Who is going to buy an Iphone5? why?

[CF DolFan]

I'll be getting one after the initial rush. We were available for upgrades last year but didn't as we were waiting for this one. When we got our iphone 4 we paid $200 for each phone and then sold our old ones on ebay for $195 and $180. So in the end it cost us $25 to upgrade our phones. I don't know what it will cost this time but I am still expecting most of the financial impact will be reimbursed.

My wife seems to be a little upset about the plug but as I mentioned ... Apple isn't forcing anyone to purchase the new phone. They can stay with their current iphone ... or a newer version of it if that's what they want to do. 

[Brian Fein]

Changing th plug is not trivial and not to be dismissed.  They have a proprietary connector when the rest of the industry has standardized to microUSB.  When you do that, and in the next breath sell $100 alarm clocks with said proprietary connector because you want people to integrate you products into every aspect of your life, its not trivial to just say "oh all those old things you bought need to be replaced."

It becomes a $500+ investment, not including the phone.

In my house alone, where neither I nor my wife have an iPhone, we have:
- 2x alarm clocks with iPod dock, $80 each
- a kitchen speaker dock $50
- 2x other speaker docks $40 each
- a computer docking station $50

That's $340 worth of Apple-proprietary gear that I'd have to replace if I got the new phone.  And that doesn't include charging/USB cables, which we have about 3 that cost $30 each.  That would ABSOLUTELY prevent me from buying the new phone, even if I didn't think it was a turd.

Not trivial, and not to be dismissed.  Make a new connector if you want but make sure its backwards compatible.  Not impossible.  The fact that they didn't shows their true intentions.

[CF DolFan]

I have two alarm clocks that my phone plugs into. My wife has one on her desk for music. I just use my phone plugged into my PC.  My wife's car is hard wired for her phone but the adapter will work with it. We have at least a dozen rechargeable plugs that we mainly bought off ebay for about $1 a piece.

All in all it isn't a huge investment to switch over. At least not for me considering. Besides ... it's like buying a new phone which would cause me to buy new accessories any way.

[Brian Fein]

Thought this was funny.  And telling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdIWKytq_q4

[bsfins]

^^ I saw that tweeted this morning....

I just don't see the fervor about this version,(other than in the media),as I have about the earlier versions.Even among fanboys...

[Buddhagirl]

^^ I saw that tweeted this morning....

I just don't see the fervor about this version,(other than in the media),as I have about the earlier versions.Even among fanboys...

I'm a fangirl. I'm REALLY indifferent on this one.

[fyo]

The most interesting phone hardware out (more or less) there right now is the new Nokia 920. A super bright AMOLED display with the best anti-reflection filter out there (50% less reflection than Apple's). Same general pixel density (slightly higher, actually). Really sweet display, IMHO. I don't like the overall design (or the weight) and operating system, so there's no chance I'd buy one... but I love the display.

The iPhone5 just doesn't bring much new to the table. It's slightly better than the 4S in pretty much every way, but the only major difference seems to be the aspect ratio of the display. Probably great longer-term, but in the short-term, lot's of apps are going to get letterboxed.

[masterfins]

not me.  I'm always trailing the tech hype curve, I'll be up to an Iphone 3, level in about 3 or 4 years from now.

[TonyB0D]

I'll probably get it because I'm due for an upgrade in October and my current 4 is pretty beat up.

The dock issue is a non-issue; it's something that HAD to be done.  The old dock connector was obsolete and actually prevented them from making a smaller/thinner phone because of all the room it took up.  Yes, it sucks for the people who have docks, but that's the price you pay for progress.  Designing the dock to be backwards compatible just wasn't possible because of the amount of space they needed to save. You'll be able to buy bags of adapters from Amazon for a few bucks a pop in a few weeks.

As for the rest of the phone, not too much of a major upgrade.  Apple obviously had to get on the LTE train, but I wish they would have included NFC in the phone.  Maybe they didn't roll out NFC yet because they haven't reached all of the business deals they need  with Passbook or whatever it's called.

[Dave Gray]

The iPhone5 just doesn't bring much new to the table. It's slightly better than the 4S in pretty much every way, but the only major difference seems to be the aspect ratio of the display. Probably great longer-term, but in the short-term, lot's of apps are going to get letterboxed.

This seems like an accurate description.  An evolution of an existing product.

I guess I'm alone in not at all being concerned about backwards compatibility.  It's one of the things I appreciate about Apple.  This is consistent with their overall company outlook and it keeps them innovating.  They aren't held to old standards.  When something better comes along, they just adopt it and move on.  You can argue that X isn't better, but at least that's the strategy.  People complained about not having disc drives on certain laptops, for example.  So, sure, maybe it was weird at first, but when's the last time you used a disc to load software onto a computer?  I never do.

In fact, even with gaming consoles, I prefer when they aren't backwards compatible.  It inflates price for something I don't need.

[Tenshot13]

I'm getting one next paycheck. I've been sporting my girlfriend's old purple Blackberry curve for months because my Droid died.

[Tenshot13]

Bought it. Stood in line for an hour. It rocks. Not much different from the 4s though.  A little faster and the screen is bigger.

[badger6]

Bought it. Stood in line for an hour. It rocks. Not much different from the 4s though.  A little faster and the screen is bigger.

Damn, you should have waited 6 months. By then the iPhone 7s will be out, ha ha. But on a serious note, Is this your first apple product or did you have previous versions ? Just wondering if you had to get new peripherals since they changed the plug....

[Tenshot13]

I have an iPad 2 and now the iPhone 5.  Never owned an apple product before those two.  I really needed a new phone and didn't care about the plug. It's an awesome phone, but not worth upgrading if you have a 4s.

[Lee]

I have the 4s and not only am I not upgrading to the 5, but I'm possibly not even installing OS 6 because of all the kinks in the map program (coupled with the fact that I really like the google maps app better).

I think with all the development behind each itteration, they royally screwed up this time on both hardware and software.