Apple Unveils iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S 773
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple unveiled the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S today, which will replace the company's current iPhone 5. Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives took to a stage in California to introduce both devices. The cheaper iPhone 5C features a plastic casing available in a variety of colors (green, blue, reddish-pink, yellow, white); Apple seems to have done its best to make the device look high quality, with the backing and sides molded of a single piece of plastic; on the hardware side of things, the iPhone 5C comes with a 4-inch Retina display, A6 processor, and 8-megapixel camera. The other new Apple design, the iPhone 5S, is the company's next-generation 'hero' device. While the iPhone 5 was a radical new design, the 5S is an iterative upgrade; on the outside, it looks pretty much the same as its predecessor (the new iPhone features a new color, gold, in addition to the 'traditional' black or white aluminum body). The iPhone 5S has an A7 chip built on 64-bit architecture (capable of running 32-bit and 64-bit apps), which is pretty speedy, to put it mildly. There's also the M7 'motion co-processor' which boosts the actions of the accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope—in theory, opening the door to more refined motion-related apps, such as ones devoted to exercise."
The iPhone 5S also has a sensor built into the home button that will allow you to unlock the device with your fingerprint. Both new phone will be available for purchase on Friday, Sept. 20th. Apple announced that iOS 7 will be rolling out on Wednesday, Sept. 18th.
Jobs must be rolling in his grave... (Score:5, Interesting)
What's next, sell iPhones at Walmart??
Re:Where's the led notification? (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, still no widgets, or alternative ways to install software.
It is pretty hardware. Overprced, I think, but nice. I wish they'd either open up their walled garden or sell these for people to install other operating systems on. They could keep their 'prestige' brand while not crippling the hardware.
Re:Where's the led notification? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Hand over your fingerprint! (Score:5, Interesting)
Look at it from the NSA/FBI's point of view: they already have backdoor access to your phone's data, so the fingerprint scanner isn't about keeping Them out, but about securing biometric data from users voluntarily. If They tried to fingerprint or retina-scan a whole nation Themselves (like our troops do to occupied Afganistan and before in Iraq) there would be resistance; we only got away with it in Afghanistan and Iraq because we were an armed, occupying force. At home, they'll start integrating biometric scanners into cheap, gaudy (GOLD!) baubles so the Sheeple fingerprint themselves instead.
Re:Fingerprint database, anyone? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not to dispute your paranoid premise, but... I've personally helped out with a "Child Identification Program" activity where we made videos of kids, took some standardized pictures, took fingerprints (using paper and ink, not digital scanners), and collected a cheek swab DNA sample. When we were done, every single shred of data we collected was gathered up and given to the parents for safekeeping. We had neither the interest nor the capability of storing "backups". Please don't talk parents out of making identification kits of their kids.
Re:Fingerprint database, anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:iPhone fan, but feeling dissappointed (Score:5, Interesting)
> It feels like too small of an incremental enhancement and not anything
> singularly so substantial that it's worth plunking down money for.
Yes, and that's for 2 reasons:
1) They already got all the low-hanging fruit. The original iPhone was amazing in many ways but was missing quite a few state-of-the-art features when it was introduced. The 3G added GPS. The 3GS could shoot video. The 4 could shoot HD video. Since then, there's not a lot of big things missing. The biggest single improvement each year is now the camera -- especially since they've stuck with 16 GB storage on the entry-level model for 5 years now. :-( Seriously -- what could they possible add today that would be an "amazing" upgrade from the 5, comparable to gaining GPS, videorecording, or the retina screen? 3D? Surround sound? Tricorder?
That said, you, my wife, and many other people would appreciate an iPhone at the same resolution on a larger screen to make all elements bigger. Hopefully Apple will make one someday, but I wouldn't count on it.
2) Each iPhone is only a bit better than the previous, but it's quite a bit better than the second-previous, which is their main market -- people who are upgrading when they become eligible, 2 years after their last new phone. I bought an iPhone shortly after it came out in 2007 and for various reasons I was eligible to upgrade annually so since then I've had a 3G, 4, and 4S because hey, why not -- each old one sold for enough to pay for its replacement and I was almost always within the original warranty period. I wasn't eligible to get a 5, though, so moving from a 4S to a 5S will be quite a nice upgrade for me. 120fps video... CAN'T WAIT! :-)
What is it with plastic? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why does plastic make things so much cheaper? (I'm in software. With mechanical things, my IQ drops to 50. The answer is likely so obvious that will make me look even dumber.)
Why do manufacturers opt for plastic so much over metal (or rubber or glass or whatever higher-quality material is best for each part)? Phones weigh ounces, and aren't such materials still just pennies per ounce?
Yes, I know labor adds to the cost, so making a phone (or a camera or a computer) with better materials would be more than the cost of the raw materials. But still, in what seems to be my utter naivete, I would guess that still it would be just a few dollars per unit.
Why are so many things made from plastic and so few made from anything else? Does it really save the manufacturer that much money?
Re:Jobs must be rolling in his grave... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's just the thing. Jobs did not want to be involved in the race to the bottom in terms of price. If they are going to cut expenses, they are not going to want to drop the price with it.
Jobs wanted to make expensive phones that people would expect to pay a premium for. He left the problem of making it affordable to the cell companies who stepped in and subsidized it with contracts.
Jobs wanted people to pay good money for his stuff. Part of that is *not* wanting to be compared to the latest effort from some other phone at the same price point. It starts becoming a real brutal game if you join the rest that way. If the 5C is priced with a larger field of phones, there is a higher chance that those other phones might happen upon a feature or design that can beat the 5C. If Apple stays with the high priced market, there are fewer competitors, AND they have more money from sales to keep pushing the envelope. To sell, they market features and an image, they do not market on price.
I think his model, if you can do it, works. Becoming a commodity is the death knell for your company because relentlessly cutting costs creates a cost-cutting atmosphere. That sort of atmosphere inhibits creativity by both providing a lesser product, but also by making the company less inclined to spend more on talent and research. And in this day and age, that leads to not only your manufacturing going to China, but also your whole corporate model eventually being duplicated by overseas competitors. Cheap is something they can do a lot better than those of us who give our workers a better standard of living.
I'm not going to say the 5C is a good or a bad idea, but I think that dropping price in and of itself, is not going to be as positive for a company as you might think. It can be a very short term sort of success.
Re:Fingerprint database, anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Reviving the bit wars? (Score:5, Interesting)
The one thing that struck me as odd is how much Apple is trumpeting 64-bit.
On a desktop or laptop computer I can see why you would care about 32-bit vs 64-bit; being able to address more than 4 gigs of ram is a huge selling point for 64-bit. But for a smartphone with only 1 gigabyte of ram, why should anyone (outside of developers) even care?