It was always going to be an iterative release, just like the 3GS and the 4S. For that, the 5S is pretty reasonable - significant CPU bump (64bit!?), camera upgrade, fingerprint sensor and a bunch of other minor upgrades. As with all phones, you're an idiot if you buy a new one every year, but if you get one at the end of your contract (2 years) then the upgrade is significant (ie: 4S to 5S). The 5C is the more interesting device. Apple have always retained the previous model(s) as the cheaper entry to the iPhone ecosystem, is the 5C going to change this, and mean the cost of entry in to iPhone land doesn't mean always having inferior hardware? UK pricing will be interesting to see, but they are essentially releasing a cheaper version of the iPhone 5 and also introducing some funky colours. EDIT: The fingerprint sensor (sorry, Touch ID) is pretty damn cool. I have an NHS mandated passcode on my iPhone, and it's a pain to type in correctly every time (letters, numbers, symbols). This would bypass all of this, and give only me fast access to my phone, and also to things like iTunes authentication (which is another place I have a complex password). Hopefully it works well.
64 bit is a big improvement but they glossed over the specs of the processor, I like the fingerprint reader especially if linked to stuff like mobile banking as I quite like a code that only takes me half a second to put in my phone. In regards to the 5C, they have already been selling these for a year now in a variety of colours, branded as a nokia lumia 720.
"It's meticulously designed and crafted." Does Apple have a whole department of people coming up with these buzzwords ?
Meh, all phone makers gloss over the details of their CPUs. Apple have given the details they normally give - a name, some basic benchmarks and then some marketing chat about other nonsense. Samsung do exactly the same, selling an "octocore" CPU which is actually a pair of quad-cores for low and high power use. I don't get the point you're trying to make with the Lumia. Coloured phones have been around for years and years, this is simply something new to Apple, and might mark a change in the price of entry to the iOS ecosystem, or at least pull up the specs of the bottom end. Yep, it's called marketing/PR.
I think so yeah - for each one product designer or software engineer they employ one advertiser to spin their new tech as much as possible...
Oh, the 4S is staying in the lineup as an 8GB model (free on contract). Lame. I was hoping the 5C would replace it.
The lumia 720 is a cheaper, marginally lower spec version of the 920, 925 etc which are the flagship devices (excluding the 1020 with that monstrous camera), so nothing new in terms of idea just another apple revolution. That was my point. I reckon the ratio is more like 1:5 not 1:1
I don't think it is intended as revolutionary, it's just a different option for buyers, and one that is (finally) reacting to the realisation that people may want their phone in colours other than black or white. It's not new in the phone market, but why does it have to be? So yeah, your point is that Apple are just doing what other phone companies do? Err, this has been the case since everybody started making smartphones.
Well they're not exactly gonna admit 'yep, we just rehashed the design of the last one and it's thrown together by the cheapest supplier we could find'... even if it is true... That and the ever common 'All new'* *except the bits carried over from the last one...
Store is now live it seems edit: slightly OT - wasnt there some announcement for the new mac's today aswell?
Just had a look at the store, really like the look of the 5s! Otherwise, what's the 5c made of? Because if it's plastic, that's ridiculous for a £469 phone.
Plastic of course. They even took that as a positive thing : "iPhone 5C is beautifully, unapologetically plastic."
It's plastic with a steel inner frame. Samsung seem to cope with selling the plastic Galaxy phones for £500+ as well though. 5S looks swish, 5C cases look horrible.
5C is 599/699 euros for 16/32GB. 5S is 699/799/899 euros for 16/32/64GB models. Someone at Apple must be smoking something very powerfull. And a lot.
I think all smartphone makers are. I just looked, and a Galaxy S4 is £549 on PAYG. Why on earth are they all so expensive? I remember the first iPhone being £279, outright purchase. UK pricing: 5S: £549/£629/£709 5C: £469/£549
