Apple set to build 30M iPhone 5 units with 512MB RAM, improved antenna

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  • Reply 21 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    My impression -- based on the fact that Apple sold 20 million iPhones last quarter -- is that Apple will sell every single one of these 30 million units and there will still be a backlog of people who want the new iPhone.



    There will maybe be tens of thousands of disappointed fence-sitters, the few people who regularly post to tech rumor blogs. Joe Consumer will be quite happy with the new device and Apple will end on atop the next smartphone customer satisfaction survey, just like they always do.



    And AAPL shareholders will stub their toes tripping over large sacks of money proliferating all over the place.



    Apple counts on iPhone owners to switch out their old phones for the newest phone.... My point is that there will be less of an incentive to break a contract or buy at full pop if the phone looks the same with marginal upgrades in performance.



    My iPhone 4 works great. I will not move to a 5 if there is not a compelling aesthetic reason to do so. And I believe there are more than ten thousand people in the same position.
  • Reply 22 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalpen View Post


    Yea! Let's rehash the same thing a million times and call it breaking news!



    That's because AppleInsider is not reprinting rumores they read somewhere else. The rumor was told directly to them, so it's breaking news
  • Reply 23 of 179
    Why the heck is it so important for outside sources to constantly report rumors about the iPhone 5 almost right up to the release date? What they're reporting doesn't even make sense. It sounds more like they're talking about the rumored, upgraded iPhone 4S than the iPhone 5. If that's all Apple had been releasing, I doubt that Apple would have pushed back the release date as far as it did. It's more likely the iPhone 5 has been completely redesigned including the casing.
  • Reply 24 of 179
    nkhmnkhm Posts: 928member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ivabign View Post


    Apple counts on iPhone owners to switch out their old phones for the newest phone.... My point is that there will be less of an incentive to break a contract or buy at full pop if the phone looks the same with marginal upgrades in performance.



    My iPhone 4 works great. I will not move to a 5 if there is not a compelling aesthetic reason to do so. And I believe there are more than ten thousand people in the same position.



    No, they don't. Most iPhone owners will be on contract, and when their contract is renewed they will be offered a new phone, probably an upgrade to the five The five will be sold primarily to those who do not currently have an iPhone. Normal people (not tech heads like us) will be on a standard upgrade cycle.



    The iPhone 3G works great, the 4 works great - there's no reason to upgrade other than "I want the latest/greatest", those buying will always aim for the latest/greatest, cost allowing. Apple don't need to make any significant changes, the phone is the best on the market it's the best known phone on the planet - they're selling as fast as they can be produced.



    Apple don't have to do anything to convince anyone to upgrade, they just have to continue to keep ahead of the pack - and that is as much about OS and the App Store as hardware.
  • Reply 25 of 179
    Oh and after another pass at the article.... It opines that the reason the phone will look the same is because of the camera..... So the whole reason the iPhone 5 will look the way it does is so they can fit the 8 MP camera? I'm not buying.
  • Reply 26 of 179
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Takeo View Post


    Same heavy bulky design as iPhone 4 = No Sale.



    Bulky?? You do realise that the iPhone 4 is still one of the smallest thinnest smartphones on the market.
  • Reply 27 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rufwork View Post


    Why would people jump at an iPhone 4.1? If anything, Joe Consumer will jump at *any* perceived advance, even if they thing only *looks* completely different. If it looks the same and the improvements are subtle, I'm not sold that this'll sell any better than the 4 sells now (not that that's the end of the world for Apple).



    Better antenna and camera! Yay! RLY?



    You really don't get it, do you? Because Joe Consumer doesn't care about tech rumor blogs or smartphone specs.



    Joe Consumer wants what's for sale now. And the iPhone 5 will outsell the iPhone 4, just like the iPhone 4 outsold the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 3GS outsold the iPhone 3G...
  • Reply 28 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AjitMD View Post


    I like the current design... it is not made of cheap plastic. The Gorilla glass and the Stainless Steel antenna give it a good solid feel... I do use an Apple bumper for protection. The design is very efficient in terms of space use and improvements in battery capacity and components will extend the the time between charging. The thickness certainly allows for an improved camera not only with better sensor, but also optics and flash.



    Besides an improved camera, battery capacity and faster CPU, larger screen with small bezel, I would have preferred 64 GB of Flash, and 1 GB of RAM. World roaming helps, but the charges are too expensive for ATT overseas. I would have to unlock it before I leave, etc. Easier to use a cheap GSM Nokia and buy a prepaid SIM... or use an old unlocked iPhone.



    Completely agree with your first paragraph. I skipped out on the 3g and 3gs because compared to the original iphone, it looked like Apple cheaped out on the case design. When I saw the iphone 4, I knew I had to get it.
  • Reply 29 of 179
    My Home Button on my 3G works just fine - in fact, the whole phone still works fine. I've dropped it loads of times now, but no glass has shattered (well, there is only half as much than on the iP4 so basic maths tells you that) and the phone is still a great phone.



    If the iP5 still has two glass sides, I won't be getting one. If the iP5 still has distinct edges that feel bad in the hand, I won't get it. If the iP5 will only sync with Lion, I won't be getting it. I'll just keep my iP3 (and maybe buy a used 3GS if it breaks or dies).
  • Reply 30 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ivabign View Post


    Apple counts on iPhone owners to switch out their old phones for the newest phone.... My point is that there will be less of an incentive to break a contract or buy at full pop if the phone looks the same with marginal upgrades in performance.



    My iPhone 4 works great. I will not move to a 5 if there is not a compelling aesthetic reason to do so. And I believe there are more than ten thousand people in the same position.



    Personally, I suspect that Apple anticipates the VAST majority (80%+) of iPhone users are upgrading based upon their contract cycle. This means that even if the iPhone 5 is visually identical to the iPhone 4 you are still going to have a ton of people upgrading from their odl 3GS, like me, or some who held out even a bit longer upgrading from a 3G. The segment of the iPhone community that upgrades every release I would assume is quite small actually.



    It would take a radically improved model for me to even consider breaking the contract and paying full price to upgrade at the one year mark. It would take even more for my wife to consider it. All in all, I'm sure that Apple is going to do just fine whether this model is an incremental update or a radical change.



    The good news here is that everything is now pointing to us finding out some real details in the next couple weeks.
  • Reply 31 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SwissMac2 View Post




    If the iP5 still has two glass sides, I won't be getting one. If the iP5 still has distinct edges that feel bad in the hand, I won't get it. If the iP5 will only sync with Lion, I won't be getting it.



    So you think you know better than Jonny what will generate the biggest profits for Apple?



    I guess Apple is Doomed.



    Tell you what: Go out and build a company bigger than Apple, design your own phone to meet your individual biases and strange demands, and THEN maybe Steve will care what you think. OK?
  • Reply 32 of 179
    I will say this.... If I walk into the Verizon store and there is an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 4S... That salesman will need a load of training to keep me from taking the $99 iPhone 4. Side by side, why spend the extra money? They are both beautiful - they both have ios5... Well the 5 has dual core! Selling on specs has always flown in the face of the Apple way.
  • Reply 33 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    So you think you know better than Jonny what will generate the biggest profits for Apple?



    I guess Apple is Doomed.



    Tell you what: Go out and build a company bigger than Apple, design your own phone to meet your individual biases and strange demands, and THEN maybe Steve will care what you think. OK?



    Relax there buddy. Nowhere did he say Apple was doomed. Nowhere did he say he knew how to better design forms. Who the heck are you to tell him he doesn't like glass-backed phones?



    If he doesn't like the design of the iPhone4, then he doesn't like it. Why do you have a problem with it?



    What other products do you like that you should dictate that we should like too, and somehow infer from that that we think the manufacturer of said products are doomed if we don't like agree with your opinion?
  • Reply 34 of 179
    I could live with the design staying the same (but a 4+-inch screen with improved resolution would have been great), but why on earth wouldn't they upgrade the RAM? Madness. Even with the 512 MB in the iPhone 4 sites in mobile Safari are constantly flushed from memory.
  • Reply 35 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ivabign View Post


    Apple counts on iPhone owners to switch out their old phones for the newest phone.... My point is that there will be less of an incentive to break a contract or buy at full pop if the phone looks the same with marginal upgrades in performance.



    My iPhone 4 works great. I will not move to a 5 if there is not a compelling aesthetic reason to do so. And I believe there are more than ten thousand people in the same position.



    No, Apple counts on new users to buy the iPhone.



    That's why they sell more of them every year. If they relied on existing users just upgrading, their sales would be relatively flat, but that is certainly not the case. They sold 20 million iPhones last quarter, the most they have have ever sold.



    Same with Mac sales. They need new customers, people who have never owned a Mac before. Something like over half of the Mac sales in their bricks-and-mortar Apple Stores are to first-time Mac buyers.



    It's sales to new customers that has driven Apple's success over the past decade.
  • Reply 36 of 179
    The 3GS looked like the 3G, but sold in greater numbers. The same thing will happen with iP5, no matter what it looks like.
  • Reply 37 of 179
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Seems pretty clear that this is the lower end model that's being launched soon. Apple is smart enough to know that if they don't change the physical appearance of the thing, worldwide demand will be lower than it would have been with a good new design.
  • Reply 38 of 179
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by irnchriz View Post


    Bulky?? You do realise that the iPhone 4 is still one of the smallest thinnest smartphones on the market.



    One of the thinnest ...



    But new iPhones have invariably been the thinnest upon their release. Are they going to break that trend?
  • Reply 39 of 179
    Look like I'll be skipping an iPhone generation.
  • Reply 40 of 179
    Much of what is new on any iPhone is more software than hardware. For instance, Apple could keep the home button as is by allowing for a software "home" option on the display ? less tapping of the home button would equal fewer home button hardware issues.



    I expect Apple to build these into iOS 5 (such as the instant access to the camera).
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