

Apple Is Set to Announce Two iPhones - ChrisArchitect
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/technology/apple-is-set-to-announce-two-iphones.html

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31reasons
"cheaper version of the soon-to-be-outdated iPhone 5, coming in a variety of
colors, with a plastic case instead of aluminum. "

I somehow feel that Steve Jobs wouldn't have compromised like that.

~~~
auctiontheory
Don't most iPhone owners use a case? The shiny beauty of the phone is really
wasted.

~~~
sytelus
People use cases because iPhone is fairly susceptible for screen cracking on
drops. In that case, it costs $600 for replacement. Search for iphone screen
cracked and you would see how popular this search term is and how many
businesses have mushroomed around this.

~~~
glenra
FWIW, the last time my 4S screen broke, I got the whole phone replaced at an
Apple Store for $200. What's more, they recently started replacing just the
screens in-store for $150.

[http://9to5mac.com/2013/06/06/apples-149-in-store-iphone-
scr...](http://9to5mac.com/2013/06/06/apples-149-in-store-iphone-screen-
replacement-service-and-the-machine-that-makes-it-possible/)

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Kurtz79
"Still, even if the price is fairly high, a cheaper iPhone should appeal to a
subset of people in developing countries who flaunt gadgets as status symbols,
like jewelry."

As opposed to the subset of people in developed countries that do exactly the
same ?

~~~
chrischen
Pretty sure the iPhone stopped being a status symbol in the US when everyone
got one.

However, I'm sure it's still used as a status symbol in the US when you get
your 7 year old kid one.

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sytelus
This would be in effect a statement by Apple that there is nothing much left
to innovate in Smartphone arena. Only way to beat competition is by price
difference. It used to be that every year new iPhone release was actually
exciting making me crave the latest model. After 4S, new innovations have been
basically faster CPU, thinner body and resolution. The improvements are on
border line justifiable to be even called "incremental". And still, there are
so many things left to do with Smartphones. Here is my nerdy wishlist for
iPhone (please add on yours too :)):

* Ability to use phone as walkie-talkie.

* Weather sensor

* FM HD radio

* NFC chip

* Built-in programmable FPGA

* Ability to put out digital, analog signals from iPhone (turning it to Arduino)

* Higher precision gyroscope and accelerometer

* Infrared LED

* Ability to run apps in background listening mode

* Infrared 2nd camera

* RF transmitter/receiver (900 MGHz range)

* Pen input

* Pressure sensitivity

* Continuously dimmable screen (all the way to 0)

------
programminggeek
You know what's amazing about Apple? The iPhone 4 is still a fantastic phone.
I use it every day and it runs great. It's what 3 years old now? It might be
hard to sell consumers on how great a 3 year old phone is, but gosh, it's
still pretty fantastic.

I can understand why they would want to do the 5C, if only so they can get
customers and developers unified around the larger device size, and so that
they have a newer product that people are willing to pay for.

Still, it's astounding just how good the iPhone 4 still is, especially in
light of the other phones that launched around the same time - the original
Galaxy S and the Motorola Droid six months before that).

~~~
Apocryphon
In your opinion, what is it about Android phones that were contemporaneous to
the iPhone 4 to be inferior in quality?

~~~
habosa
I'm the biggest Android fan out there and would only own an Android device ...
but they don't stand the test of time as well (especially if you're not into
the ROM scene). An Android phone from that era with stock software is going to
be very very slow compared to an iPhone 4. I don't know why, but it's true.

~~~
chrischen
Does it slow down over time (why?) or was it slower to begin with?

~~~
portmanteaufu
Prior to Jelly Bean (when "Project Butter" brought heavy optimizations and
enhanced GPU acceleration to the UI), Android definitely exhibited some
interface lag. Combined with older hardware, the lag makes the older handsets
age less than gracefully. I'm optimistic that the more recent versions of the
OS will change that for the better going forward.

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kyriakos
poor man's iphone.

Would Ferrari manufacture a poor-man's car?

~~~
adamio
Actually in the world of cars, most expensive luxury car brands are
manufactured or owned by the "poor man's" version. Fiat owns Ferrari. Honda
owns Acura. Tata owns Jaguar.

Summing this move into "poor man's" is just too simplistic.

Daimler manufacture Mercedes and Smart. Smart isn't a poor man's mercedes

~~~
chrischen
Yea but they segregate the brands, which is what I think the OP is getting at.

~~~
kyriakos
Exactly. Starting a new brand would take a long time to push, whereas using
iPhone and Apple names for their cheaper phone automatically guarantees sales
but might hurt them in the future.

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auctiontheory
I'm a little skeptical of breaking technology news in an article that refers
to Tim Cook as "Timothy D. Cook."

~~~
veidr
Why???

Anyway, FYI, using people's complete formal names is a long-standing editorial
policy at the NY Times and some other established papers. They referred to
Steve Jobs as Steven P. Jobs, too.

------
ChrisArchitect
further title to this would be something along the lines of "the state of and
movement in the Global Mobile Market"

There's like 10 companies in here I have either never heard of or not heard
from in a good while.

