Does iPhone need to compete with others, yet?

And Finally curtains are off from much anticipated iPhone 5…

All the speculations, rumors and what not leading to yesterday’s launch of Apple’s new smartphone. A few things that were in the card (of hopeful tech enthusiasts) reached null as there was no iPad mini, NFC or ‘one more thing’.

Along with iPhone, the iPods received their much awaited upgrades and so did iTunes. These were bound to happen and should not surprise anyone. The tech blogs will be filled with the oohsand aahs and of course the mehs for a while now.

The configuration that is provided by Apple in iPhone 5- a 4” screen, faster processor, 8 MP improved camera are something that are present in almost all the high end phones. Some have even better configurations. My Xperia S has 12 MP that is considered one of the better cameras in the market right now. Galaxy S III of course has almost everything that can be crammed in that much space. Also, after Android 4.0 calling androids UI ugly is also a thing of the past. With Jelly Bean, Siri will have a serious competitor to look at.

Amidst all one thing can be said with certainty, Apple’s iPhone is ‘not’ the best Hardware out there. In fact, it no more is the best software as well; thus my question.

On 21^st September when iPhone comes to stores there would be tonnes of people lined up to buy the phone. Android may have captured over 50% market share but they are fighting just one phone. To me it looks like a fight between Neo and so many Smiths (Matrix reloaded anyone!).

Also, the margins of Apple are way higher than its competition thereby negating any increase of sales of cheaper phones of these brands.

So, has the time come for Apple to panic?

Till now, they have, to be honest, not fought very seriously with the competition. They brought 3G to their phones when they wanted, LTE now and not even brought NFC or wireless charging (doesn’t even look on their roadmap) which is present in Galaxy S III and future Android phones. They have not tried to include a home screen or anything other than the notification drop down to their phones and let’s be honest notification drop down is a must in all phones now.

In all, Apple may have fought many legal wars, but it has not over paced or hurried their progress in the iPhone to meet the hardware of competition. In fact, they might not have to do it till an iPhone 6 or maybe iPhone 7.

They are just making better phone than last iteration not the competition.

To me the biggest reasons for this are two-

1. Ecosystem-

They have a good ecosystem in place which not just works but has some of the best apps in the mobile space. Also, there is more money in the App Store than in Google Play. People who buy an iPhone tend to buy more apps whereas people using Android go for the free ones. Ads are not that reliable source than outright buyout of an app.

2. It Works-

This I think is more important aspect. The whole appstore without fail (each app in it) will work with the new iPhone, the last iPhone and most of them the second last iPhone.

This means that a person buying the newest iPhone knows that he doesn’t have to worry about his phone stuttering at any app. You might feel that a high end Android will work the same but it is not so. Due to various architectural differences in hardware not all apps work the same. Some apps optimized for Tegra will not work with Qualcomm and vice versa.

This might seem like a small thing but simplicity is paramount when technology is concerned and things like these are what have propelled Apple to the biggest company in the world.

The post Does iPhone need to compete with others, yet? appeared first on India Business & Technology Hub.