iPhone 5 presentation as a step back

Yesterday’s Apple presentation is the alarm bell that was talked about so much by those who were sure that the company would not last long without Steve Jobs. About this, as well as why the announcement of the iPhone 5 disappointed many, read below. 

The excitement around the new presentation was frenzied. The new Apple device was expected, and at the same time they were waiting for a small revolution. With the current frenzied pace of market development, any major event in hi-tech is no longer expected to evolve, personified by a race of characteristics and sizes, but to jump to something completely new. 

But the miracle did not happen. Apple demonstrated the device, which is a logical continuation of the previous line of devices, not going far from the origins.

Moreover, a departure from the usual concept was optional. It was enough to introduce the so-called “killer feature”, something special, new, breakthrough, something that could be focused on in the presentation itself. Instead, they talked about the new Wi-fi, sapphire lenses in the camera, more microphones. 

So the company stepped on the dangerous road trodden by Nokia and Motorola. Recall that the presentations of new products from both companies turned out to be devoid of surprises, breakthroughs (with regard to the Finns, this is not very good, they showed wireless charging), and the devices presented at them were only the development of ideas embedded in the companies’ devices much earlier. And although such forward movement is acceptable for Apple (it does not stand over the abyss), it is alarming.

Another disappointment turned out to be due to the lack of intrigue. And although everyone was wondering if the new iPhone 5 would turn out to be the way the Chinese assembled it in detail, as soon as it became clear what it would turn out to be, interest disappeared. Commenting on the presentation live, American journalists sighed with disappointment: “Yes, we have already seen it.”

Moreover, the first images of the new gadget, as it turned out yesterday, having a very real basis, were published almost in July of this year. 

Numerous leaks also contributed to the destruction of the intrigue, thanks to which, already in August, a new number of icons on the desktop, and the screen resolution, and the unpleasant fact that all old applications from the market on the new iPhone will be launched with two black bars (top and bottom) so that the image does not stretched.

And just because of these sighs and inflated expectations, the new device, like the event itself, is very difficult to perceive adequately. And here, in turn, there is something to think about.

Firstly, during the presentation, almost immediately after the announcement, Rob Murray, a representative of EA, was invited to the stage. He showed Real Racing 3 and stated that the graphics on the iPhone 5 correspond to the graphics of the current generation of consoles (real-time reflections, all that). Whether this is true or not, we will find out when the original screenshots appear on the network, and not screenshots, but something else is important here. 

Apple invited a representative of one of the largest gaming companies to the stage during the presentation of its main device.

Do you catch it?

At this point, the presentation reminded E3. In other words, the accent was indicated. Of course, Yablochniki has repeatedly said before that games are important for them, but such a step means that the company positions its product in many ways as a game console. And now it’s quite official. 

Secondly, Apple is slowly turning from an innovator company into a company that is “catching up”. This is the bell. Enlarging the screen, which no one saw any sense in a year ago, is an attempt to keep up with the standards. Panoramic images are generally an open nod towards Android gadgets.

Moreover, what is sad, we are not even talking about NFC (which Samsung emphasized when showing the Galaxy III six months ago), which does not have support, nor about wireless charging (again about it, yes).  

So it turns out that Apple is no longer at the forefront of technology. This is hinted at by the characteristics of both cameras (front and rear), which, according to the presented parameters, lag behind similar ones in the flagships of Samsung and HTC. This can also be judged by the new iPod Nano (the only surprise of the presentation), which painfully resembles Samsung’s creations (and this is not a compliment to Koreans).

Of course, we can be accused of bias here. After all, the exact characteristics of the iPhone 5 are still unknown (the amount of RAM, the number of cores of the new processor, etc.). In addition, it is unclear what the A6 is really capable of, which is “twice as fast as A5”. In any case, what we saw yesterday is already a new chapter, in which, as it seems to us, it will not be about the confrontation of an unambiguous leader and rivals catching up with him, but about the struggle of players of equal strength.