The 5s has been my first new iPhone since I got an iPhone 4 in 2010 and for me, coming from an older device that didn't even have Siri, I am extremely happy with it. It may be a moot update if you already haven an iPhone 5 (or maybe even a 4s) but to me it feels like an entirely different device (not only because I also updated to iOS7 at the same time, of course).
I really like the finger sensor, as it makes login a lot faster. Of course, there're security issues here, but for me it is just a convenience method, if people are able to break through this sensor, they will also be able to use other methods to gain access to my data. I also look forward to apps that leverage the M7 as I tend to do a fair bit of walking and running and like to see at the end of the day how well I performed. I really like Siri, again, this is my first time having access to it, and I already use it for writing text messages, checking the weather, or creating schedules / appointments. In general, the speed difference between my old iPhone 4 and this one is staggering. This, of course, was to be expected, as the 4 was crazy slow at times, but it still makes me happy.
All in all, for me, the 5s is a great update and I hope that the 'most forward thinking phone yet' comment from Apple is close to the truth, as I again, plan to use it for at least 3-4 years before updating again.
Two options here, if you buy a phone on contract for say $200, then you can always sell it in a year, or even two, for around double of what you paid for it. Example, iPhone 5's are going for around $450 in my local market. I just paid $200 a year ago for it on contract. Some people hate contracts and say it's cheaper to not have data or what have you, but like I said this is just this particular scenario if you are on a plan.
Option B, you can buy a device for full price, ie $650 and wait the year or two and sell it for ~$450 but now you have a gap of $200, but you still own the device outright. Sometimes depending on what carrier, you can get an iPhone discount of $100 when not in your contract and that could bring it down to ~$550.
These examples exclude taxes and exclude some abnormalities with the pricing and buying markets such as unlocked > locked phones such as Verizon. Verizon phones don't have the same desire as AT&T phones because of the CDMA vs GSM difference with being able to use it on other prepaid carriers easily and worldwide use.
Anyway, that's my two sense from what I've learned over the years. If you buy a phone on contract and take care of it, you'll still get a great phone and double your money in a year when you go to sell it. That's how the markets have been treating them so far over the years.
Edit: I will say that if you wait too long such as the large jump from 4 to 5S, the resale value on the 4 is now dipped to ~150-200. So to me it makes more sense buying every release or two on contract, and then letting the phone pay for itself.
Getting a new phone as part of a 'subsidised' contract is effectively borrowing money to buy a phone. Your loan repayments are the monthly fee. If you have the cash, buying the phone up-front is almost always cheaper.
I also can't believe I can just connect to the internet from anywhere, and there are not even any tubes connected to my phone. How is that possible?
1) 10 years ago this was way bulkier, far less convenient and more often than not without an intertube connection,
2) 20 years ago this was absolute bare-bones and only for upper middle class and rich people,
3) 30 years ago it was science fiction.
Now, a 20-something would of course take all this for granted. But technology will have some surprises for him down the road too, and he'll learn to put things in perspective when 2030 tech is 100 times more awesome than today's.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57603553-37/apple-expected...
That is a link to another earlier article on Apple Insider discussing such predictions:
"In fact, Kuo said in a note to investors on Wednesday that Apple will likely ship 6 to 8 million new iPhones over the devices' first weekend of sales. By comparison, Apple racked up 5 million sales when the iPhone 5 debuted last year. Earlier in the day, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster forecast 5 to 6 million unit sales, a more conservative number based on the prior model's in-store launch sales."
The iPhone 5S seems to be selling briskly, but how many 5c are still in the channel after 3 days?
Not a fair comparison, given that 5S + 5C is two models.
It would be fairer to compare it to the sales of the 5 + 4S last year - which were probably not 9 million, but certainly more than 5 million.
So to get the real comparison you need to add first weekend sales of the 4S in standard launch countries and China to that 7 million figure.
I'm not implying that Apple didn't do a great job by moving to the 5S/5C split, just that it'd be fairer and more useful to compare 5S/5C to 5/4S and 4S/4 - if only for the fact that it doesn't leave any room for pedants like me to argue :-)
1) A friend stood in line for a few hours, got to the front, found out they didn't have the color he wanted and left.
2) A colleague in another company got one and she immediately remarked, "it looks just like Android!".
3) A neighbor returned theirs because they couldn't read all the low contrast stuff on the tiny screen.
4) Another neighbor has kept theirs, but complains all the colors and things are too bright and too loud.
5) Another neighbor went in to buy his, got some time to play with it, decided he didn't like it and went and bought a couple Galaxy S4s for him and his wife instead.
6) Coworker said he like it, thought the control panel and "slide away the background apps" was great. Hated that the slide away the emails is now the wrong way.
– At the Apple store I was at, Apple staff greeted people entering the queue, asked them what they intended to purchase and gave them a card (reservation)
2) A colleague in another company got one and she immediately remarked, "it looks just like Android!".
– You overheard a conversation in another company? Good ears. Extra credit for "she".
3) A neighbor returned theirs because they couldn't read all the low contrast stuff on the tiny screen.
– "Hey neighbour! I couldn't help noticing you aren't mowing your lawn with a phone?!" "The screen was too tiny neighbourino!"
4) Another neighbor has kept theirs, but complains all the colors and things are too bright and too loud.
– "IT'S TOO LOUD, HOW DO YOU SHUT IT OFF?? I'M BLIND!!!"
5) Another neighbor went in to buy his, got some time to play with it, decided he didn't like it and went and bought a couple Galaxy S4s for him and his wife instead.
– 'Hey Wifey, wanna line up in this 2 hour queue? Dum, de dum [two hours in the queue pass]. Oh hey, we're at the front of the queue! Nah this sucks. Wanna go buy some Samsung Galaxies? YES!'
6) Coworker said he like it, thought the control panel and "slide away the background apps" was great. Hated that the slide away the emails is now the wrong way.
– Your astro-turfing obviously disinterests you, as does your job and it shows dude :[ Quit your job.
Didn't do that at either of the two Apple stores I'm aware of (there are 5 in my area), or the three AT&T stores my friends went to.
> – You overheard a conversation in another company? Good ears. Extra credit for "she".
Grownup companies sometimes do things together, not every other company is your competitor.
> – "Hey neighbour! I couldn't help noticing you aren't mowing your lawn with a phone?!" "The screen was too tiny neighbourino!"
My neighborhood has a very active community message board and I know many of the member personally from neighborhood events.
> – "IT'S TOO LOUD, HOW DO YOU SHUT IT OFF?? I'M BLIND!!!"
Here are the exact quotes
Neighbor 1: "I'm not a fan. Hate what they did to ical. The new icons look like they are for small children (that i can get over). And the bright white is obnoxious. What the hell did they do to safari?? I'm sad ... But im sure i will eventually get used to it. "
Neighbor 2: "I'm not "upgrading" yet. Hate the font."
Neighbor 1: "Everything is bright white and hard for me read...feeling old."
Neighbor 3: "So far I actually like it. The calendar took me a minute to get used to as well. At first I didn't like it until I realized you get a 5 day shot when you turn it on its side. I can't figure out how to do a list view yet - is there one?"
Neighbor 1: "I have light sensitivity issues (Astigmatism in both eyes - and I also have cataracts - God I sound old!) so the bright white is just harsh for me and not having huge contrasting colors is also hard on my eyes. Yep I agree the one swipe to have controls is nice and I do like what they did with the photos."
Neighbor 4: "Steve Jobs is probably rolling over in his grave right now..."
Neighbor 5: "I downloaded on my iPhone the other night, not a fan. But I downloaded on my iPad earlier today, and I don't mind it at all. But it is way too bright."
Neighbor 1: "Thank you for saying its too bright ... I was beginning to wonder if it was me."
> – 'Hey Wifey, wanna line up in this 2 hour queue? Dum, de dum [two hours in the queue pass]. Oh hey, we're at the front of the queue! Nah this sucks. Wanna go buy some Samsung Galaxies? YES!'
Talked to him in person (he's next door). And that was pretty much the conversation.
> – Your astro-turfing obviously disinterests you, as does your job and it shows dude :[ Quit your job.
What does my job have to do with this?
were there really that many people out buying iPhones this weekend?
How does Apple keep doing that?
Samsung seems to get their phones out and about without the same kind of theater and is matching Apple sale for sale these days.
It's like people waiting in line to see the latest Star Wars film, but a crappy movie about Blue Forest Indians riding Dragons outsells it.
just go back to the HN post of the 5s launch event and it's full of doomsayers.
seems like apple is going against the very fabric that unites neckbeards around the world - and is crazy successful. just like carmakers that stopped catering to the tinkerers. here's to the crazy ones.
next week? we'll return to the usual apple is doomed because innovation and open blabla.
Apple's Windows 95 problem. http://blog.raavel.com/2013/09/11/apple-problem/
"Apple recently unveiled its new iPhone 5s and 5c models, to a collective “meh”. The stock sold off and is poised to continue moving lower. The market is telling Apple that it is not innovative enough and that its need to do much more, and within that lies the crux of Apple’s problem."
But yeah, a lot of comments, falling over each other in their collective agreement. will that same random blog now turn 180 and consider it's failure?
No.
(Queue a half dozen responses about how Apple actually has failed by selling more phones than both Nokia and Blackberry last quarter in a single weekend. Sometimes, I think people who think Apple is a failure are actually it's biggest supporters, because really, who but those most invested in the company's success are pushing for it to do better? You'd only call them a failure if you thought they could do better, right? So...tell me who the Apple fanboys are, again?)
Here ya go: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6431371
Aggregated numbers do not tell the whole story.
If smartphones mature to good enough and people shift to slower upgrade cycles (think 2006-7 in PC terms) then apple will have trouble growing. And in our quarterly reports world growth is what counts. Which is already hard when you have the revenue of a couple of countries. And there are not many people that can afford to pay the apple premiums and are not already paying them.
For me the interesting stuff is what is the breakdown of the sales. If the majority of these 9 millions are iPhone 4/S users that switch it can mean one thing, if 6 of those 9 million units are new customers is another story.
We work in industry where the rise and falls of titans is rapid. I will be equally unsurprised if in 5 years Apple still have amazing performance or they are on the brink of bankruptcy.
Apple have some structural problems that they need to address to stay on top - the lack of Steve Jobs (mostly as a perception thing for the products), the store, how to reach to new users that are poorer and protect the margins and the perception of premium-ness of their brand, deal with the growing share of Android etc. None of them are unsolvable but combined they are a challenge.
Interesting to ponder which happens first...
That is an oversimplification. Apple has more money than it could possibly hope to reinvest in its core business. When that is the case, and when the stock is undervalued as is the case with Apple, stock buybacks are a great use of a company's cash.
I would imagine that they can make tons of 5c phones while the 5s may be more problematic. So the balance between the two may be more even than it seems. (Also, I would be really interested whether the 5c or 5s is the more high margin device. I could imagine that at least for now the 5c has a higher margin than the 5s – well, at least the 16GB 5s.)
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/23/iphone-5s-3-times-...
All the Apple blogs were talking as if the 5s wasn't really available in large numbers and the plan was to sell lots of cheap-to-make 5c models instead. Which is just one more terrible prediction to chalk up, but it seems they at least thought that would be a good thing before today.
I wouldn't know where to start estimating the profit margins on either phone, but it's worth mentioning since every other discussion about Apple is about how much profit they make, not how many they sell.
Otherwise each retail store would have sold 20000 phones by the reverse of your math.
So 4000 is probably not a very accurate estimate either...
Apple has painted itself somewhat into a corner now. Similar to Windows Service Packs, people are waiting for the second version of Apple products to get it 'right'.
This isn't to say they got it 'right' THIS time, either. It just is what it is.
What?? The 'S' is the iterative product. The 5 was a new design and new screen size and overall a much bigger update.
>> "people are waiting for the second version of Apple products to get it 'right'."
What was wrong with the 5 that the 5S fixes?
When I said something like, "The 5 upgraded the body style, the screen, the processor, and the camera, what's left?" he responded, "Most of that was probably just suppliers saying they'd no longer make certain parts."
He's not a techy, but is a Boeing engineer. I'm not really sure where that attitude comes from, but it's interesting to see what people outside of the tech bubble think.
As long as these people are buying an iPhone every two years, Apple is delighted.
33% China would be 50% increase in China (2m -> 3m) and up 20% (5m-6m) elsewhere.
40% China would be a near doubling in China (2->3.6), and up 8% (5m->5.4m) elsewhere
For reference, the smartphone market is growing at about 50% a year, in Q2 Apple's sales numbers rose 20% year-on-year and their share dropped over 3 percentage points year-on-year (16.6% -> 13.1%).
(These launch numbers assume that no-one bought a price-dropped 4S on the launch weekend last year)
I mean Analyst and Media, wanting to trash Apple for headlines has become insane.
Personally, I'm deliberately on the "S" upgrade cycle. I started off with a 3GS, then got a 4S, and now have a 5S. I figure I'll let other people deal with the bleeding edge, and I can get the model with all the refinements afterwards. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of other people think the same way. I don't doubt that the 6 will sell really well, probably better than the 5S, but it may not sell vastly better than the 5S.
Here it is, the one device that can create the biggest fingerprint database in the world sold 9 million units in a couple of days. NSA must be jubilating.
Very "forward thinking" indeed.
If you're already OK with that, why would you possibly care about your fingerprint? I don't get it.
Oh, but I guess the NSA has a back door and will manage to collect them all without anyone noticing, right? Just like they record all the sound from your phone mic and upload it?
I'm all against unlawful spying by the NSA, but give me a break.
I guess you missed the past 14 weeks of revelations. Either that or I admire your dedication to believing general company claims in the face of all evidence that this is not the status quo.
I do not believe them the fingerprint is not stored.
People claim just a hash is saved, maybe - but what is stopping the gov for example to use the same algorithm and hash their existing fingerprint db?
It was explicitly said during the announcement that no fingerprint is actually stored. It looks for certain unique ridges and swirls and builds up a hash from that. That hash is the only thing communicated to Apple. No fingerprint data is transfered.
How do they benefit from collecting your fingerprint from a phone?
What is it you think they can do with it that they cannot already do?
Tracking cookies from Facebook and Google can do far more to invade on your privacy.