iLounge

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If the 5 is not living up to sales expectations, that is not surprising given the competition it faces, and the evolution of the smart phone market.

When it was first born, the iPhone was not taken serious by those who use smart phones in business, but the “cool factor” helped sales along in the casual smart phone user market. With more development the iPhone began to meet the requirements of business professionals, and the market continued to grow.

We’re now 5.5 years into the life of the iPhone, and love it or hate it, it has darn near any feature of any smart phone out there.  But today there are many good alternatives, so what can the iPhone do to distinguish itself from the competition?

The transition from 4 to 4S, and 4S to 5 have not been all that dramatic.  Add to that what appears to be a narrow range of choices (5, 4S, or 4, which address different price-points), compared to a sea of Android choices. On a feature-by-feature comparison the iPhone can certainly hold its own, but when there have been so many other alternatives (not all good IMO) it is no wonder that the iPhone 5 has not been the stand-out seller that Apple hoped it would be.

What more can the iPhone do to make it a break-out product?

Features?  I can’t think of any realistic ground-breaking ideas that could set it apart from the competition.  What more do you want to do with your smart phone?

CPU horsepower?  It doesn’t seem to me that there’s any realistic app that needs more than what the A6 can provide.

Graphics?  Got this covered pretty darn well already.

Price point?  They’ve already got the (free) and $99 entry level covered with the 4 and 4S.

About the only things left are improved battery life, and maybe diddling with the size/shape.  The 5 took some heat upon introduction by keeping the 4’s width, so maybe an IGZO display for efficiency and a tweak to the form factor is on the horizon.  If not, flat or declining sales are.

Posted by rockmyplimsoul on January 14, 2013 at 6:54 PM (PST)

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Hopefully, Apple has engineers and designers who are far more capable of out-of-the-box thinking than you (or I) are. They have thrived by creating markets where no one thought they existed (e.g. the iPad). I suspect they’ll come up with something, probably in some new niche, because I do agree with you that the smartphone is probably tapped out other than replacing existing ones or expanding to places where they remain less ubiquitous.

Posted by sallenmd on January 14, 2013 at 8:40 PM (PST)

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I suppose that the market is saturated now is another reason. Maybe emphasise the ecosystem more than just the phone and it’s hardware. While it is true the app selection is god on both ios and android, gaming at least has an edge as does the selection from smaller devs given (in my understanding) that development is easier on the ios platform. I still am of the opnion music organisation and playback is better on ios and for me at least smartplaylists are a killer feature that will keep me on the Apple platform.

Posted by decafjava on January 15, 2013 at 2:09 AM (PST)