News - Apple's iPhone 5 to début on September 12th?

[HEXUS]

Rumours of an event on the 12th, for general release on the 21st.

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[Boon72]

what about all the users like me that have an iPhone 4 or even the 3GS, it's not all about the current 4S user updating.

my 2 yr contract is up on my iPhone 4 and I'm waiting for the iPhone 5

[Scribe]

what about all the users like me that have an iPhone 4 or even the 3GS, it's not all about the current 4S user updating.

my 2 yr contract is up on my iPhone 4 and I'm waiting for the iPhone 5

Never said it was!

[Spud1]

Will this be enough to interest punters who, not so long ago, purchased their current iPhone?

"Punters" who upgraded from an iPhone 4 to a 4s will almost definitely buy the 5..they are in general the true sheep who whill buy it just because it's a new iPhone. The 4S was an entirely pointless "upgrade" for 99% of users, with one gimmick (Siri) being the only reason to upgrade, and even then that was an artifical upgrade due to Apple preveting it from running on a stock iPhone4.

For the rest of us, it fits in with the standard 24 month contract cycle (just about). I'll be buying outright again so as to keep my current contract so doesn't affect me, but for most people it would do I presume. The biggest draw for me is the bigger screen - I hate typing on my work iPhone now that I am used to the huge screen on my Titan.

Either way my general point is that the iPhone 5 is going to be a good upgrade for all users of a 4/4s, rather than the very basic [and rather pointless] spec bump that we got last time, so I would expect many many more people to upgrade this time around.

I'll be queuing up at 7am at the Apple store getting my free coffee+doughnuts again like I did for the 4 I think


edit: and to add..

How will the iPhone 5 differentiate itself,

Well, it's not Android for a start..big draw for some of us Build quality + look/feel should be another, as long as they don't return to the dark days of plasticy phones like the 3X series. In truth though, they don't need to differentiate. I don't think most phone customers will differentiate based on specific features - they care more "does it have internet, does it have facebook, does it have WhatsApp" and thats about it. Plus when it's an Apple phone there are many many people who will just buy it regardless.

In the geek market where people love to know technical detail, it's more difficult - there will always be an android phone with newer/different specifications, purely because it seems like there is a new 'Droid out every day, so clearly they will overtake apple on the hardware front..but again, most people just don't care, and even more don't actually *need* to care even if they do.

So how can it compete/differentiate? It can't, on paper the SIII or whatever will likely be a better spec. But this really doesn't matter to most people, and it's "most people" that will buy them

[Rob_B]

I'm going to hang fire for a bit, may pick up a cheap 4 for my wife when the 5 is out.

I've never bought on release and I don't think that will change, I can't justify the cost, I'll either be getting a 4S or a 5 for my next phone though I think.
We don't even know specs yet, lots of rumours and I'm not sure I'm even bothered about a bigger screen.

[saltyzip]

I'm a droid fan, but I still used to get excited about Apple events such as these but not anymore.

It is obvious the iPhone 5 will have 4inch screen, quad core processor, NFC and a slightly better camera, but we've seen it all before.

The droid phones notably HTC One X and SG3 have been out for a while now, especially the former, so the iPhone isn't going to provide any shocks in the specification department.

We already know what is coming in IOS 6 too, so this event may turn into another damp squid for Apple.

It's all about eco systems these days and how much you are willing to spend per month on satisfying your tech cravings.

I for one won't give the anti competitive Apple one dime of my money. Latest news is they are censoring books in their store if they just happen to mention the competition. See URL http://www.bgr.com/2012/07/30/amazon...s-store-apple/ for more information.

When are the governments going to step in and stop Apple from doing this, people should also vote with their feet and give them a wide berth. No company is a saint, but Apples business practice is getting more and more Authoritarian as each day goes by.

Why would you want to give a company like this your money?

Apple are becoming the Weyland Industries from Alien, "Building better Worlds" they say, for them certainly, but not for us consumers as they will be devoid of any competition.

[Blademrk]

I'll probably upgrade from my 3GS (which I bought on release) to a 5. I've held of on previous versions as I didn't see the point when my 3GS did everything I wanted it to (I haven't updated it to iOS 5 yet either). After using my brothers 4 I noticed that 3G seemed a lot faster on his than mine (though he is on 3 and I'm on O2 which has dire 3G in my area), and there seems more apps that are refusing to work on non-retina models.

[Spud1]

Why would you want to give a company like this your money?

Find me more than 2 large successful companies that don't engage in any sort of anti-competitive practices, and don't wish to stifle their competition and be the sole supplier for a market..then we can talk

Not meant as a personal attack on you but people do forget that Samsung, google, microsoft, IBM, AT&T..all of them and more have done similar things. It's just not in the public eye at the moment or cool to hate them at the moment.

[saltyzip]

Find me more than 2 large successful companies that don't engage in any sort of anti-competitive practices, and don't wish to stifle their competition and be the sole supplier for a market..then we can talk

You find me 1 company who has more than 60% of patent cases in litigation?
You find me 1 company who is suing a coffee shop in Germany for using an apple logo, which looks nothing like Apples logo?
You find me 1 company who won't sell a book because it has links to an Amazon web site within it?
You find me 1 company who does a deal with Digitude a known patent troll company?
You find me 1 company who's VP Marketing publically disses Instagram because they have released an Android App?
You find me 1 company who wont put a free App in their app store because the subscription is purchased outside of their App Store? e.g. On-live
You find me 1 company who is being sued because its Siri search feature doesn't meet marketing expectations
You find me 1 company who removes an App from an App store that shows radiation exposure tracking to educate the phone user? (Tawkon) It just so happens that the iPhone4s emits 3 times more radiation than a Galaxy S3, but of course they don't want you to see that.
You find me 1 company that just censors everything in their power including device errors, just to make you feel good about your product?
You find me 1 company that sues a company when it went into Liquidation?
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...the list goes on

Can anybody reach the dizzy heights of Apple in their appalling and controlling behaviour, I ask again why would you want to give money to a company like this?

If you do it shows everything that is wrong with the world today, people don't care enough about the bigger picture.

[Rob_B]

Most of those are Apple specific so you know full well there is no answer.
Pray do tell, what mobile phone SHOULD we buy then from this magical, ethical company you seem to be comparing Apple to?

[martian_aphid]

yawn, how many times are they going to keep recycling this old design with the dated iOS as a new and revolutionary product - I suppose as long as there are people gulable enough to keep buying into it :S

[crossy]

As a disinterested party (I've got an SIII I'm perfectly happy with) I'm going to be most interested to see what new the iP5 brings in terms of form factor and added services.

I've got my fingers crossed that Apple decides to come up with something different to the 4/4S design - since I hate that with a passion. I honestly can't see why folks wax rhapsodic about it being "class leading". (because - imho - it's far from that). I'm hoping for something that harkens back to the 3GS design - curves etc. Or, and here's a thought, voice control and do without that central button (although I've no idea how practical that would be in real life)

Services - Siri+? Some fancy API so that Siri features are in all apps? Or some kind of real low cost (<£5) music streaming/music-on-demand service based on iTunes.

The hardware itself doesn't really interest me since, as Spud1 rightly says, the Android based gear will easily match or exceed what Apple's going to push, (based on past performance).

Said this before, but it's high time that Apple woke up and started delivering something interesting - rather than mere "speed bumps". Although when it comes to "spectacular" I'm hoping fervently for something from Nokia for WP8.

[saltyzip]

Most of those are Apple specific so you know full well there is no answer.
Pray do tell, what mobile phone SHOULD we buy then from this magical, ethical company you seem to be comparing Apple to?

As I said no company is a saint, but no company has been acting quite like Apple for the past few years, so the answer is simple, anything but Apple would suffice.

[Hicks12]

agree with you Spud for the most part, it doesn't need to differentiate itself as its an apple product, for me though it would need to as no apple product speaks out to me.

I am a person who doesnt buy Apple products but thats because of a few main things, one the part above, another is the price im a broke student and i really dont know how others can afford macs or the like, my pc and phone arent expensive e.g. my Optimus 2x only cost me £17 p/m with all my minutes text and data I need, phone price works out at £168 when i got it (may this year) and it does the same and more than an iphone while costing a heck of a lot less! Then theres the Apple brand, I dont find it "cool" to hate Apple but it just always seems to be something that makes me dislike them, being unopen about most things and just simply things... My friends imac makes me laugh when it breaks, you dont know it but it just goes to desktop and has that silly loading circle instead of saying what went wrong, thats what annoys me the most We dont crash because we dont give you a useful error message!.

Apart from that, I wouldnt advise someone against getting an Apple product... If it was what they wanted thats what they should get, whatever floats your boat! They fit peoples needs and im glad they do unfortunately dont suite mine.

Hating Apple seems to have got cool but atleast its shedding light on what alot of businesses do which need sorting, not just MS!.

Oh and on the technical side, specification doesnt really matter... for me I dont play games I just want something that can do things fast and all devices are up to that task now, Windows Phone specs are low but they are solid devices so its really down to experience, the only spec i really fancy taking a look at is storage (prefer expansion slots for cheap cheap memory!) and connectivity(BT etc). People over think about the specs, android helped this (fortunately and unfortunately ) and now with ICS and above its got alot better in performance so now we aren't so reliant on shoving mass hardware at simple tasks.

[Barakka]

Looks OK, Apple will continue with their formula by having a dual product version cycle by releasing a new platform for the handset then a new version, then new platform, new version... etc

This way there's always a new model either just out or due when current users come to the end of their 24 month contract which provides and upgrade in features and spec from their current iPhone while maintaining enough familiarity to feel they already know it. This way they also don't have to play the game of making massive jumps in specs and features, it's a gradual process that has created a massive brand and product loyalty, very similar to how the wider electronics industry (tv's etc) and even the automotive industry works; having the ability to make massive improvements and changes, but only making small incremental changes to make owners want to upgrade to newer versions once the existing one has reached a certain age, and only making big changes when a competitor releases something big.

This for me is the deferential, with the other manufacturers each handset looks and feels different to the last, the familiarity is not there, each time it's radically different. Samsung are trying to some degree with the SGSIII being somewhat a continuation from the SGS2 design, but the SGS2 was nothing to write home about.

[TooNice]

You find me 1 company that sues a company when it went into Liquidation?

I'll one up on that one. I can name one company who bankrupted another company via patent related lawsuit (even though it lost), then it proceeded to buy off the patents, trademarks etc. of the company it bankrupted, effectively killing the sole competition in that particular market. Do you know who I am talking about?

Hint: The irony is that half a decade later, during the height of the MP3 player wars (i.e. the iPod vs The World episode), many have already opted for "anything but Apple sentiment" and that company's offering was not uncommonly heralded as some sort of underdog champion against the growing evil Apple empire.