As you know at TigerSpike we work on multi-platform technology and so we get a good insight into where our customers are spending their money around the world. Admittedly our key markets of Europe, USA, and Asia are iPhone heavy, but we are seeing more and more interest (and budgets going to) Android. So what does Apple do to stay ahead (and they are still very much ahead in my opinion, and will remain there for at least 2 years.
So iOs 5 is being released mid October along with the iPhone4S and I thought that I would go through the key new features that I think will really change things. They are listed below.
Everything gets faster
The key thing about the iPhone4S is the new A5 chip. Basically this will make things go alot faster. 2x faster download times for apps, 7x faster graphics, 2x faster CPU (everything gets processed twice as fast), dual core means things can run at the same time quickly.
Artificial intelligence assistant
This is a persona called Siri who theoretically understands what you are saying and then helps. She reads your texts to you, finds restaurants, answers questions, takes dictation, sets alarm times, creates appointments etc.
I haven’t ever seen voice activation work well. So my expectations for this are low. But this could be something that appeals to an older demographic, which is one of the fastest growing segments of iPhone users. Colby at the office (and my youth focus group) says that he will ‘feel like a douche bag talking into his phone’, and asks ‘can you get pissed off with her when she messes things up!’.
Colby and my opinion is that this will go the same way as the Microsoft paperclip (i.e. fail)
Cool built in apps
Apple are generally very good at building apps. We work with their developers on some of ours from time to time, and they are all very good. I remember the first app that I played with was Poker that they built, and it was way better than any others.
Find a friend is built into the phone, which means that you can find friends with iPhones nearby (if they have opted to show it, which I suspect they all will – the media is far more worried about privacy than people are).
In my opinion this won’t affect FourSquare as FourSquare is more about the gaming components and find a friend is more about the utility of finding someone you know nearby, but you never know.
The Cards app that we pitched to a few postal companies around the world, is being build by Apple. This will let you create and send cards. You can also send the physical card and have it sent to an address. In my opinion this is something that will really take off. Not a bad money maker for Apple (sending cards costs $2.99 each!), and a potential life raft for the US postal service who are suffering at the moment.
Twitter is built in which will be a big boost to twitter, not that they needed it, they have been doing very well recently.
Newsstand will house magazines and newspapers all delivered in a similar way with new issues being downloaded automatically and reducing the need for separate apps for each publication. This is a good opportunity for publishers as it standardizes the format and therefore reduces cost.
for high end publications that we work with who have their own app, there is also a good opportunity as the differentiation will be more stark between high end and the standardized newsstand titles.
Camera
The Camera is now 8megapixels. Personally I think that anything above 2megapisels is a total waste, but the point is that they have improved many aspects of the camera and video (white balance, face detection etc.), and so the iPhone (and all camera phones) will continue to eat away at the low end of traditional camera businesses.
Also you can connect wirelessly to a projector and project in high definition.
CDMA and GSM
These will both be available in the new iPhone5 which is great news for people like me who are on Verizon and travel outside the USA. I can now use the same phone rather than having a new handset and sim, which did annoy me. All phones should have both CDMA and GSM inside in my opinion.
Monitisation
One of the stats that I found interesting was the game infinity blade making US$20m in revenue for Epic Games. It proves what we have been saying for a while, which is that iOs is a serious money maker for not just games companies but everyone who is willing to invest the time and money to produce something great.
Wireless Synchronization
One of our VPs Matt Turnbull’s wife lost her phone and with it, all her photos since the last time she plugged in and synchronized. Doing it wirelessly will help this. Although I can’t help thinking that it will annoy me somehow by taking time continually synronizing itself
Conclusion
On the whole there are alot of cool stuff and good efficiencies in there, but nothing mind-blowing. I was hoping for a new device, which I am sure will be next, so I’ll hold off on buying one until it comes out.
