Thursday October 6, 2011

The iPhone 4S, Apple and it's competition

So the new iPhone, the 4S, has been announced and after a few days mulling it over, it doesn't excite me.

When the iPhone 4 was announced it genuinely made me want it - it is a lovely piece of technology. Yes it had it's flaws, but it was truly brilliant.  The iPhone 4 was released when Apple were way ahead of the game and they had the pick of the market. In my opinion this is no longer the case.

Other companies, such as Samsung, HTC, Microsoft & Nokia to name but a few, have had to sit up and take notice of the amazing innovations that Apple have been responsible for. They want a piece of this action and have really pushed forward to catch them up and ultimately, they want to be the front runner.

I have ditched my iPhone 4, in favour of a Samsung Galaxy S2. I was a little hesitant at first but after a few hours I knew I had made the right choice.
The Galaxy S2 is slimmer, lighter, faster, is more customisable and overall, in my opinion, the best smart phone out there.  

 

iPhone 4S

Samsung Galaxy S2
Processor

1Ghz Dual Core

1.2Ghz Dual Core
Weight

140g

116g
Dimensions (H x W x D) (mm)

115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3

125.3 x 66.1 x 8.49
RAM

512MB

1,024MB
Storage

16GB / 32GB / 64GB

MicroSD Card (upto 32GB)



The thing with Android is, at first, the OS was all over the place. Major OS upgrades were being released what seemed like every week. Now though, it's far more stable. A positive point for me is that if you are a geek you can mess about with it - change things. If you're not a geek then it works perfectly as it is.
This is where Apple loses it's edge. Yes, the OS is lovely and yes it works perfectly out of the box too. But if you want to tinker with things then you are out of luck. And this makes me a little sad.

Another point, is the iPad2.

Again it is a lovely piece of technology that a few years ago would have been an impossible feat. Yes, it is better than the original iPad but it was hardly a "game changer". There are other tablets available that have the same if not better hardware but they never beat the iPad in reviews as that pesky AppStore keeps popping up.

The AppStore is the only thing that is keeping Apple ahead of the rest of the pack at the moment and that won't last for long.
After switching from my iPhone to the S2 I was able to download pretty much 95% of the apps I used. The others, I can live without to be honest.  The Android Marketplace is also maturing well, more and more companies are converting and releasing their AppStore applications in to the Android Marketplace.
Soon enough though, the AppStore won't be the be all and end all to getting Apps for your mobile/tablet devices.

With the release of Windows Phone 7, the subsequent  update to 7.5, and it's recent partnership with Nokia - Microsoft are well on their way to getting a slice of the huge smart phone pie. Yes, the Microsoft equivalent of the AppStore is probably looking a bit bare in comparision however the cupboard will soon be brimming with apps. Given the dominance that Microsoft had over the PC software market for so long, who is to say they won't or can't take over the mobile market too. They made a pretty bold statement of their intentions by completely re-writing their mobile OS for WP7.

And this poses the question, what are Apple going to do next?

I certainly don't have the answer to this question. The release of the iPhone 4S confirms, at least for me, that they are no longer way ahead of everyone else and begs the question as to what direction Apple are moving. Have they done their bit for mobile devices? Do they have another master plan to revolutionise a different area of technology that is plodding along?

In recent years, the iPhone has united geeks and non-geeks together by simply releasing amazing products that spark the imagination of what is possible and more importantly what could be possible in the future. Well all expected a new version of the iPhone to be released and to have that excitement and anticipation of being part of the Apple revolution.

Sadly, after all the delays, media hype and the various pipe dream articles, it never came. For me the iPhone 4S is just another decent smart phone. It's not a game changer and it certainly isn't the best phone. I'm aware that it fixes some bugs and introduces some new features but for me it's more of a Service Pack release. Which isn't want the world was waiting for.

With the sad death of Steve Jobs, who truly revolutionised computers, phones and the music industry, is it time for someone else to step up. Does someone else need to drive this area in to the future or are we there now - at the peak? Can it go any further?

I wonder who that person will be and what the future holds?

 

Posted by codingbadger at 10:17
0 Comments
Older Posts Newer Posts

0 Comments:

Post a comment

blog comments powered by Disqus

Subscribe

Authors

Tags

Latest posts

Recent Comments

Powered by Disqus

Archive