Mistake Or Moxie? Apple’s iPhone 5 Is The iPhone 4S
Yesterday’s big Apple event fizzled with the news that the much-rumored iPhone 5 is actually the iPhone 4S. I was interviewed by the Northwest Herald about whether this was a mistake for Apple.
“I think there was a lot of expectation – anybody’s in a difficult situation to follow Steve – but I think it was pretty lackluster,” said Triona Guidry, a freelance technology writer and owner of Guidry Consulting in Cary. “In my head, I was trying to compare it to the season finale of a TV series* – every season finale has to be bigger and bigger until it gets to the point that you can’t do it anymore.”
“For whatever reason, they decided not to do an iPhone 5, and the initial reaction is that’s a big mistake,” Guidry said. “As one person said, they could have quite easily put it in a different shiny case, and none of us would be the wiser. But that’s not what they decided to do.”
What struck me most about Apple’s unannouncement was how bummed everyone was. It’s hard for Apple to keep topping last year’s Biggest Event Ever, but you can’t alienate the masses, either. By failing to deliver (or to manage expectations ahead of time) Apple has lost ground. With no boost from iPhone 5 sales it may be a bitter holiday season, especially with the Amazon Kindle Fire on the iPad’s heels.
If, at their next event, Apple can pull off something so crazy-stupid-awesome we all forget about what happened yesterday, they might regain some of the ground they’ve lost. But I don’t think this is necessarily indicative of Apple without Steve Jobs. As I said to the Northwest Herald:
“The question is why they would do it that way, especially with so much expectation on this,” she said. “But then again, Apple’s smart. Maybe there’s something behind the scenes going on that we don’t know about. That’s the only thing that’s going to turn this around for them.”
Apple does make mistakes** but I’ve learned not to underestimate them. For all we know they did this simply so they can sit back and chuckle while the rumor mill REALLY goes into overdrive.
* Like whether a second Big Bang tops a bomb that will destroy all of reality. I won’t even get into what happened this season.
** Let’s hear it for the Newton, the Lisa, the Mac IIvx, and all of Apple’s less-beloved products.
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