“If Apple and Samsung had swapped product lines, but everything else was the same, would anyone buy the upgraded iPhone?” – Derek Woods
I read an article today in the Journal that described the new Apple 5S and 5C.
“The company’s new flagship iPhone, the 5S, includes a faster processor and a new fingerprint scanner, but retains the same basic form as previous models. In a first, Apple added a second model to its lineup called the 5C—priced at $99 with a service contract—that repackages much of the technology in its previous-generation iPhone 5 in a new colorful polycarbonate case.”
This is an especially tenuous time for Apple because after the death of Steve Jobs 2 years ago, they have been losing market share to rivals. They decided that a new color scheme was a significant upgrade.
“Once the world’s top smartphone maker by unit shipments, the iPhone’s sales now account for 19% of the market, while Samsung represents nearly 32%, according to Gartner research.”
I dislike Apple for varying reasons but this upgrade has me shaking my head.
“The iPhone 5C is effectively last year’s iPhone with a larger battery and an array of new plastic casings, instead of the aluminum casings of its predecessor. The 5C will come in five colors—green, white, blue, pink and yellow—and have a 4-inch display. Mr. Schiller, the keeper of Apple’s high-end brand positioning, avoided calling the iPhone cheap or inexpensive, and didn’t say what the “C” stood for. Apple’s website offered a possible hint, saying the 5C is “for the colorful.”
What idiot buys a new phone because of the color? Apple rubs me the wrong way for a few reasons. My feeling is that people who use Apple become fanboys and then laugh at anyone else who doesn’t use Apple products. Windows users are neanderthals and if you don’t have an Iphone you live in the stone age. There’s no doubt about it that the Iphone pioneered the smartphone but times have changed. I believe Apple is the only company that uses the iOS platform whereas there are many developers that use Android. Here’s a graph of global sales of platforms that smartphones run off of.
Note to iOS users, there are more people doing more things with Android phones. In my personal life everything that I use I’m comfortable with and it involves no Apple products. Windows caters to my simplistic needs of internet, business software, and word processing. My music plays cheaply on Spotify without the choppiest interface I’ve ever used in Itunes. My Galaxy 3 is equivalent to an Iphone. I feel no need to support the biggest company in the world because it feeds off of convincing people that they need upgrades. To add to the money hungry, do people seriously still pay $1.29 per song on Itunes?
Google lets me search for free and allows me to gain any information I want at my fingertips. This excites me and enhances my life. I want to give back to something I like. Using Google on an Iphone is like a slap in the face. All Apple asks for is money in order to give expensive access to cheesy games and nauseating communication functions. With this latest mistake from Apple and their overpriced 5S, I hope that we start to see a slow death spiral of Apple. Let’s see how fast people jump ship once it’s not the “hot” phone to own.
Apples shares dipped 5% after this post was published.
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