Rumors have been circulating the tech world about the new iPhones release for the past few weeks, but on Friday the 14th, Apple announced its new iPhone 5. The device will pack a multitude of upgrades all into a similar design, and will be hitting store shelves at 8:00am on September 21st. The device is available for pre-order through Apple’s website as well as any Apple stores in your area. The Samsung Galaxy 3 recently started outselling the iPhone 4S, so the question becomes, are the changes Apple made to the iPhone 5 going to be enough to take back the lead? Where does the iPhone fall short, and where does it succeed; and how will this affect us in the corporate world?
http://youtu.be/xNsGNlDb6xY
The video above really shows the incredible amount of work and detail that went into the design of the iPhone 5. The larger screen, now at 4”, allows for an extra row of applications giving you more control over what you have on your home screen. This also improves widescreen for movies or shows with its 1136×640 resolution, and overall gives you more room to work with. Apple managed the do this while also lowering the thickness of the phone by 18% compared to the iPhone 4S and making it weigh less. They had to completely redesign components to not only lower the weight, but to make room for the additional ones they were adding, such as LTE capability.
Adding the 4G LTE service is one of the greatest advantages of the iPhone 5 and will have the biggest impact on the business world. Facetime is one of the most popular applications on the iPhone, however, its biggest falling out on the iPhone 4S is that it couldn’t be used over 3G, and it could only be used on WiFi. This took an amazing video conferencing application that could be used for quick one on one meetings with friends, family, and coworkers, and severely limited it. With the addition of LTE, Facetime can now run over the mobile network thanks to the increased bandwidth and speed. This is truly how the tool was meant to be used, and will allow for business associates to use it as an effective path of communication. More workers are mobile now than ever, and being able to have face to face meetings via Facetime with bosses, clients, and staff, with no more work than it would take to make a phone call could be a very good reason to deploy the iPhone 5.
Things I like about iPhone 5:
- 8-Megapixel Camera can take panoramic pictures
- Front facing camera is now HD
- Larger 4” screen
- Faster LTE Connection
- 16/32/64 GB Models available
Things I don’t like about iPhone 5:
- New “Lightning” Connector for charging/data. Makes phone incompatible with current cables/docks. They make an adapter, but charge $30 for it.
- No NFC support. NFC is a growing trend in the tech world, and starting to show up as a way to transfer files between phones. I was hoping to see support for it on the new iPhone.
What did you think of the iPhone 5? Will you be purchasing one on September 21st? Or will you be waiting for the next Samsung Galaxy, or a Windows 8 Phone like the Nokia Lumia 920? Let us know in the comments!