I was completely completely glued on to twitter last night.
Around 10:55 pm, I figured that the iPhone 5 was larger (in length) by 1 more row of App thumbnails. A la half an inch more. Yeah, there were lots of new features too.
I was disappointed. Even started rambling incoherently. My wife grumbled about letting her sleep and told me to get out and do something better.
I went outside in the hall and meditated; then went to sleep.
This morning, the moment I woke up, it was so, so, so crystal clear to me!
The iPhone is about what’s inside – not outside!
A quick recap:
This is the new iPhone 5 in length and size, compared to its predecessors:
Well, you know something?
I was influenced by media and weird rumors into believing that the iPhone 5 would have a ‘wider’ and ‘bigger’ screen.
As it turns out, and THANK GOD, the rumors were false; Apple stuck to making the size ‘just right’.
What’s just right?
This is my test:
I watch people in airport buses being ferried from the terminal to the airplane like convicts. I am a regular convict.
If you don’t get a place to stand on the side (in the bus), you have to stand in the middle and hang on to the ‘noose’ or handle that prevents you from toppling down, as the bus navigates the Mumbai ghats to reach the plane.
Just when you regain your balance and realized that reaching the plane is gonna take another hour, you reach out into your pocket……………
YEAH!
You take out your mobile phone and start performing ‘Operation code number 23’
(Operation code#23 = 23 Tasks that comprise: Check e-mail, Check facebook, Check twitter across 11 search results stored), Check app stores, Check app updates, etc. etc.)
I have noticed that it’s impossible to take out square, obscenely dimensioned phones in this delicate pose and hold it in one hand.
Trust me, if you have a square or rectangle or triangle phone, it’s NOT possible to swing in the bus with one hand like Tarzan and still tell someone to FO on facebook using the other.
I think that the iPhone 5 just perfectly takes care of that little bit of extra space that was missing and gives me just the perfect length of the phone that I want.
Honestly, even outside the bus, you need your phone to be a phone – not a book!!
I look at some of the Hummer sized phones that my people carry and can’t figure out how to hold them, forget using them!
So thank you Apple for not being swayed by the “Size Flu” epidemic.
Now that I’ve gotten over my ‘size doesn’t matter’ issues, let me quickly get to the point.
With the iPhone 5, Apple has shifted the battle of smartphones to what lies inside, not outside.
It’s always easy to build bigger bodies and bulkier chassis (remember that Apple does make an iPad), but what’s really tough is what’s inside.
Consider: What you see on the screen (Retina Display)
While reading some of the tweets about the Apple event, I was stunned by one tweet that said, “The new iPhone 5 has such an amazing amazing retina display… there is a picture of a bee on stage and we can see its veins….”
This is the image that was shown:
Personally, I am a shark that lives in ‘Mobile Ocean’ (I make apps for a living) and I see mobile screens all day and all night long.
That’s my job.
Almost all the time, I keep telling my art teams (responsible for app art) to make the images look brighter, better, sharper and crisper. But more often than that, I am told, “Alok, this type of device (non Apple) only supports images that look like this.”
Shucks.
Given the stunning improvement of the iPhone 5 on retina display, the battle has moved totally to HOW YOU SEE rather than HOW MUCH YOU SEE!
Imagine a picture of a pet or a new born baby or a wedding on the new iPhone 5!
Boy, I’m really gonna want to see a great picture – not some granular jigsaw.
– The big big improvement – the Camera!!!
Yeah!
I never owned a camera till I was 40 years old.
I just thought they were stupid irritants to carry around. I mean if I am on a vacation, why the heck should I ‘take care’ of my camera?
Don’t I have myself to take care of? Wasn’t that the reason I went on a holiday?
Cameras reminded me of walking sticks or handcuffs – not the kinda things that I wanted to ‘carry’ around.
For the past 3 years, I have used my iPhone 4 (not 4S) as my Camera and I have probably shot more photos in these 3 years than a lot of regular folks have all their lives. Check – Trip to a cave (facebook)
This new feature of the iPhone 5 made me really really happy:
I know that some other device cameras had this panorama function, but it was missing in my iPhone.
Well, now it’s there and that kills the desire to even consider any other option!
– From what I’ve read, the iPhone 5 has a really really improved ‘nervous system’
Improved chip speed, and yeah improved battery life.
This is the GUT of the new iPhone.
Let’s not forget that a smartphone is really as good as the apps that it has to offer.
With massively improved graphics, faster response and huge huge game center integration (the new game center makes single player games easily become multiplayer), the iPhone 5 will become the holy grail for app developers.
That means that beyond the sex and sizzle of size and width, when all the phones of the world begin to look and behave the same, the real question asked will be, “whats inside” the phone that makes a difference?
That’s when Apple will be giggling all the way to the Bank.
Great job Apple and Steve Jobs. Respect.
******
Check out the iPhone 5 video trailer for all the features of the phone :
Vinay Chhoda
Spot on Alok! I was following the event on the tech crunch live blog and my initial reaction was one of disappointment.
But then I realised that apple isn’t just about bigger screens and cramming the device with features that one will never use, it’s all about giving the user an experience which is just about right with the right combination of hardware and software.
Which is why I believe that the iPhone 5 + iOS 6 = unbeatable combo!
One more thing 🙂
the video of the iPhone 5 is the soo much better than the silly ‘made for humans’ ad for the s3.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
:-)))
**** for humans sounded actually sensible. It should have just said ‘copied by humans’
Anirudh B Balotiaa
Yes like millions all over, I was up all night to catch the buzz and yes I was disappointing too for following reasons –
1. Same old design
2. Phone is just taller, not wider
3. So many of the rumors were not rumors after all and hence there was nothing new for me so as to speak.
4. I was brain-washed by S3 mania and the design…I saw one similar of a curvy design for Apple some designer had made and loved it! Even though I am a Apple die-hard fan, I love S3 design!
5. I was expecting more from ios6. I saw the Android I/O and am really impressed with what they have done and what they are been doing.
So I am still to come to terms of the new iphone5, I have 4s and don’t intend to switch over.
But all that can change once I get a feel of it in my own hands! 😀
But yeah the S3, Note are real bulky and just cannot be used with one hand. Its not designed for humans but for aliens!!
Vinay Chhoda
Copied by humans and made for Aliens 🙂
Anirudh B Balotiaa
Bingo!
hahah
Sachin Bhatnagar
It so happens that we’ve become used to the Wow Shows put up by Steve Jobs over the years that when Apple decides to cut through the ‘Me First Me First’ paradigm (having established themselves as the first ones to revolutionize the mobile phone) and focus on creating the next generation of reliability, it comes as somewhat of a disappointment. I think iPhone categorically has matured enough to a point that it now needs to, generation by generation, improve its specs, all the while focusing on reliability and performance, rather than introduce some silly feature that people are never going to use. Additionally, they should continue doing what they’ve always done right – evolving their brilliant iOS ecosystem.
In terms of build quality and design aesthetics, not to mention ergonomics, Apple is the clear leader, has always been, will always be.
Samsung is a mass market producer. No doubt the phones work brilliantly and have great specs, but it still has to piggyback on the Android ecosystem which, being mostly open-source, and fragmented would always face issues in terms of reliability when compared to the iOS environment. Add to it the mass produced build quality of these devices. Cheap plastics and poor design sense.
So, in a nutshell, Apple will always have it audience and somewhere its a bit wrong to compare an Apple with a Samsung ! They are just not the same, can never be. Don’t look at the specs, look at the overall experience !
Anirudh B Balotiaa
Well said!
🙂
Ankit Sawant
A6 is not Quad Core its only Dual Core. Its confirmed from Apple. Also S3 haven’t upgraded the camera from S2. Its all same 8mp. However until, iPhone 5 is out you cant really compare the quality of the camera.
Its not that people did’t find value in Apple its more like Android is made available for various price points from as low as Rs.4k to to as high as Rs. 37k.
I use an iPhone 4 and Samsung S2 and trust me you can never get that comfort and usability you get in an iPhone over an Android.
Ashish Bansal
I am Apple fan boy. In my initial days of career, I bought macbook fascinated by its whiteness, looks, secured environment when I cannot even afford it. I never knew about MacBooks at that time and was introduced to it by another Apple fanatic. Its more than 5 years now, and my macbook still holds solid to this date and would continue to do so for 2 more years at least.
My perception about Apple products have always been rock solid and with Iphone 4 which I bought last year become more stronger. But the sense of fascination for Apple products and sheer awesomeness to own one is losing may be its Steve Jobs gone or I have not seen something radically market changing product from Apple since last 2 years. I very well remember checking everything live news update of the unravelling of IPHONE 4 but with IPHONE 4S, IPHONE 5 launch i didn’t even care to read about its new features or what’s good or bad. Apple will keep making good revenue/ profit with their Ipads, Iphone with improved screen resolution, retina display, few more GHZ of power, better camera etc in few more coming years but as Apple fanboy I expect something different or weird which change the market science altogether. Since last decade, be it Ipad, Iphone, Ipod, macbook Air, Apple changed the market dynamics completely and dictated the market for others to copy. I have not lost hope but Steve Jobs, we miss u 🙂