And what shows they were. When Schiller unveiled the iPhone 5, it rose from the stage floor on a smoothly-rising and rotating pedestal, pinpoint spotlights hitting the phone and only the phone. The rotation of the iPhone atop the pedestal was in perfect sync with the rotation of the iPhone projected on the big screen at the back of the stage. There’s no store where you buy such pedestals; Apple designed and engineered it specifically for this event. It was on stage for about a minute.
I think I may actually be physically sick from reading this. There's just no room to satirize something this ridiculous.
For Apple to maintain its market-leading brand prestige and profit margins it has to be hands-down better than the competition and no matter how much heavy breathing hype you want to shower on them the last two iPhones have been predictable, incremental upgrades that in some important ways are actually playing catch-up to the competition. Good, but not good enough.
Steve's most successful keynotes were noticeably devoid of this kind of Las Vegas showroom trickery.
>Steve's most successful keynotes were noticeably devoid of this kind of Las Vegas showroom trickery
Uhh what ? How many Steve Jobs keynotes have you seen ? Most of them had these idiotic things. The one most ridiculous moment which instantly comes to mind is the Intel CEO appearing in that suit. You know Intel chips that every otehr laptop manufacturer made but the move was made a bigger show of ?
"This would never have happened under Steve Jobs" is not the same as "I don't like this".
Steve Jobs is gone, Apple will not be the same but is not doomed without him either. His single biggest accomplishment was having left in the state that it can continue without him.
I'm usually pretty cynical and nauseated by these kinds of write-ups too but this time I'm going to refrain. If I made the kind of money Gruber does by staying in his pajamas all day and typing snarky one-liners on his iPad, I'd probably will myself into singing Hallelujah every time Apple released a major product too. The man's gotta make make a living, and he's figured out that being the cult elder makes for a pretty damn good living.
> iPhones have been predictable, incremental upgrades
So Samsung Galaxy SIII was amazingly revolutionary compared to
Galaxy SII?
> that in some important ways are actually playing catch-up
> to the competition. Good, but not good enough.
Oh, believe me, it is more than good enough. Of course you can choose some line for the spec sheet and proclaim that Apple is over, but in that case you are jus missing forest for the tree.
So Samsung Galaxy SIII was amazingly revolutionary compared to Galaxy SII?
Actually, the combination of new hardware + ICS was really a huge step forward and the first phone I'd really consider an overal better phone than the iPhone. And thanks to the diversity of the Android ecosystem we also have things like the note or the 7" tablets to choose from today.
If Apple wants to play one-size-fits-all then that size has to be in a different class.
The Samsung Galaxy SIII is the first phone that has got our died-in-the-wool-celebrate-apple-fanatic's attention. Honest to goodness direct quote from a recent convert to the SIII, "Dude, I thought I was trying the real stuff before, but this things like Heroin!"
I personally think that the big screen, and ICSs speed is pretty damn attractive - but I don't know how it would fit into my life over a year.
Regardless - Samsung now has a slight lead when it comes to overall mobile performance (Screen/CPU) - Apple has the lead in App Ecosystem and (in my opinion) - design tweaks. They do sweat the pixels a bit more than Samsung.
Yes. I have a SG2 and couple of people in my office has SG3. Let me tell you revolutionary features which my phone (SG2) does not have - eye following tech (staying awake when you are looking at phone), pick to call , automatic photo tagging (face recognition), wireless charging, NFC, techtiles, bigger better screen, bigger battery, best photo (taking 15-20 photos in burst and telling me the best one), pop up play (playing video in small area of screen while I keep using my phone), smart alerts (telling me that if I had existing alert from person I am trying to contact)
I can think of at least 7 Steve Jobs keynotes that had the exact same "showroom trickery", starting from 1983 (the Macintosh) and the next time he announced a new product for apple (the iMac) in 1998. Other times include cinema displays, PowerBooks, power Macs, iBooks, MacBook, MacBook Air, and i think one iPod.
If you want to compare something with some other thing, make sure you know what the second thing is.
But none of that stopped the iPhone 4S from setting new sales records . The competition has caught up , Apple definitely has interesting things in the pipeline . They only release them once they have been perfected . The masses don't mind anyway . So theyre just playing it safe.
For now, Apple has the reputation and the following to guarantee the success of any phone they release. But the record sales of the 4S weren't enough to reverse their slide WRT Android and that's really what they need to be worried about.
If they become a niche market again, no matter how lucrative, they lose their power.
Such breathless writing, matched only by the official marketing department.
"iPhone 5 is made with a level of precision you’d expect from a finely crafted watch — not a smartphone.
Never before has this degree of fit and finish been applied to a phone...
Look at iPhone 5 and you can’t help but notice the exquisite chamfer surrounding the display. A crystalline diamond cuts this beveled edge. It’s what gives iPhone 5 its distinctive lines. Fitting for a phone so brilliant."
Agreed, that paragraph was the ultimate in apple-fanboi fan fiction.
Regarding Apple being better, I still think they have the edge on the apps front if not on the hardware front. Its also where the money is if you're a developer trying to make a living from developing apps.
I think I may actually be physically sick from reading this. There's just no room to satirize something this ridiculous.
For Apple to maintain its market-leading brand prestige and profit margins it has to be hands-down better than the competition and no matter how much heavy breathing hype you want to shower on them the last two iPhones have been predictable, incremental upgrades that in some important ways are actually playing catch-up to the competition. Good, but not good enough.
Steve's most successful keynotes were noticeably devoid of this kind of Las Vegas showroom trickery.