I know many Apple fans like to pretend that isn't a real problem. It is. Get over it. This is one of the reasons I bought a case for my iPhone 4. When I can decrease my signal by 2 bars or more by placing one fingertip on a spot on the side of the phone, there is a design flaw. Doesn't mean the phone is crap. Best phone I ever owned. Just stop pretending this problem doesn't exist.
iPhone 5 (or whatever. they could even drop the numbering and just call it the 'new iPhone' like they do with the iPod touch) - (Major feature/hardware upgrade).
This is key. Apple shouldn't have numbered them to begin with; if the 4S had just been "the new iPhone" instead of "not an iPhone 5", people would be much more positive in their reaction.
I didn't realize hands-on experience was required to be wowed by a product.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you. I was absolutely floored when Apple announced the original iPhone, and extremely excited with both the 3G and 3GS. When the iPhone 4 came out, I was amazed at everything they were able to put into it. But this time, for the first time, I'm underwhelmed in the iPhone. That's not to say it's not a big upgrade, or an amazing device with great battery life and rock-solid stability, but after waiting the extra few months from the norm, I would have expected something a little better than this. Oh well.
...There was no misstep on Apple's part. This is the Apple's methodical and evolutionary approach to not rush things to market before they're ready.
I guess in your world, a new model that is 7-9 times faster than the previous phone is just not good enough for tech-heads like you.
Precisely. Thank you. It is important to realize that the 'bigger, better, faster, now" mentality is akin to a disease. Those of us that look at the meta level of technological development and intervention in our lives recognize that the pace of tech far outpaces our capacity to grok its impacts. To some, releasing a phone that looks the same is important, as they never delve into the feature set. Others geek out on every detail. In the bigger picture though, who is currently truly constrained by their device in the context of having capacities that didn't exist sometimes just months ago.
It is much more than a prescription for unhappiness to ratchet your expectations to be constantly at or just above what is technically possible. For us to stop having the tool of technology as our master, we must develop a healthier outlook at the incredible breadth of opportunities each new device offers us, and perhaps, for a moment, be grateful.
I'm surprised that the comments are not really talking about the predicted release date of iPhone 5, in early Q3.
The following would have to happen for this predicted date:
1. Wireless carriers would have to make customers with less than 12 months into a contract (8 or 9 months) eligible. (considering they purchased 4S model). This may or may not be likely, but considering the carrier's normal (early) eligibility schedule is 12-18 months, they would be setting a precedent that they may not want to do.
2. Apple would have to begin immediately with planning & testing a new design for iPhone 5. If the stories are correct concerning iPhone 4 and antenna issue, Apple was testing it the previous September (2009) for then a June 2010 release.
3. Apple would have to expect a larger than normal amount of buyer's remorse and/or frustration with those customer's who went ahead and purchased 4S in the remaining months of 2011 or early 2012 (tied into false rumors of iPad 3 this fall, when iPad 2 was released only in March).
I believe Apple has "adjusted" the iPhone schedule to now be in the fall and consolidated with the iPod line. If so, then any customer looking for the 4G technology in an iPhone will have to wait (like it or not) until then. My two cents only!
Wildly improved processor? Euh, the A5 has been around since earlier this year, so sorry no. More like 6 month late processor.
Really? Is it not a constant source of amusement to see droid phones that crash constantly, have horrible battery life, quirky behaviors. Just had two friends with latest-model phones tell me that their Samsung - if listening to music when receiving a call, could not go back to listening to music unless restarted. The HTC would go white screen during texting and periodically reboot without warning. My girlfriend's droid is near paperweight status less than a year old. With hundreds of apps, my 3Gs just sails along and beats their phones at virtually every task and is still rock solid at a ripe old age of 18 months or so.
Do you truly want a shorter window of testing and feature integration than 6 months? Do you want to sacrifice usability for such cutting edge componentry? Do you have the same expectations for your automobile choices? What frustration!
It is hard to argue that there are better engineers anywhere in the tech industry, or better management of the supply chain. Is it Apple's fault that demand is outpacing component development? Should they be faulted for releasing a phone (Iphone 4) that was so far ahead of the competition that it was still gaining market share 16 months later against supposedly superior phones? And is it their fault that creating another iteration of their phone that easily matches or exceeds anything else available, in some cases by broad margins, doesn't please everyone?
They seem to be arguing for change for the sake of change. How shallow can you get? The design of the iPhone and it's OS is world class, this is why Samsung created a clone along with Google's Android. The build quality of the iPhone is superb and it now has a dual core chip and a very, very good camera, there in your pocket when you need it. Perhaps if Apple made micro changes to the shape of the edges or the buttons people would have been extactic? I like the size of my iPhone in my pocket, it's big enough to be useful (with its gorgeous display) and small enough to comfortably 'disappear' in terms of comfort.
The development of the latest network technologies is in a state of flux, when hasn't it been? The 4s targets large segments of the technologies around the world currently in place. Apple will most likely have an LTE capable solution if or when LTE is widely rolled out. Why wouldn't they? In the meantime the 4s and Apple integrated sysetm - as a whole - will be creating a wake in which the rest of the industry will follow.
I am with you on the blind iHaters. There are people who don't get the big picture at all. They use line item lists of specs and features to fight with, but don't actually look at the reality in practical use. That being said, Apple has created a fantastic product with not enough screen to operate for many people that want to use their phones to replace certain functions they have been using their computers for. Those people need a bigger screen. At this point I think it was a big mistake to not offer that. Cosmetic design is superficial, but screen size is not.
'If we can’t show off with it, what’s the point of buying one?’
I guess Chinese hipsters are more like US hipsters than I realized....... ...ahhh the intellectual depth! Y'all are so suave.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ontheinside
That depends on 4G being ratified as a specific technology by that time. I don't believe it has yet. If they go down the LTE route it should be the iPhone LTE.
It's "LTE Advanced" that is a 4G candidate technology. LTE (non-Advanced) isn't a candidate for being ratified as 4G.
Incorrect. After no 3G phones ever actually matched the ITU's 3G specs, they've eased up on 4G "certification" - to which nothing in the wild even comes close, and are officially allowing - as of 12/10 - the initial versions LTE and Wi-Max and even HSPA+ to call themselves "4G technologies" with their blessing.
So an upgrade of hype or a downgrading of actual expected compliance with standards, take your pick.......
Quote:
4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).[1]
A 4G system is expected to provide a comprehensive and secure all-IP based mobile broadband solution to laptop computer wireless modems, smartphones, and other mobile devices. Facilities such as ultra-broadband Internet access, IP telephony, gaming services, and streamed multimedia may be provided to users.
4G technologies such as mobile WiMAX and first-release Long term evolution (LTE) have been on the market since 2006[2] and 2009[3][4][5] respectively. The ITU announced in December 2010 that WiMax, LTE, and HSPA+ are 4G technologies.[6]
The HSPA+ being included is partly why Apple specifically didn't claim their new 14.4 variants (HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz) as '4G or not 4G' yesterday - not to mention AT&T's barely deployed HSPA+ [more on this below] and is now focusing on getting LTE out the door.
Meaning the newly announced speed will be available only to a handful of US 4S buyers, if that, and which I found the most deceptive, non-qualified announcement Apple's made at a keynote in years. There's a comfortable reality distortion field, like the one being created around Siri, which may or may not presage the HAL-9000 age or just be a gimmick barely on the way there, and then there's truth distortion, setting up an expectation in the average user that they'll be getting these speeds, which 95-100% of US residents won't be getting! Bad Apple! Bad!
I also haven't been able to verify the compatibility of AT&T's HSPA+ with Apple's announced HSDPA/HSUPA, (which - HSPA+ - another Wiki article calls "3.5 G")
PS: Did anyone else notice how the the addition of Sprint not only wasn't played up at the keynote, but was actually tossed off as an "oh yeah, Sprint too, if anyone cares" kind of thing. And that was it! Didn't Apple even trot out a Verizon Exec when they came on board???
PS: Did anyone else notice how the the addition of Sprint not only wasn't played up at the keynote, but was actually tossed off as an "oh yeah, Sprint too, if anyone cares" kind of thing. And that was it! Didn't Apple even trot out a Verizon Exec when they came on board???
Sorry to go off-topic a bit here but the whole Sprint story might reveal why there's no T-Mobile iPhone. Seems the way it happened at Sprint was Apple told them that to create a special iPhone (it's rare for a phone to be identical one carrier to the next) the "minimum order quantity is XX million units"... perhaps 30 million was the actual number. Apple very well could have told T-Mobile the same thing, perhaps long ago. If the quantity was too high for them to commit to -- no iPhone.
Makes sense for Apple to hold off until 2012 to announce the iPhone 5. First off all, unless they can deliver in volume why announce now? It would only kills sales of existing iPhone 4 sales. Secondly, the iPhone will be 5 years old in 2012 hence the iPhone '5' Finally, why wouldn't Apple want to refine an already popular handset? Seems that the iPhone 4 is the #1 selling smartphone, in the world, so why not simply improve it?
1) I think Siri is being way undervalued by some commentators/posters. It's a game-changing technology in the way Bluetooth and basic voice commands were a few years ago. How many languages will it support? Not sure I've seen that.
2) A significant number of Verizonwireless (and Sprint, too I suppose) customers will be switching to an iPhone as the 4S is the first one that will allow them to do so. There really are people who require a "global" phone and they've been stuck with a BlackBerry or something else so far. It's quite possible this extends to existing CDMA network phone users in Korea and Japan, too.
1, Siri is confusing to people because they think it's simply "Speech to Text" fed into a search engine. It's hard to conceptually explain to them the tech behind Siri. They glaze over when they hear Latent Semantic Mapping but Siri's ability to parse language and make sense of it should be unparalleled compared to today's basic speech to search. Already Siri supports English, German and French. My German friend is going to LOVE being able to speak in her native tongue.
2. Love World Phones. Verizon/Sprint customers that travel abroad are cheering right now if you listen closely ;-)
So the 6th generation iPhone is going to be called the iPhone "5"? Really? That right there makes the rest of the article null and void.
Technically, the article just reports on what the analysts said, but therein lies the issue: this site reports rumors and news, but you have to pay attention to what is rumor and what is fact. But I've noticed a lot of readers believe everything posted on AI as if it had equal veracity. This is troubling, because that's how we arrived at the present situation. Analysts were talking out of their asses, AI was posting it, but they also post factual news. Back in the day, news organizations (legitimate journalists, not the blogger/rumormongers we have today) who only go to press with stories that had facts or testimony to back them up. That kind of pure news-only reporting doesn't happen anymore with the advent of the Internet and the 24-hour cable news networks. Now it's about ratings and page views, facts be damned.
How do you make a phone twice as likely to break when it's dropped? Oh ya, let's put glass on BOTH sides of the device. Still the dumbest design decision there is. Helps sell phone cases, but having to have a case for a phone just plain sucks. What's the point of marketing your phone as the thinnest one if you have to put a case on it to protect it from shattering? Didn't buy the 4 because of that design and won't get the 4s either. If Apple ever changes the nearly all glass design, I may upgrade then. Next Apple's going to come out with the all (Gorilla) glass car! Crash? No problem, it's "Gorilla" glass!
Six million years of experience using opposable thumbs and you're still dropping your phone? I suppose it's all Apple's fault. Back when we were swinging in trees, your grip was a matter of life and death. And yet somehow you were born... Hmm, perhaps you're a mutation.
Comments
I know many Apple fans like to pretend that isn't a real problem. It is. Get over it. This is one of the reasons I bought a case for my iPhone 4. When I can decrease my signal by 2 bars or more by placing one fingertip on a spot on the side of the phone, there is a design flaw. Doesn't mean the phone is crap. Best phone I ever owned. Just stop pretending this problem doesn't exist.
Talk about 'get over it'.
What part of this don't these guys understand:
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS - (incremental upgrade)
iPhone 4 (Major feature/hardware upgrade)
iPhone 4S - incremental upgrade
iPhone 5 (or whatever. they could even drop the numbering and just call it the 'new iPhone' like they do with the iPod touch) - (Major feature/hardware upgrade).
This is key. Apple shouldn't have numbered them to begin with; if the 4S had just been "the new iPhone" instead of "not an iPhone 5", people would be much more positive in their reaction.
How do you know these statements are accurate? You've not used the "remarkable camera" or the "awesome voice recognition" yet.
I didn't realize hands-on experience was required to be wowed by a product.
Really? A wildly improved processor, remarkable camera, and awesome voice recognition is nothing to be proud of?
Wildly improved processor? Euh, the A5 has been around since earlier this year, so sorry no. More like 6 month late processor.
Remarkable camera? I give you that, but enough for pride?
And awesome voice recognition, let's wait and see. I predict a damnyouautocorrect version of Siri.
I didn't realize hands-on experience was required to be wowed by a product.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you. I was absolutely floored when Apple announced the original iPhone, and extremely excited with both the 3G and 3GS. When the iPhone 4 came out, I was amazed at everything they were able to put into it. But this time, for the first time, I'm underwhelmed in the iPhone. That's not to say it's not a big upgrade, or an amazing device with great battery life and rock-solid stability, but after waiting the extra few months from the norm, I would have expected something a little better than this. Oh well.
...There was no misstep on Apple's part. This is the Apple's methodical and evolutionary approach to not rush things to market before they're ready.
I guess in your world, a new model that is 7-9 times faster than the previous phone is just not good enough for tech-heads like you.
Precisely. Thank you. It is important to realize that the 'bigger, better, faster, now" mentality is akin to a disease. Those of us that look at the meta level of technological development and intervention in our lives recognize that the pace of tech far outpaces our capacity to grok its impacts. To some, releasing a phone that looks the same is important, as they never delve into the feature set. Others geek out on every detail. In the bigger picture though, who is currently truly constrained by their device in the context of having capacities that didn't exist sometimes just months ago.
It is much more than a prescription for unhappiness to ratchet your expectations to be constantly at or just above what is technically possible. For us to stop having the tool of technology as our master, we must develop a healthier outlook at the incredible breadth of opportunities each new device offers us, and perhaps, for a moment, be grateful.
The following would have to happen for this predicted date:
1. Wireless carriers would have to make customers with less than 12 months into a contract (8 or 9 months) eligible. (considering they purchased 4S model). This may or may not be likely, but considering the carrier's normal (early) eligibility schedule is 12-18 months, they would be setting a precedent that they may not want to do.
2. Apple would have to begin immediately with planning & testing a new design for iPhone 5. If the stories are correct concerning iPhone 4 and antenna issue, Apple was testing it the previous September (2009) for then a June 2010 release.
3. Apple would have to expect a larger than normal amount of buyer's remorse and/or frustration with those customer's who went ahead and purchased 4S in the remaining months of 2011 or early 2012 (tied into false rumors of iPad 3 this fall, when iPad 2 was released only in March).
I believe Apple has "adjusted" the iPhone schedule to now be in the fall and consolidated with the iPod line. If so, then any customer looking for the 4G technology in an iPhone will have to wait (like it or not) until then. My two cents only!
Wildly improved processor? Euh, the A5 has been around since earlier this year, so sorry no. More like 6 month late processor.
Really? Is it not a constant source of amusement to see droid phones that crash constantly, have horrible battery life, quirky behaviors. Just had two friends with latest-model phones tell me that their Samsung - if listening to music when receiving a call, could not go back to listening to music unless restarted. The HTC would go white screen during texting and periodically reboot without warning. My girlfriend's droid is near paperweight status less than a year old. With hundreds of apps, my 3Gs just sails along and beats their phones at virtually every task and is still rock solid at a ripe old age of 18 months or so.
Do you truly want a shorter window of testing and feature integration than 6 months? Do you want to sacrifice usability for such cutting edge componentry? Do you have the same expectations for your automobile choices? What frustration!
It is hard to argue that there are better engineers anywhere in the tech industry, or better management of the supply chain. Is it Apple's fault that demand is outpacing component development? Should they be faulted for releasing a phone (Iphone 4) that was so far ahead of the competition that it was still gaining market share 16 months later against supposedly superior phones? And is it their fault that creating another iteration of their phone that easily matches or exceeds anything else available, in some cases by broad margins, doesn't please everyone?
Go ahead, sell your Apple stock. I dare you.
For goodness sake.
They seem to be arguing for change for the sake of change. How shallow can you get? The design of the iPhone and it's OS is world class, this is why Samsung created a clone along with Google's Android. The build quality of the iPhone is superb and it now has a dual core chip and a very, very good camera, there in your pocket when you need it. Perhaps if Apple made micro changes to the shape of the edges or the buttons people would have been extactic? I like the size of my iPhone in my pocket, it's big enough to be useful (with its gorgeous display) and small enough to comfortably 'disappear' in terms of comfort.
The development of the latest network technologies is in a state of flux, when hasn't it been? The 4s targets large segments of the technologies around the world currently in place. Apple will most likely have an LTE capable solution if or when LTE is widely rolled out. Why wouldn't they? In the meantime the 4s and Apple integrated sysetm - as a whole - will be creating a wake in which the rest of the industry will follow.
I am with you on the blind iHaters. There are people who don't get the big picture at all. They use line item lists of specs and features to fight with, but don't actually look at the reality in practical use. That being said, Apple has created a fantastic product with not enough screen to operate for many people that want to use their phones to replace certain functions they have been using their computers for. Those people need a bigger screen. At this point I think it was a big mistake to not offer that. Cosmetic design is superficial, but screen size is not.
I think it'll be the 4GS. It'll will have 4G LTE and an NFC chip. Get another year out of this form factor.
Then a new design in 2013 with a larger screen and curved glass.
'If we can’t show off with it, what’s the point of buying one?’
I guess Chinese hipsters are more like US hipsters than I realized....... ...ahhh the intellectual depth! Y'all are so suave.
That depends on 4G being ratified as a specific technology by that time. I don't believe it has yet. If they go down the LTE route it should be the iPhone LTE.
It's "LTE Advanced" that is a 4G candidate technology. LTE (non-Advanced) isn't a candidate for being ratified as 4G.
Incorrect. After no 3G phones ever actually matched the ITU's 3G specs, they've eased up on 4G "certification" - to which nothing in the wild even comes close, and are officially allowing - as of 12/10 - the initial versions LTE and Wi-Max and even HSPA+ to call themselves "4G technologies" with their blessing.
So an upgrade of hype or a downgrading of actual expected compliance with standards, take your pick....... I also haven't been able to verify the compatibility of AT&T's HSPA+ with Apple's announced HSDPA/HSUPA, (which - HSPA+ - another Wiki article calls "3.5 G")
PS: Did anyone else notice how the the addition of Sprint not only wasn't played up at the keynote, but was actually tossed off as an "oh yeah, Sprint too, if anyone cares" kind of thing. And that was it! Didn't Apple even trot out a Verizon Exec when they came on board???
...
PS: Did anyone else notice how the the addition of Sprint not only wasn't played up at the keynote, but was actually tossed off as an "oh yeah, Sprint too, if anyone cares" kind of thing. And that was it! Didn't Apple even trot out a Verizon Exec when they came on board???
Sorry to go off-topic a bit here but the whole Sprint story might reveal why there's no T-Mobile iPhone. Seems the way it happened at Sprint was Apple told them that to create a special iPhone (it's rare for a phone to be identical one carrier to the next) the "minimum order quantity is XX million units"... perhaps 30 million was the actual number. Apple very well could have told T-Mobile the same thing, perhaps long ago. If the quantity was too high for them to commit to -- no iPhone.
Two observations:
1) I think Siri is being way undervalued by some commentators/posters. It's a game-changing technology in the way Bluetooth and basic voice commands were a few years ago. How many languages will it support? Not sure I've seen that.
2) A significant number of Verizonwireless (and Sprint, too I suppose) customers will be switching to an iPhone as the 4S is the first one that will allow them to do so. There really are people who require a "global" phone and they've been stuck with a BlackBerry or something else so far. It's quite possible this extends to existing CDMA network phone users in Korea and Japan, too.
1, Siri is confusing to people because they think it's simply "Speech to Text" fed into a search engine. It's hard to conceptually explain to them the tech behind Siri. They glaze over when they hear Latent Semantic Mapping but Siri's ability to parse language and make sense of it should be unparalleled compared to today's basic speech to search. Already Siri supports English, German and French. My German friend is going to LOVE being able to speak in her native tongue.
2. Love World Phones. Verizon/Sprint customers that travel abroad are cheering right now if you listen closely ;-)
First significant misstep of Apple in a really long period of time...
Perhaps Jobs leaving before 4s announcement is not a coincidence. Nothing to be proud of really.
And FCPX and MobileMe were not?
Please. You make it sound like Apple is otherwise perfect all the time.
Already Siri supports English, German and French. My German friend is going to LOVE being able to speak in her native tongue.
Yes, the Germans will be delighted that they can give orders in German and have them obeyed at all times without question.
So the 6th generation iPhone is going to be called the iPhone "5"? Really? That right there makes the rest of the article null and void.
Technically, the article just reports on what the analysts said, but therein lies the issue: this site reports rumors and news, but you have to pay attention to what is rumor and what is fact. But I've noticed a lot of readers believe everything posted on AI as if it had equal veracity. This is troubling, because that's how we arrived at the present situation. Analysts were talking out of their asses, AI was posting it, but they also post factual news. Back in the day, news organizations (legitimate journalists, not the blogger/rumormongers we have today) who only go to press with stories that had facts or testimony to back them up. That kind of pure news-only reporting doesn't happen anymore with the advent of the Internet and the 24-hour cable news networks. Now it's about ratings and page views, facts be damned.
How do you make a phone twice as likely to break when it's dropped? Oh ya, let's put glass on BOTH sides of the device. Still the dumbest design decision there is. Helps sell phone cases, but having to have a case for a phone just plain sucks. What's the point of marketing your phone as the thinnest one if you have to put a case on it to protect it from shattering? Didn't buy the 4 because of that design and won't get the 4s either. If Apple ever changes the nearly all glass design, I may upgrade then. Next Apple's going to come out with the all (Gorilla) glass car! Crash? No problem, it's "Gorilla" glass!
Six million years of experience using opposable thumbs and you're still dropping your phone? I suppose it's all Apple's fault. Back when we were swinging in trees, your grip was a matter of life and death. And yet somehow you were born... Hmm, perhaps you're a mutation.