Apple has continued to make serious inroads into the business sector with its iPhone. But Blackberry’s sleek, new Z10 seeks to offer business users hardware features that trump the iPhone 5 from a business perspective.
Business users have always been the bread and butter for Blackberry. With its iconic (or some would call “outdated”) qwerty thumb boards, their smartphone designs, while seemingly antiquated by consumer stands compared to the iPhone, Android, and Windows 8-based competitor models, continued to appeal to business professionals long after Blackberry’s designs lost total touch with pop culture. It was only over the course of the past few years that Apple and Android really started to suck up even business users from Blackberry’s market share.
With the Blackberry Z10, we see the company once again looking to penetrate the smartphone market, and while the design is decidedly channelling the iPhone 5, Blackberry will once again look to appeal to business and casual users alike. with all of that being said, how does the iPhone 5 and Blackberry Z10 stack up against one another? Read More
Posted by CharlesMoore under iPhone 5 Opinion on Wednesday Jan 30, 2013
Calixthus Okoruwa thinks so. Mr. Okoruwa, CEO of the Nigerian communications management consultancy firm XLR8, writing in a an op-ed forThis Day Live, which bills itself as Nigeria’s newspaper of record, entitled “Apple’s Snob Marketing and the Declining Fortunes of the iPhone,” acknowledges that that any company that revolutionizes three mega industries: personal computing, music and mobile telephony, respectively, truly deserves the iconic status in which Apple continues to bask, but he also observes that there is nothing in Apple’s iPhone marketing strategy to suggest that Africa, or indeed any of the poorer regions of the world (including, for example, swaths and enclaves of rural North America where broadband Internet access is still unavailable – CM) are of any real consequence in its iPhone equation.
Of course that dynamic may be soon to change radically if rumors of a $150.00 entry- level plastic-bodied iPhone are at all accurate, but in the meantime, Mr. Okoruwa observes that for instance, more than five years after its global launch, the iPhone still can’t be procured officially anywhere in Nigeria or indeed elsewhere in West Africa, and Apple doesn’t maintain a physical presence anywhere in Africa — its products, including Mac desktops computers and notebooks, being typically marketed by intermediary dealerships. Read More
Apple appears to have equilized the supply-side of the iPhone 5‘s rocky supply and demand balance. But the wait time for the world’s favorite smartphone has left a bad taste in Apple.com customers’ mouths.
I don’t enjoy branding new “gates” for Apple releases (ok — I kind of do), but the new “gate” associated with Apple and the iPhone 5 could be called something like “Retailgate.” This new moniker comes after a new report that shows the Apple.com website at a 4-year low for customer satisfaction ratings. While the rating is a composite of several factors, chances are, the wait time on ordering has much to do with the sharp decline in consumer sentiment when purchasing from Apple’s web-based store. Read More
Apple’s late-set releases for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini were clearly positioned to reap big sales rewards for the Christmas rush. With that in mind, are the iPhone 5 and/or iPad Mini going to be under the Christmas tree this year?
We wish you a Merry Christmas, iPhone 5 and iPad mini — and a Happy New Year! Two years and fours months (and three Christmases) after the establishment of this blog, we’re still talking about the iPhone 5. Who would have thought? Read More
Posted by Michael Nace under iPhone 5 Opinion on Thursday Nov 22, 2012
To those in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving! For all you turkeys out there who cried “fowl” when the iPhone 5 was released, how do you feel about it now?
First of all, I don’t think you’re a turkey if you dislike the iPhone 5 — just a bit of bad Thanksgiving pun. But seeing as we are now on the precipice of Black Friday, the big kick-off to the Christmas shopping season, I thought it would be worth revisiting some of the sentiments regarding the iPhone 5 immediately upon its announcement back in September, when Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that what we had seen in the rumor mills what pretty much exactly what we got. Read More
Three well-priced, well-equipped iPhones at Apple.com
Media and consumer critics complained in the past that offering just one iPhone wasn’t enough for Apple to accommodate the wide-ranging needs of its customers. But with the iPhone 5, 4S, and 4, Apple customers have never had more of a choice in features — as well as price.
With gas prices ever-soaring, few motorists even consider buying premium or the elusive “plus” grade gasoline at gas stations in the U.S. — generally, people go for the cheap stuff (with “cheap” being a relative term). Back before the iPhone 4S was released, back when Apple was selling just the iPhone 4 and 3GS, sensible people who read and comment on the iPhone rumor mill scoffed at those age-old rumors of a dual-released iPhone 4S and 5. “That will never happen,” they said (me included). Apple doesn’t do co-releases. Besides, what would they do with three iPhone models? And who would buy the middling “iPhone 4S?” It’d be like the “plus” grade of iPhones.
Well, one iPad 4/iPad Mini co-release and two years later, those stringent Apple conventions are fast melting away. The online store at Apple.com happily lists three iPhone models, each with different price points and features. But unlike gasoline in the U.S., the “plus” and “premium” iPhones tend to be the most sought-after these days, with the “regular” iPhone 4 offering a solid value-priced model.
The sluggish iPhone 5 battery issue hasn’t been fixed — and probably will never be. It is fast becoming a “new normal” for iPhone users, who have reported battery problems as far back as the iPhone 4.
Ripping on the iPhone’s battery life has become a familiar riff in the tech media. It was an obsession for months with the iPhone 4S, to such a degree that Apple really had to acknowledge the issue publicly and make some kind of half-hearted attempt at fixing it on the software side with iOS 5 software updates. Did the updates make a difference? Some say yes, some no.
And even though the iPhone 4′s battery configuration is generally considered to be Apple’s last successful attempt at balancing longevity and performance, even iPhone 4 legacy users complained about the battery life. Perhaps some people can never be satisfied.
But even though you haven’t heard quite the sustained complaints about the iPhone 5′s battery life, now that we’ve got burgeoning iPhone 5 sales and an iPad Mini to distract our attention, the probable appears to be persisting, in spite of a lack of coverage from the tech media. Maybe users are just getting used to having less juice? Read More
Apple CEO Tim Cook treaded carefully in revealing the new lightning connector for the iPhone 5 its launch in September. But as iPhone 5 sales continue to roll in, lightning has failed to strike for better or worse.
Regardless of what some in the tech media might say, Tim Cook was quite busy in revealing new features at the iPhone 5 launch in September. After two years of the iPhone 4′s form factor, Cook revealed a new, metal-backed form factor with radically new screen proportions, as well as a bunch of stuff under the hood: 4G LTE, A6 processor, new camera, etc.
Which is what made the announcement of the lightning connector kind of funny. It can be said that Cook tried to slip in the overhaul of the iPhone’s dock connector, hoping that the impact of the form factor and new components would assuage any fears and frustrations that veteran iPhone users might have about seeing their dock-oriented iPhone accessories become instantly obsolete. Cook was almost apologetic, arguing that the time had come for a new design.
The rumor mill, as you will recall, stressed over the new dock connector for months before its official release on the iPhone 5. However, in the end, it appears that Lightning has really been a non-factor in iPhone 5 sales. Read More
Apple’s amazing iPhone 5 sales have been hurt by only one thing — supply shortages. Why didn’t Cupertino see this coming?
One of my favorite catch phrases in journalism is, what did _____ know, and when did _____ know it? I don’t know why — there’s something about it that has always cracked me up, and yet it’s also a use template for a question. It always seems to be the right question to ask when something seems awry.
When it comes to Apple mis-judging iPhone 5 demand, I think a permutation of the question is warranted. What was Apple thinking, and why didn’t they plan ahead? Read More
Just about six weeks after the iPhone 5 announcement, the long-rumored iPad Mini launch is now slated for October 23rd. Read why the iPad Mini could give the iPhone 5 a run for its money in sales — and maybe be even more successful.
Apple’s marketing moves in the wake of Steve Jobs’ death have been hard to track. The once-ultra secretive Apple has dialed back security and secrecy, letting the long-awaited iPhone 5 get out into the open months before its official release, and now, with the release of press invitations for a new media event on October 23rd, it appears that the long-rumored iPad Mini will be announced just six weeks after the iPhone 5. Read More
