Last week Apple announced the iPhone 5. This latest iteration of their universe-crushing brand promises improvements in virtually all areas. The screen is slightly bigger, the phone is lighter, the camera is better, the processor is faster, etc., etc. Several people have asked me this week whether I was planning on lining up to purchase one when it becomes available this week (I hope these people realize that I have never lined up to purchase and Apple product). I read the new specs with some interest and…to paraphrase A Chorus Line:
I dug right down to the bottom of myself, to see what I had inside:
…and I felt nothing
I'm not growing bored with smartphones. I depend on my iPhone to manage my day, and I love the conveniences it brings. I know that Smartphones, going back to my Blackberry Pearl have been instrumental in my evolution in thinking about technology, to a great extent responsible for most of what I'm doing today…including writing this blogpost. When my phone runs out, I'll buy another iPhone, probably the newest model. But there is nothing happening in the Smartphone universe (Apple, Android or…snicker…Windows Phone) that interests me at all.
Whether the phones are larger, smaller, faster, whatever, everything that is happening in the Smartphone space seems to be an iteration of something that already was before. I don't care that the iPhone 5 is slightly larger…nothing I do requires a micrometer more screen space. If I need more space, I use my iPad. If faster really meant something, it might raise an eyebrow, but experience has shown that Smartphone speed is primarily tied to bandwidth, rather than the machine. The changes in all smartphones seem very quantitative, and not qualitative.
So I wondered whether Smartphones are capped out, whether there is no new amazing development that would stir my jaded heart. In thinking this through, I've come up with a list of features that might make me sit up and take notice:
- A dependable multi-day battery. I can usually get a full day with the battery on my iPhone, less if I'm using it a lot. I would love to be able to depend on my phone over several days. Battery capacity continues to grow at a snail's pace with no major breakthroughs on the horizon. Tell me a battery will last a week, and I'll take notice.
- An NFC Chip. NFC is a new protocol which will allow me to pay for more and more things the same way that I pay for my Starbucks Coffee. Some android phones are integrating this new technology, so this is more of a case that my iPhone lags behind.
- Real voice recognition. The iPhone 4S had several upgrades, but the one which caught the public eye more than others was Siri. Unfortunately this capability quickly became a joke because of its lack of dependability. If voice recognition really worked, particularly if I could granularly open and control apps, I would become a real fan.
- Actual speed. As noted above, the speed of my phone seems hampered more by my wireless connection. If the smartphone companies would collaborate with the telcos to actually make my web pages come up faster, I would wait in line for this product.
What would you add to the list?
Image Credit: 'Swimming In The iPool' http://www.flickr.com/photos/83346641@N00/3420540107
Found on flickrcc.net
Posted with Blogsy