The iPhone 5 is one of the most eagerly awaited devices in recent memory -- and despite delays in getting it out, there are several factors that will play into its expected domination in the smartphone race this fall.
With rivals like Samsung gaining foothold in other parts of the world, with record sales of Galaxy line smartphones and the Samsung Galaxy S2 setting the pace, Apple’s expected launch of iPhone 5 in the U.S. market this September will not be an unchallenged one. But until now, Apple has not given any official indication or divulged any details regarding the iPhone5's specs.
Here is a look at eight reasons why the iPhone 5 can become the best-selling smartphone this fall.
Design:
The design of any product plays an important role, especially with smartphones as it is very important to combine art, science and technology to create tangible three-dimensional product. If Motorola Atrix is taken into consideration, although the smartphone came with revolutionary features in the beginning of this year, the device has vanished from radar for the last six months. Perhaps Motorola blamed the rounded look of the Atrix for its poor sales. But the recent leaked picture of Motorola Droid Bionic shows an improved design looking similar to an iPhone.
When it comes to the iPhone, Apple has always updated the design of their smartphone each year. Designers Michal Bonikowski and Antoine Brieux have played it safe with the design of the new iPhone. In fact iPhone 4 and Apple’s original iPad looks very similar in terms of design. The iPad 2 which was launched this year with aluminum back-panel with white frame was thinner and lighter compared to original iPad, hence the probability of iPhone 5 sporting an aluminum back-panel along with thinness is a certain prospect. Keeping in mind the track record of Apple delivering exceptional innovation in terms of design, expect a nice looking smartphone in either case.
Sales:
Apple iPhone has become the best selling smartphone to date. No compelling mobile device has been able to slow the sales of the iPhone. Although many other smartphones with powerful features and cutting edge software made it to the market, it didn’t alter the sales of the iPhone. One of the latest rumors suggests that Apple has contracted with a manufacturing company to build 15 million iPhone 5 units. If that is the case, Apple’s prediction has never failed. Although not many details are known up till this point, there is little chance that the iPhone 5 won’t sell exceedingly well. Whenever one considers the history, most of the time it repeats and Apple iPhone 5 will be no exception.
Brand:
A brand is an identifiable entity that makes some specific promise of value and a brand which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand recognition. And Apple brand is a well recognized for that matter and prominent one too. Consumers may look on branding as an important value added aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic. From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also command higher prices. Hence consumers won't mind paying that extra buck because of the quality of the brand.
Apple has considerably become a brand which creates trust and an emotional attachment. This attachment then causes the consumers to decide on a their product. And lately, Apple has now become the world’s most valuable brand according to a study published by global research agency Millward Brown.
Apple’s brand value jumped 84% to $153.3 billion, driven largely by the company’s success with the iPad and iPhone 4, the study found. Brands’ values were determined by a mix of factors, including future earnings (discounted to their present-day values) and in-depth consumer surveys, Millward Brown says. And Apple has done that exceptionally well; hence, iPhone 5 sitting on the glorious success of its predecessor is expected to bask in glory too.
Moreover, Steve Jobs, the Apple’s Founder and CEO has described Apple as a “mobile devices company”, the largest one in the world, also Apple’s revenues are bigger than Nokia, Samsung or Sony’s mobility business.
Marketing Strategy:
Marketing is very important in building customer relationships as well as creating product awareness. Without an effective marketing strategy you stand to not gain customers or lose customers which equates to revenue loss and no growth. For a company to grow, marketing is the vehicle.
Brand name is not the only thing needed to stir the product, the biggest example being Google Nexus One. The smartphone was listed among top ten gadgets of 2010. Although the phone was one of the best in terms of design and brand but without effective marketing if failed to click. In fact, Google is one of the best brands around the market, but intensive marketing to stimulate hype for a product is very important.
Product positioning has been described as 'winning the hearts and the minds of customers'. Great brands have long term customers (for example. the 'love affair' that Mac customers have with their Apple computers; iPods, etc.)
In case of Apple, as soon as it announces a new device, the company takes to the airwaves describing the new device and showcasing the finer points. As it is customers gets excited and the product becomes an instant hit. The iPhone 5 will enjoy the same privilege.
Also Apple is good at rebuilding strained relationships with its customers as Apple goes out of its way to attract these customers with the promise of lower prices, better tools and more collegial relationships.
Operating System:
The iOS operating system is found in both iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet. Lately, iOS 5.0 and its features were announced on June 6 at the WWDC 2011 keynote address. The expected release date is believed to be in the third quarter of 2011. The new operating system comes with iCloud service and the Notification Center, as well as improvements to native apps such as Camera. Moreover, the new operating system has more than 200 new features. In fact, the operating system of Apple is a mobile operating system that was already years ahead of anything else before Android could make its splash.
Most of today’s operating systems found in the market like Android, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry 7 OS have only bettered the features of iOS previous versions. And the iOS previous versions are almost a year old. With iOS 5 going to be updated in iPad’s latest version, it is obvious that even if iPhone 5 is not released with iOS 5, there is sure going to be an immediate update to iOS 5 versions.
Many users were upset with iOS notification feature but that will change as iOS 5 will come equipped with cutting-edge notifications, messaging and cable-free connectivity. It is noticeable that the Apple has borrowed few features from Android most notably like Cloud Synchronization, Notification Center, Over-the-air updates, Photo sharing and Twitter.
Other noticeable features of iOS 5 that looks promising include the phone-to-phone messaging and iMessage looking a lot like BlackBerry Messenger, newspaper or magazine subscriptions, advanced reminder system (No one can get close to iOS reminder due to its geo-fencing location-based notifications), system wide twitter integration, quick camera access, photo editing tools (When Android allows crop and rotate, iOS has better advantage with crop, edit, red eye reduction, composition controls and auto-enhance), tabbed browsing is not found in Android phones, clutter-free web reading, iOS allows users to receive formatted mail but Android doesn’t, PC free setup and updates, wireless synchronization (Everything in your iTunes library including photos and video can sync over the air compared to Blackberry which only handles music but not video) and online gaming community.
App Store:
As of May 2011, Apple approves its 500,000th app, 37 percent of all apps are free with the average price $3.64. iPhone 5, the new baby on the block will have all this advantage with it. At early July 2011, 200 million iOS users have downloaded over 15 billion apps from its App Store. Actually the term app has become a popular buzzword; in January 2011, app was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society.
Apple’s walled garden hasn’t stopped users from grabbing apps by the billions and Android Market has been steadily gaining grounds but is yet to match App Store. The hottest plus feature of App Store include navigation - the iPhone buttons at the bottom of the screen provides access to every section of the store showing featured, categories, top 25, search and updates – using single tap accessing particular section is easy, although android provides with great search and back buttons on phone hardware, however without dedicated tabs for navigation the only way out is through back button and difficult to come out through subcategories and searches.
But one significant advantage of Android Market apps is that that the Android OS is open source and the technology is designed to be extended by an active community. The open source approach has been proven to drive faster innovation and wider adoption in countless examples and Google is counting on it to best their proprietary competition. Officially Android Market has 200,000 plus apps but estimated apps show 400,000 plus. And Google’s Apple store downloads as of May 2011 shows it to be 3 billion. Additionally in terms of growth, the Android market added 28,000 new apps in April 2011, whereas Apple added 11,000 new apps. Distimo forecasted that the number of Android apps would surpass Apple apps before the end of July 2011, whereas Germany-based research2guidance forecasted Android apps to surpass Apple apps in August 2011 at 425,000 apps. And other app stores are far away from App Store and Android Market.
Carriers:
Apple iPhone was selling well even before it reached the carriers like Verizon and AT&T. The iPhone 5 is expected to feature international support as the consumers will be able to use the device on a GSM network around the world which will benefit world travelers.
And as AT&T is planning to gain the regulatory approval to acquire T-Mobile in US, Apple’s chances of boasting iPhone 5 will become likely as those tens of millions of additional customers with the acquisition can explode sales for Apple.
With the launch of the Verizon iPhone earlier this year, it seems more like than ever that Apple will support the carrier’s 4G network. As Verizon has the potential to reach more than 100 million people with 4G network, most reports suggest Apple will capitalize on that and bring 4G connectivity to the next Verizon iPhone.
Improved specifications:
Although many smartphones in the market came up with better specifications showing better processor, RAM and battery than iPhone 4, Apple’s iPhone 4 was never less popular. But with rumors showing it to feature a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, possible 1 GB RAM (Apple always upgrades RAM with every release) and improved battery life, Apple again will gain the much needed attention.
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Alternate devices landscape
Dual Core smartphone
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Nick Gough (Lokhor) is a Lower Hutt born and bred geek. He works at Environmental Science and Research and is on his way towards becoming a Business Analyst. He lives with his fianc? who gracefully puts up with his geeky 
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