A lot of my feelings here are similar to a recent editorial sharing my lessons from the retail days and the industry around me continues to surprise. The smartphone market is split wide open and we can’t agree more with the title of this piece on HT Brunch. But what follows below the headline is currently the center of a hot debate on my twitter timeline. The Apple iPhone 4S is termed a disappointment for the nth time and that makes the basis for the ‘smartphone market being split wide open’. The author, Rajiv Makhni defends by tweeting “The column was about alternates”.
At the cost of being called an iMafia and being shot down as a fanboy, I would this time talk about technology and my beliefs when discussing the same.
Lets first look at some reactions to the iPhone launch.
“launch sees smaller lines, quieter reception”
“The new iPhone is an evolution rather than a revolution and for people trying to decide whether to get a Nokia XYZ or an iPhone, it comes down to a decision in performance and value for money”
“Just remember: no colors, no keyboards, no bigger screens.”
“Apple did not disappoint, but you have to wonder if it’s feeling the heat of competitors”
“So while it’s tough to argue with the package Apple has put together (a stellar device with just enough new to make it nearly perfect), we couldn’t help feeling a bit let down by the…”
“it’s not all that different of an experience.”
Clearly the world sees that the competition is closer to the iPhone. More than ever before. The iPhone isn’t the god phone, the gold standard anymore. True that may be. But does that make every other platform and phone a worthy alternative? Each of the comment above is not for the iPhone 4S, but the 3GS from 2009. I believe more than ever before that the ones terming the iPhone 4S a disappointment are lost in rumors.
Firstly the expectations from the iPhone 4S are based on the iPhone 5 rumors, you want a tapered design, something out of the world, top secret & new. And you would compare the 4S to a bunch of unreleased smartphones and OS upgrades even without ANY official announcement from their manufactures on the specs or pricing front?
We can talk about platforms, compare them and suggest alternatives for the future. Highlight love for Windows Phone’s refreshing UI, Android’s traction and Samsung’s hardware push. But can we really beat down a smartphone because it was not in line with crazy rumors and leaked cases? And suggest unreleased alternatives based on rumored specs, without using them and without any concrete info on pricing / availability? All this without even highlighting once that many of these are just rumored?
When discussing the iPhone 4S on our last podcast, we talked about Android, Windows Phone and what happened to MeeGo and WebOS. The lead that the first iPhone had in the touch space is diminished, the game might well change, NFC may or may not revolutionize. But that is a technology talk, platform debate, a discussion about where the industry is headed. Not a suggestion for alternatives that we haven’t used, not an announcement of anyones failure nor a discussion about larger displays and GHz processors. As I once said, if hardware specs made a killer smartphone, I would have been using my desktop as a phone!
