iPhone 4S? Grumble

Amazingly, Apple belted a foul ball today and called it a home run.  The “new” iPhone 4S may be a nice phone, and it has some nice features, but it is basically just the same device that has already been selling for a long time.  Yes, the camera is better, and that’s nice, but at the end of the day this is not the device that triggered the breathless anticipation of the next cool thing.

After decades of Apple watching, it was sad to see Apple blow the opportunity to show something really new.  If they didn’t have a truly new product ready, then they should not have shown anything – or, given the hype they helped foster, should have started out the event by saying that the 4S was an interim device, while the truly new product was being readied for release.

Instead, it seems that Apple has tipped over the hubris barrier at a scale that is grand, even for them.  They seem to assume that, by simply being Apple, the adoring crowds will clamor for ANYTHING new with their name on it, just to be first on the block to have one.  The 4S is as disappointing as the iPad 2 – which was basically an attempt to bring the iPad to the level it should have been when it was first launched.

In fact, with two lackluster products being hyped by Apple in a row, it makes one wonder if Apple has lost it’s edge.  Whatever happened to the Jobsian mandate of making things that were “insanely great.”  I was fully prepared to pick up a new iPhone tomorrow.  That’s not going to happen.

I bet the folks at Google are having a huge party today.  But we shouldn’t celebrate Apple’s misstep – it should sadden us.  Apple has long been viewed as an industry leader in technology and design.  It is losing this edge and sooner or later someone needs to tell the king that it is walking around in its bloomers.

Please wake me when Apple releases a truly new product.

iPhone 5

In a few hours, Apple plans to introduce the iPhone 5 (according to several sources).  And I am wondering why this announcement is so eagerly awaited!  The press has been buzzing for ages about this new device, and making predictions of when in September/October the new phone would be released.  My guess is that lines are starting to form in front of stores (I’m at a conference and no where near an Apple store to check it out myself.)  For some reason this impending announcement is being treated like the release of a new Harry Potter story.

Hey, folks, its a phone, OK?  The fact is that I’m still using my 3GS.  I never moved to the iPhone 4 because my contract was still in the no-upgrade period.  Yes, I will get an iPhone 5 because I want a front-facing camera for video chats, etc.  I’m sure the new device will have some cool features, but this is a characteristic of many new technologies.

Apple’s genius is in getting people foaming at the mouth over every new device they bring to market, whether it is groundbreaking or not.  Take the iPad 2.  This (long overdue) upgrade of the original iPad still falls short of what Apple should have done, yet lines stretched around the block as people clamored to get their hands on the latest Apple gizmo.  And yet, a few weeks ago when Sony began shipping their new “S” tablet, there were no lines in front of Best Buy, even though the Sony tablet beats the iPad 2 by any measure imaginable.  It is beautiful, the screen is gorgeous, the operation is great, and the tablet can easily be connected to other devices, memory cards, etc.

It turns out that the Apple mystique is so powerful that if Steve Jobs had written the phone book, he would get the Nobel Prize in literature.

Will I get the iPhone 5?  Yes, of course.  I need to understand all the popular devices, and this one is on the list.  Will I stand in line to get one?  Not on your life.