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 :
