that my wife and I buy for our devices and her brother buys for his. We’re certainly saved hundreds of dollars due to that. And she likes the hooks into the AppleTV and the ability to play games with her friends (which also all have iOS devices). When you add all the bits and pieces together, it’s a really compelling package. Plus she has full access to all of the movies and music we have in the house – which I’d have to work pretty hard to hook an Android device into.
She’s too little for that phone. It’d never ever fit in her pockets. Hell, the iPod Touch barely fits now. These >4″ phones are fine for adults, but they’re huge for kids.
trollhattan
Having conducted the Verizon store showdown last summer myself, the 4s stacked up poorly indeed against the competition, so it was high time for Apple to move. The 5 won’t have me flinging my Razr Maxx into a dumpster, but a side-by-side would have been instructive. Apple will get another shot at me in two years, but for I’m now officially pissed at them for ruining the Nano.
burnspbesq
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
That seems to make nary a lick of sense. Splain, please.
tBone
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
I think we’re talking about different age ranges here. For toddlers and lower elementary kids, iOS is easier to use, no question. I have a bunch of dev devices sitting around, I’ve watched my own kids use both platforms, and they invariably gravitate to iOS because they understand how to use it better. And iOS does have much better apps for that age range.
As far as “locking down”, I’m not talking about porn or whatever – I’m talking about basic things like “don’t delete apps without a password”.
Tim Fuller
@Robert Sneddon:
Wireless charging would require special chargers at every location you might wish to charge it. With people crying over thirty dollar adapters (WATBs), I imagine that would be more fodder for angst.
Enjoy.
burnspbesq
Apple fucked the audio world with Lightning. There is no analog audio out through the lightning connector. Gazillions of existing docks are useless, unless (as rumored but not yet confirmed), there is a DAC built into the $29 Lightning-to-30-pin adaptor.
Guess I’m not buying a new iPod Touch after all.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
Yep. And people use it to photograph apartments and other stuff that they are putting on Craigslist. But these are professional and niche uses.
You are making my case that the lack of a good camera on an iPad mini would be stupid. There is no rational reason to have it on the Touch, but not on a small tablet.
And people need to get up off the crap about what a device is “designed for.” Apple often rightly emphasizes that if you make a device delightful, people will discover uses for it. Pilots use the iPad. I doubt that many developers haad a clear idea that this is what the device was designed for. By contrast, there are few things more futile than Microsoft talking about how their upcoming tablets are especially designed for business users. Just dumb.
The central weakness of Apple’s view here is that while it is perfectly reasonable not to worry obsessively about the competition, it is stupid not to see how products are actually being used and what new markets may be opening up.
The idea that just being an iPad confers some magic is ridiculous. RIM had this same belief, with some justification, about the Blackberry. And it was true. Until it wasn’t.
I will go out on a limb and predict that an iPad mini at this configuration will be a failure.
And I am a happy owner of an iPad.
An iPad mini (or even big iPad) with only 8GB is marginally useful. And if the iPad mini has downgraded internals (A5 vs A6 chip) and no camera or a crappy camera, it will be especially rejected. An iPad mini might not have a Retina display, which would be another bad mark. If it does have Retina display, then the 8GB model would be even less usable.
So, the question would be, what will be the price of a 16GB iPad mini. This is the real usable entry level device.
And compare, google Nexus 7 with 16GB is $249. Google Kindle Fire with 32GB is $249. We don’t know what the upcoming Microsoft tablets will cost. But this is the price point where the battle will be fought.
burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
You like the watchband nano? I’ll sell you mine. I never use it.
RareSanity
@burnspbesq:
I have to admit that them scrapping the 30-pin connector, at least to an outside observer, doesn’t seem very wise.
I would think that an onboard DAC would be required to truly make it “compatible”. The main problem I see is that, those 30-pin connectors are so ubiquitous, people will either have to carry one around with them all the time or, they’re going to have to buy more than one.
At $30 a piece, that could start getting expensive.
I’m sure they made the change so that they could go slimmer, but I think that a lot of people wouldn’t think that 18% thinner, is worth losing that connector and the functionality/compatibility that goes with it.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
Got one; love it. Perfect form factor for music and podcasts, which is what I use it for. They’ve more than doubled the size and ditched the clip to accommodate video. We’ve been down this path before, with the whateverG that perceeded this one.
And oh yeah, about that new connector that renders every dock and accessory obsolete…FYA.
? Martin
@burnspbesq: I think we need to wait until the adapter ships, but I’m reading some reports that the adapter does have a DAC in it, and it was implied by Schiller that it does have a DAC – that you could still hook straight up to your stereo.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@tBone: I hear the phrase “lock down” and I always assume hyper-protective parents who aren’t using common sense about a kid’s technological prowess, my apologies.
Really, toddlers are uninstalling apps? What other “basic functions” are you locking down for kids that age? I am genuniely curious.
As you are neither, I don’t think that your opinion qualifies as fact for this matter. My friend’s 3 and 5 year olds play with their Nexus 7s without any trouble.
burnspbesq
@? Martin:
Even if it does have a DAC, it’s not likely to have a good one. Even a Wolfson 8716 or an ESS Sabre 9006 isn’t going to be cost-effective in a $30 device.
RareSanity
@burnspbesq:
I don’t see why not…
The quantities that Apple buys in, they could probably get either one of those ICs for $1, or maybe less per unit.
Basically the all of the other functionality, other than analog audio, would be either passthrough (USB, maybe the serial port), or some simple circuitry (accessory sensing through resistance).
High quality D-to-A conversion, is not nearly as expensive as a lot of companies would have you think. As a matter of fact, the “quality” of the DAC IC, pales in comparison to the the Op-Amp front and backends, and the noise/crosstalk isolation in the PCB design/layout.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@? Martin:
You are comparing a $100 stand alone device to an entire ecosystem of devices worth thousands. (AppleTV $100, Mac computer network, huge library of iOS programs). I would certainly hope that you get quite a bit more for your money. But, as you mentioned, you aren’t interested in saving the duckets.
Plus, as an Apple shareholder, you have a vested interest in convincing others that your technology solutions are better.
Me, I’m just a cheap bastard that looks for great deals. YMMV.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@burnspbesq:
That sound you hear is the screaming of folks who paid extra for dock connectors in cars that they are still paying for.
That said, how what percentage of Apple customers use lossless audio in their i-Devices? Probably well under 10%.
? Martin
@Brachiator:
From the consumer side, you’re right – but from the product segmenting side it makes sense to put a diminished camera in it. In part because the mini will be viewed as a discount tablet compared to the full iPad, and that discount needs to be paid for. But more importantly to Apple, they need to preserve the long arc of their pricing tiers. There needs to be features that justify the long term existence of the iPad at $499, and the iPod Touch at $299. Oftentimes those features are completely artificial to component costs and SRP, but they need to exist nevertheless, or else you find yourself undercutting your replacement models and having to cut prices because they seem insufficient upgrades for the price.
It’s worthwhile for Apple to lose some customers in the near term over this to ensure the long-term success of the platform.
But to Apple, the better camera in the touch makes sense because it’s pocketable as a camera. The mini won’t be. The better camera in the full iPad mades sense because for professional uses (like the contractor) they’ll pay to upsell from the mini to gain it, and it’s a pretty limited part of the market. So, it’s a nice feature in the mini, but it’s one that Apple would feel they could sacrifice without impacting sales. They do this constantly (everyone else does too).
I think Apple fully sees how markets are opening up. In fact, I think they see it far better than consumers do. If my thesis is correct, the most important thing to Apple right now is to find a way to establish a pricing floor on the iPod Touch at $299 (which they’re doing right now) and to protect that product until they can make the market move in 2013 or 2014 that they are planning. Yes, the iPad Mini is an important new market, but it pales in size to what I think Apple has planned for the Touch – which is to undercut the voice/text racket.
So they’re going to pick up what Mini sales they can in the near term, but the long-term focus is on the Touch.
Adding 8GB is negligible in cost. $2-$3. Everyone charges $50 for it, though. It’s where Google makes their money – in that upsell.
I don’t think Apple feels they need to take away every Nexus 7/Fire sale. I think they just need to blunt that momentum enough that the iPad (in all forms) remains the owner of the tablet space, at least in terms of profits. Apple’s in a tough spot here – the new 7″ tablets are pretty nice and very low price. Apple’s not going to worry about losing no-margin sales. They know that those product categories can’t be sustained for long if Apple takes away the higher margin ones. So Apple doesn’t need to take the $199 market. They might want to take the $249 market, though. So yeah, maybe 16GB Mini at $249. That’d be really aggressive for Apple, though.
And another consideration is that the iPad Mini is unlikely to be the only announcement at that event. Apple can add value to that product through their ecosystem – services, greater integration with AppleTV, etc. And I still contend that the ecosystem value of the iPad is significant and unmatched by Android at this time. That won’t apply to all users, but it’ll apply to an awful lot of them. Anyone with an iPhone at the very least.
burnspbesq
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Fortunately, I’m not screaming. Bluetooth is more than adequate for streaming baseball games from the MLB app on my iPhone to my car system.
Probably so, but I’m part of that well-under-10%, so I care.
? Martin
@RareSanity:
It’s unavoidable. The 30 pin connector is old and outdated and its HUGE. Something like 25% of the volume of the old Nano was dedicated to the connector. You’re going to see the same thing happening with other devices as well. Consider that the USB port is the thickest port supported by the MacBook Pro Retina and MacBook Air – and it barely fits.
It’s a huge change for Apple – and they know the consequences. They basically have to rev every iOS product they make. We should them retool the iPad 3 next month just to change the connector. But the dock connector is 10 years old. It’s not like they’ve done this on a whim.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@? Martin:
I’ll defer to your Apple prognostication, marketing’s not my thing… but do you think abandoning the original iPad so early (it won’t get iOS6) was a good idea?
I’ll stick with my iPhone until it dies, then replace it with whatever iPhone variant happens to be on sale that day (I don’t jailbreak– phones are like cars to me, I just want the stupid thing to work). But when my iPad breaks, I doubt I’ll be replacing it with another $500+ Apple tablet anytime soon.
The reason I don’t mind paying the Apple premium on an iMac or Macbook is that I know those will be useful to me for 4-5 years. But I now know first-hand that this just isn’t true for an Apple tablet.
? Martin
@burnspbesq: From the Store page for the adapter:
I would infer that to mean that Audio Out *is* supported.
? Martin
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
I think it was unavoidable.
The original iPad was hedged. Apple didn’t know if it would take off – and they undercut the product somewhat in anticipation that they might not get their economy of scale there. The biggest problem is they undercut the SOC (RAM, particularly) in the device and removed the camera. Because the iPad is slinging around more pixels and enables broader use applications as a result, it puts a lot more pressure on that RAM as compared to the 3GS which carries the same amount of RAM. So the 3GS gets limited support for iOS 6, and the iPad none.
The poor decision isn’t iOS 6, but the original iPad design. It needed 512MB RAM. It was RAM constrained from the get-go, which you can tell when you open a number of tabs in Safari. I expect the iPad 2, which was a much more aggressive hardware design (as was the iPhone 4) to gain one additional OS cycle as a result – they’ll probably last at least through iOS 8.
I didn’t buy an iOS device until the iPhone 4/iPod Touch and iPad 3. That’s when they really hit their lifespan sweetspot. The iPad 2 only missed because of the lack of the retina display, and I wanted a device to read on, so I waited. I don’t expect future tablets (or the iPad 3 for that matter) to be abandoned nearly as quickly. Apple’s vision for the iPad is to replace the consumer PC. They can’t achieve that if they don’t establish a reputation that they can have a replacement cycle which is comparable to PCs – 3-5 years.
BTW, as a pretty broad rule of thumb, Apple prices their products at $1/day for their anticipated lifecycle. If you’re paying $500 for the device, Apple is figuring you’ll consider replacing it about 2 years out. It doesn’t drive their decisions on when to drop support for a product, but it does suggest how aggressively they may be pushing the platform (particularly the hardware) in the future. Something to keep in the back of your mind.
RareSanity
@? Martin:
As I said in my comment, I’m sure people would rather have that connector, than the fraction of a mm in thickness it allowed to be eliminated
Outdated how? Just because it has existed for more than 2 years?
There is nothing technologically outdated about the connector, and I would disagree that it is “huge”. Is it wider than a USB? Yes it is, but it is usually “shorter” than most USB connectors, so it kind of cancels out. There was a reason it was so big, it was because of the functionality it exposed to the outside world. It’s the one thing that I wish Android would do a better job of. There’s a reason that there are ridiculous amounts of things that plug into that connector, it offered so much flexibility for manufacturers to create tons of different accessories.
Speaking of HUGE, have you seen how much bulk the new 30 pin adapter adds to a device? It’s almost comical.
So?
I have yet to hear someone complain about the size of the old Nano, people loved it. As a matter of fact, I have been hearing people complain about the fact that Apple just made the Nano bigger.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
RE: You are making my case that the lack of a good camera on an iPad mini would be stupid. There is no rational reason to have it on the Touch, but not on a small tablet.
Pretty much the only side that I need to consider. I understand what Apple is doing, and I agree with you as to why Apple is doing it.
I’m just saying that it will not work. And it is not just that Apple may lose some customers in the near term. They will fail to win new customers who might want to buy a small tablet. Apple is foolishly giving up a new and expanding market to “ensure the long-term success of the platform.”
You keep talking about how the Touch is pocketable and has a good camera. Users find the google Nexus 7 to be eminently portable. The same is true of the large base of ebook readers out there. This is a non-issue.
I understand why many manufacturers have not included a camera in their smaller tablets. This is a missed opportunity that the smarter ones will fugure out.
People find cameras to be useful on smaller devices; to have one in the Touch and not on an iPad mini makes sense to a marketer and to some corporate officers. It does not make sense to potential consumers.
This is funny. The success of the recent Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and the lameness of Apple’s response, easily contradicts this. Again, I cite the very wise Andy Ihnatko (Ihnatko: Android vs. iOS. You might be surprised who wins).
I think your speculations about Apple’s plans for the Touch are very reasonable and interesting, but I think that the success of 7 inch tablets may have a big negative impact on their efforts here.
And I agree with you that Apple is not worried about losing no-margin sales. But the 7 inch tablet may be where future innovation comes from, not from larger tablets. This may make the product category much more viable in the long term. I think that Apple may be underestimating the significance of google’s success here. We shall see.
I agree that any October product announcement could include a lot of other items, and no one can deny Apple’s record of success. I have laid out what I see as some of the vulnerabilities in Apple’s apparent approach with the iPad mini. It will be interesting to see whether other services will add sufficient value.
Again, my bet is that it may not. But I will have no problem at all if I am proven wrong on this.
BTW: Didn’t Apple do a significant price adjustment on the iPhone in the past? Also, Apple has also ably defended its price points for its products by increasing capacity or adding a new feature or a support for a killer app. If Apple refreshed the bigger iPads with some big feature, they could more easily justify higher prices for the iPad mini line.
And also, since I am not just bashing Apple by any means, the google people missed a huge opportunity in not having a rear camera on the Nexus 7, even with cost considerations.
? Martin
@RareSanity:
Apple doesn’t need the 30 pins any more. The video out pins are almost useless. There’s no way to support USB3 in the the connector. Basically, half of the connector is obsolete and unused with no way to modernize it.
The adapter is just a transitional item. There will be docks on the market that use the new connector natively soon. And the adapter is huge because theres a lot of circuitry in there to bridge the two connectors. I agree its shockingly large.
tBone
@James K. Polk, Esq.:
On iOS, holding down the home button puts all of the icons into “wiggle” mode, with a an X icon in the upper left. Press the X, and the app is uninstalled. My toddlers were champs at uninstalling random apps if you let them use a device for any length of time, until I locked out the delete function.
You can also restrict access to the camera (so you don’t end up with 300 pics of arms, legs, carpet, etc in your camera roll); FaceTime, the various iStores, etc. iOS 6 also has a guided mode, where you can essentially put an app into kiosk mode so kids can’t get out of it by accidentally pressing a button. (This can, believe it or not, be a huge issue on car trips and the like.)
Just reporting on what I’ve observed. I have a Nexus 7, a TouchPad, and various Android phones; my kids can use them fine, but an iOS device is always their first choice if one is available. It’s just easier for them to navigate and to get themselves out of trouble.
? Martin
@Brachiator:
Sorta. The original iPhone was an attempt by Apple to break the carrier model. Their gamble was that consumers would pay more up-front for the phone rather than be tied to a contract. It didn’t work. They cut the price right out of the gate, and then abandoned the plan altogether with the 3G and went with a traditional carrier model. The 3G was introduced at $199 w/2 year contract, and the iPhone has stayed there ever since. Call it what it was – a failed experiment.
See, I don’t see $199 as the natural price point for the 7″ tablets right now. That’s not sustainable. Everybody knows that. It’s a loss-leader to try and get a foot into the market, and they’re doing it because they know they need to provide a sufficiently large discount to the iPad to win users over. There’s no question that Amazon and Google would prefer to turn a profit on these things if they felt they could do it. That suggests that a comparable iPad could succeed at a price somewhere in the middle. Now, that may not be much above the Nexus, but it should give Apple a bit of room to work.
And Apple has succeeded against these tactics before. The Mac is clearly in ascension in spite of the fact that PC ASPs are $530, and Apple is priced twice that. So, I think the price sensitivity of the market isn’t as high as you make it out to be.
burnspbesq
@? Martin:
Apparently Apple is now confirming that there is a DAC in the adaptor. No word on which one, or what the rest of the circuit looks like.
http://www.stuff.tv/news/apple-news/news-nugget/why-the-iphone-5-lightning-to-30-pin-adapter-costs-so-much
? Martin
@burnspbesq: Oh, good. That really does need to be cleared up.
Regarding the DAC, the iPod has always been very variable in the quality of the DAC. I know one of the lead design engineers at Apple and he’s an audiophile and has always made tradeoffs toward better audio quality in the models he designs. So the year his team did the shuffle, it had better audio quality than the Nano and Touch models at the expense of something else.
It really will come down to who was in charge of the design itself. That all seems quite un-Apple-like, but that’s the process.
Don
I’d assert they’re chump deals. All three demand a 2 year contract where the total cost of ownership exceeds $1,000. Choosing year or two year old technology to save a single digit percentage is bad economics.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
Thing is, customer expectation can set or freeze a price. And Amazon’s and google’s aims are different. Google just wanted to deliver a viable small tablet without added bloatware and with the latest OS to show the potential. And to make money. Bezos of Amazon delivered a tablet customized to the hilt as a platform for Amazon services.
I don’t know how sensitive the market might be to an Apple iPad mini. But here’s my working hypothesis: It will be a tough fight if Apple markets an iPad mini with the internals of an iPad 2 and no camera or a crappy camera, and the price is too much of a premium over the google tablet or Amazon Kindle Fire HD.
Added friction will be the reaction of iPad 1 owners who do not have other Apple products and are not used to the Apple Way who now find that their tablet cannot be upgraded to iOS 6.
Let’s see what happens.
Fred Fnord
I know, let’s add a gratuitous hippie punch! That’ll bring in the hits!
In summary: fuck you.
Gromit
MacWorld also has Apple saying the adapter outputs analog audio:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1168555/what_apples_new_lightning_connector_means_for_you.html#commentsjump