Apple announcement

[Robbeh]

I cant get over the audactity of the company in changing their power connection for the sake of it.

...

It isn't really "for the sake of it" there are a number of reasons they will want to change, in addition no other phone/tablet/device supplier has supported a common power system for so long that when they change it people get upset, everyone else in the market changes almost yearly and often per device from the same manufacturer.

That said, it will be interesting if they do move away from the incredibly simple (for dock/third party device suppliers) connection to something considerably more complicated such as USB - while apple charge a fortune for apple docks, one if the many reasons every other device has an iPhone dock on it and relatively few have USB docks is the sheer simplicity and cheapness it can be done for.

Whatever they announce and change, I'm willing to bet it has been very carefully thought out, apple live by their reputation and they won't risk it for fun

Just my 2cents

 

[Jembo]

Whatever they announce and change, I'm willing to bet it has been very carefully thought out, apple live by their reputation and they won't risk it for fun )

I bet that's what Napoleon & Hitler once thought.

I've held off upgrading my 3GS for the 5, maybe my 3GS will do me for that much longer... Real shame Apple seems to be loosing its way

 

[cj_eds]

So it's not a press conference for an iPad Mini yet then? Surely going to be in the shops by Christmas?


As for the 4G chat, you'll need to check carefully before buying. The 4G spec is different in different countries, much like GSM used to need quad band phones to work in the States. A US iPhone4 has 4G but won't work on the UK 4G network when EE get it up and running. You'll need to wait to get the UK compatible 4G ones like the iPhone5 probably will be.

Oh how nice it would be to live somewhere you even get a reliable 3G signal let alone 4G. My mobile lives most it's life on the EDGE or HSDPA still!

 

[tomscott]

Do we have to go over the same argument about the power connector there must be 5 threads explaining why. Every manufacturer has its own connector! Apples is USB with an Apple universal connector for their products simple. Get over it!

 

[sp3ctre]

Do we have to go over the same argument about the power connector there must be 5 threads explaining why. Every manufacturer has its own connector! Apples is USB with an Apple universal connector for their products simple. Get over it!

Absolutely spot on... sorry, but the "changing for the sake of it" argument is simple ignorance. The old connector was crap (as has been explained before) and rather large (also explained). If the old connector was eaually as small and effective as the new one and they switched the pins "for the sake of it" (or to force incompatibility) then the argument would hold water, but this is simply not the case.

I have been amazed that my iphone still works in my car every time I upgrade, but I treat that as a bonus. I expect this time it may not, but when I do get a solution that will work I expect that it will work for the next 5 or 6 generations of iphone... I treat that as good value for money and somewhat of a bonus.

 

[deka]

i am looking forward to the new 5, the prices of the 4 will drop and i may,,,, may consider changing still love the feel and weight of my 3gs and still cant think of a reason to change

 

[Mowflow]

I'm due an upgrade at the moment and I've held out to see what this will be like.

I don't consider myself what people call an "Apple fanboy". Despite the fact that I've only ever used and owned Apple computers and have been using them since the performa and quadra ranges in the very, very early 90s, waaaaaaaayyyyyy before anything Apple was thought of as fashionable. In fact, most people would firstly laugh and then spend half an hour telling you why you were an idiot if you bought anything Apple. Most of these people probably use iPhones now :roll: . To me Apple computers have simply always been the most effective tool for doing my job. I've never had an iPhone for the same reason, they have never been the best device for why I need within a price.

I'll hold out to see what this one is like but not only will the handset need to be vastly improved (the 4S looked and felt like a museum piece next to the Samsung S3). The iOS will also need to be vastly improved. Android just seems to be evolving a lot faster and is now starting to make the iOS look very dated.

 

[Pants]

I'm an apple fanboyo (live in the country) and am really excited wahooooooooooooo

Joking aside I was one of those windows users and early adopters of the latest phones who dissed everything apple until I bought an ipod. ..since then Ive had the 3-3g-4-4s-ipad2-ipad2/3g and that is because a: they just bloody work well and b: because I have 150-200 apps that I don't want to rebuy.

I'd agree the samsung has a bigger screen but then it's a bigger device and in my opinion it's toooo big for a phone (i have an ipad for web surfing/videos etc). I use my phone and pad for business probably 1-2hrs per day pad and 2-4 hours iphone and both are generally flawless. The only time I have a problem is if I want the "latest" update on day of release.

the problem I have with android is a: most manufacturers use their own GUI and b: whether they can run updates at all. My missus has both an android pad and phone and frankly neither make sense to me and I would happily classify myself as a geek

 

[marchantsuk]

For me it's the synchronisation between my (many Apple) devices and the simplicity of that 'out of the box' experience.
I've never used an Android device so not going to make comment other than I think they are geared to more techy people.

Everyone will have their opinions and as Tom rightly said, it's been covered to death. I'm a fan and an Apple customer, I see no reason to change and look forward to seeing what is unveiled.

 

[Allattar]

Competition makes them all better...

Not according to Apple,

Sue the nasty competitors till they go away and leave them alone (in the mobile market, and mp3 market)

Quick sue them some more, people are buying their products.

 

[mmm-five]

It's a product. You either buy it, or you don't. No-one is forcing you to like it or buy it.

I use Apple computers almost exclusively, but run Windows 7 almost exclusively on one of them, and the other 2 have Windows 7 on them in some form or another (bootcamp, Fusion, Parallels, Crossover, VMBox).

I like their design & build quality, and am prepared to pay for it.

It's the same argument over paying £20k for a 2 litre Mondeo turbo-diesel or £40k for an 2 litre BMW 5 series turbo-diesel. They both do the same job, have similar power, similar size, similar features yet the BMW brand is higher quality and so commands a premium.

 

[ranski]

It's a product. You either buy it, or you don't. No-one is forcing you to like it or buy it.

I use Apple computers almost exclusively, but run Windows 7 almost exclusively on one of them, and the other 2 have Windows 7 on them in some form or another (bootcamp, Fusion, Parallels, Crossover, VMBox).

I like their design & build quality, and am prepared to pay for it.

It's the same argument over paying £20k for a 2 litre Mondeo turbo-diesel or £40k for an 2 litre BMW 5 series turbo-diesel. They both do the same job, have similar power, similar size, similar features yet the BMW brand is higher quality and so commands a premium.

The BBC article is not questioning Apples build quality or pricing structure. It's questioning Apple core policy of ‘innovation’ which appears to be lacking in their products in recent years

 

[wegras]

It's a product. You either buy it, or you don't. No-one is forcing you to like it or buy it.

I use Apple computers almost exclusively, but run Windows 7 almost exclusively on one of them, and the other 2 have Windows 7 on them in some form or another (bootcamp, Fusion, Parallels, Crossover, VMBox).

I like their design & build quality, and am prepared to pay for it.

It's the same argument over paying £20k for a 2 litre Mondeo turbo-diesel or £40k for an 2 litre BMW 5 series turbo-diesel. They both do the same job, have similar power, similar size, similar features yet the BMW brand is higher quality and so commands a premium.

Agree totally ,have you noticed all the flack goes non Apple supporters against Apple and it's users
Apple users couldn't give a toss about the other brands .Let them get over it ,unlikely I know but we can hope

 

[mmm-five]

The BBC article is not questioning Apples build quality or pricing structure. It's questioning Apple core policy of ‘innovation’ which appears to be lacking in their products in recent years

I realise the BBC article is not questioning Apples build quality or pricing structure, but posts on here seem to be going down the old Apple vs PC route.

You could use the same argument about Porsche - their basic deign hasn't changed for years, but under-the-hood changes seem to be ignored.

Apple have made lots of 'updates' under-the-hood, but they're also often overlooked. I only replace my Macs about every 5 years, I'm happy that I can get a basically identical looking model with updated/faster/better internals - just like swapping a 2006 Z4MC for a 2012 Z4MC where BMW have only replaced the 3.2 straight-six with a 4.0 V8, the suspension with EDC, and put in a dual-clutch 7-speed box.

They only need to innovate just before their sales figures start to drop off, otherwise it's a waste.

 

[Allattar]

There is a difference though.
Car manufacturers tie you in to there brand for the love of the design, and maybe good service.

What Apple has done very succesfully is build an ecosystem that makes it difficult to leave.

Right from the start with itunes and DRM. You needed an ipod to play itunes music, no other mp3 players allowed.

Now with the iphones, etc... everything is built on that itunes core. Noone else is allowed in. Once you have enough investment into purchases via itunes, can you move?

You only effectively rent purchased items from itunes, you never own them. You cannot bequeath your itunes selection to your family should you die. (See Bruce Willis law suit against Apple).

The success with phones and ipods undeniably breathed life into the macs as well. You may also notice that itunes 10 introduced a pretty lethal bug for pc users of itunes. It basically ate the processing power from one core of a cpu. Any dual core users out there? well there you go your pc becomes sluggish becuase one core is being used for an idle itunes. nice huh. Then people buy a mac and go it works great. (I shout conspiracy )

The rest of the mobile industry decided to use a consistent cable approach years ago. Micro USB. Not Apple, they went with their own proprietary connector. Ok I do understand why, you dont send audio down usb. Cleverly though this also locks out the hardware peripheral market.

Changing the connector is a risk, as now your old peripherals need an adaptor. Which removes one step of locking you in. But if you already have itunes I doubt you want to move to something else.

It creates a monopoly, albeit one that the purchaser buys into.
This isnt to say that others dont do this as well, Any Android users upgraded their phone recently? How quickly do all your contacts come across if they are synced with your gmail account? Shame facebook stopped playing with google though.

Or how about Amazon and the kindle. Although to be fair its a little bit easier to drop things on to the kindle, unlike having to jailbreak your apple device.

 

[Aj1]

I think this statement is a bit rediculas

"This is what happens when a company is too cheap to invest in research and development. Did you know that Apple spends far less on R&D than any of its rivals - a paltry 2% of revenues, versus 14% for Google and Microsoft?"

I'm pretty sure apple has a much bigger revenue than the other two so for all we know apple could be spending far more cash on r&d it just works out a lower percentage! And also throwing money at a situation doesn't mean its going to be more effective.

 

[Anonymous]

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[Allattar]

Apple has a very similar revenue to Microsoft, it generated more income than Microsoft this year, the first time it ever beat Microsoft for income.

Googles estimate for quarterly revenue (Q2) is 12.2 billion

Apples Q3 is 35 billion. Ok Q3 and Q2 estimates but easily plucked from Google.

R&D 2% of 35 billion, is 0.7 Billion
R&D 14% of 12.2 is 1.7 Billion.

Apple is spending far less on R&D.

 

[sars]

This is probably my biggest gripe with Apple, Microsoft and Google, no cross platform exchangeability. I buy an app in one, it will not work in the other, this I believe to be fundamentally wrong and anti-competitive . I buy a license to use a piece of software from a third party and this shouldn't be device specific.

 

[Stuart Truman]

I'm amazed at quite how rabid Apple fans get at any criticism of their beloved products.

Apple are not the only innovators, they have some good, even great ideas, but many are built on the back of other peoples products. They do like to get litigious though. I won't call them patent trolls...

Portable digital music players - done by others first
Notebook computers - done by others first
Even their operating system is built on another product
MacBook keyboard - hp did that style first
Slim notebooks - Vaio anyone?

The list goes on. Yes, they're shiny and lovely and work well together. More secure, only because their market share is so low compared to windows that the malware makers can't be arsed when Microsoft users provide much richer pickings. If you don't believe that, look at the rapidly increasing amount of malware targeting iOS devices as the share grows

Yes, I have an iPhone, I'm typing this on an iPad and have a MacBook pro. It's a thing of beauty but no better than a pc at doing its job. The user experience comes from the operating system, its user interface and the applications. I have a number of PCs too. All of them suffer crashes due to poorly written apps (Tapatalk being one of them) and integrating them reliably into Microsoft business environments gives IT departments headaches they don't need. (and before someone comes on and tells me how it can be done, I know, we've done it)

As to the connector on the iPhone, iPod and iPad, Apple has created a defacto standard supported by a huge community of third party vendors when they could have used USB or FireWire. If they change the connector on one device, their products all become incompatible with each other and a huge Eco system of add on devices. It's their choice to do this and they'll have their reasons. It's our choice whether to buy, upgrade or go to a different manufacturer. Frankly, anyone who spent several hundred pounds on a Bose SoundDock, or B&W Zeppelin or similar is not going to be over happy if their phone was their main device. I'm sure it will look lovely sat next to it with an adaptor cable...