In just over 48 hours Apple CEO Tim Cook will unveil the latest iPhone and the world’s first trillion-dollar tech company’s stock will drop until the market figures out what to do with it. This has been the form for almost every device running iOS and there’s no reason to believe anything will reverse the trend. If the sixth iteration of the iPhone has a radical redesign it will wipe millions off the company valuation in the short term, if it doesn’t differ enough from the iPhone 4S early adopters will be unimpressed and accusations that Apple has lost its touch will wipe millions off the company value in the long term. Shareholders are in for a bad week.
As for what to expect from the iPhone 5 (our guess is the ‘5’ may well be dumped in the same way ‘3’ was from the last iPad) there are some evergreen improvements: a faster processor (most likely the same A5X seen in the iPad); better camera(s); more memory; and slimmer form factor. This time around we’re likely to see a new, small 9-pin dock connector to replace the current 32-pin standard; a bigger 4.3" retina display; the moving of the 3.5mm headphone jack to the rear of the handset. Some of the more eagerly awaited additions – LTE connectivity and near field communication (NFC) – won’t be of any use to Irish users.
It’s not quite as bad as it sounds. BWG’s symbol groups Eurospar, Spar, Mace and XL have been trialling contactless transactions via NFC on purchases below €15 since July. The case of long-term evolution (LTE) network connectivity, with its promised download speeds of up to 73Mb/s, won’t be seen here for some time owing to a lack of infrastructure. Vodafone and Three are working on an improved network and with a spectrum auction looming (exact date to be confirmed) we could see a landgrab for coverage that will make an interesting battle all on its own.
The canning of the iPhone 3GS in anticipation of Wednesday’s launch is a strong statement from an aesthetic and technological point of view. The ‘classic’ iPhone is being relegated to curio status, leaving a choice of either iPhone 4, its identical sister the 4S and whatever Cook has up his sleeve.
As bigger screens, faster networks and near field communication become standard features, however, is Apple setting the smartphone agenda anymore or is it merely keeping up with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S III or HTC’s One collection (in spec if not popularity)?
The iPhone created the app market, made touch screens de rigueur and smartphones ubiquitous. What else is there for it to do? Bring on Wednesday.
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