This bothers me to no end. One of the major things beside the odd dimensions of the iPhone 5 screen, that prevent me from switching from Android.
However the screen is clearly a bigger let-down for most Android users who are used to larger screens.
Jobs would never have allowed such an atrocity to occur. The sub-par Gmail integration is another pain point.
Roger McNamee expressed the same misgivings on Bloomberg the other day. He said Apple is starting to act like a bad monopolist.
> Jobs would never have allowed such an atrocity to occur
iPhone 5 is more likely to be blessed by Jobs than not.
I am not sure how long Apple product pipeline is, but I seriously doubt they had iPhone 4S ready for production, but not iPhone 5 in the advanced design stage.
On the other hand I don't give a damn about "odd" dimensions. There is nothing odd in them for me.
>iPhone 5 is more likely to be blessed by Jobs than not. I am not sure how long Apple product pipeline is, but I seriously doubt they had iPhone 4S ready for production, but not iPhone 5 in the advanced design stage.
Yes and no. Jobs may have signed on to the idea of replacing the maps with an in-house solution, but the implementation wouldn't have been finished until shortly before launch. And when it turned out to be as bad as it seems to be then he might very reasonably have reverted to the previous maps app for at least this version of iOS (if not scrapping the idea entirely).
The tall-narrow screen is just a case of classic Apple orthodoxy.
There is nothing in the dimensions of the iPhone 5 that make it inherently a better viewing experience over a wider configuration.
If Apple had convinced itself to be less parsimonious and obtained larger (width wise) screens at better margins I'm sure they would have made that one of their USPs. Instead they cheap-ed out on the acreage.
That screen is dumb and in a sea of larger and similarly fabulous screens (including the upcoming Nokia Lumia 920
which incidentally has some stellar mapping alongside other great features) it just doesn't cut it.
Tim Cook and his core team seem to be a bunch of frugal zealots. He bungled the layoffs at the Apple stores too.
Upon a backlash he had to hire some of them back. This launch is probably the first one where nearly every detail leaked well ahead of time.
The screen, the connector, the no-NFC, the LTE and several other parts.
It certainly is all down-hill from here. There is no longer that halo around the Apple experience.
Unless of course people want to accessorize their attire with glass-slab jewelry which the iPhone 5 has been likened to. The first-on-iPhone apps are the only draw.
The iPhone is uncomfortably small to me. I don't think my hands are that abnormally large, but my 4.3" HTC Desire HD is a much better size fit. Even so, my next phone might very well be one with an even larger screen - I use my phone flat in my hand with screen facing me about ten times more than I hold it up in any way that requires a great grip.
It's not a coincidence that the top selling Android phones have gradually been ones with larger and larger screens.
That's not the "only valid answer". Maybe people with big hands can just buy Androids, and Apple can cater to the small-to-medium-size-hand market. I don't know if Apple has a problem with that, but I don't.
If you love Apple products so much that you feel personally slighted that they don't fit comfortably in your big hands, I guess that's just your cross to bear.
Jobs would never have allowed such an atrocity to occur. The sub-par Gmail integration is another pain point.
Roger McNamee expressed the same misgivings on Bloomberg the other day. He said Apple is starting to act like a bad monopolist.