Turns out people just wanted a more refined iPhone with 4G.
Who would have thought?
Seriously though, I remember naysayers about the iPod back when it was first released, bemoaning the interface, design, and pointing out dozens of other mp3 players with longer feature lists at better prices. Yet the iPod still won out because it offered a consistent and predictable user experience, from the purchase to the day-to-day use—looking at the quality of experience holistically and end-to-end, including fashion, features, and fun.
You could pick up any iPod and know how to use it, and that trend continued throughout new releases and new iPods for years on end, with the only major interface change being the shift to touch, which was (arguably) even easier to use.
The tech crowd tends to look at devices as bricks with feature lists attached to them, but consumers don't. And consumers are the ones who buy things and use them, not just us. The iPhone 5 is exactly what people want with just enough "new" to make them want it. It will be moderately successful for a refresh, and most importantly, people will continue to enjoy using their phones and will continue to want to upgrade in the future. Apple nailed it.
> The tech crowd tends to look at devices as bricks with feature lists attached to them, but consumers don't.
That's one unusual conclusion. One could argue that the main difference is that the tech crowd knows what they're buying better than average misinformed consumers.
We have a saying where I live. Billions of flies eat shit every day, but that doesn't mean so should we. Apple certainly doesn't sell shit, their products are great for sure. But there are also a lot of valid criticism to be made. And breaking record sales doesn't mean, in any way, the criticism is any less valid. You're confusing two very different things.
I understand here at HN people can get very personally offended if I even hint that Apple's sales success might not be exclusively a result of technical engineering or design innovation. But doing so would be unfair to Apple's sales and marketing team. Who are genius at what they do, and deserve a lot of recognition for their important role in driving sales.
> That's one unusual conclusion. One could argue that the main difference is that the tech crowd knows what they're buying better than average misinformed consumers.
Or people just don't care about the "other stuff." Most people just want something that makes calls, sends text messages, surfs the web/facebook/twitter, and plays games. I see the latest Samsung commercial about the S3 and I really don't care that I can bump to share playlists (1. because I barely listen to music on my phone and 2. who actually makes playlists anymore?) or the list of 20 other features that I'll never use. I don't even care about 4G/LTS because 3G is fast enough and I'm not going to pay more for less data from the carriers.
I disagree that it's an unusual conclusion... it's been my general experience, which is why I brought it up. Tech-savvy people tend to undervalue user interface and holistic design quality and overvalue individual features and overall feature count, in particular features that they're specifically looking for often without fully realizing how that feature fits into the larger picture.
In other words, nerds tend to have tunnel-vision. This isn't surprising, they're usually specialists. I'm just sayin, it doesn't lead to accurate predictions of the larger market.
Furthermore, this fact is valuable in determining your own (perhaps nerdy, myopic, or short-sighted) biases in your own market or business strategy.
I agree that the criticism of the iPhone 5 was overblown, but I don't think these figures are a tremendous validation of the iPhone 5, either. The simple fact is that the vast majority of people are on two year cellphone plans, and it's been two years since the iPhone 4 came out. They took the upgrade in front of them.
The iPhone 5 was good enough that people didn't want to switch to Android, but that isn't the strongest compliment out there. IMO, Apple is simply benefitting from no-one else doing anything very interesting. I'd like to think that the Windows Phone devices from Nokia and HTC will change that, but at this point it may be too late.
Another user posted an article[1] where an analyst suggested 10 million, with a "worst-case scenario" of 6 million. Obviously, no-one has any idea what Apple's target/expectations were.
In any case, I didn't say that 5 million devices wasn't impressive. It is. But it isn't necessarily evidence that the iPhone 5 is earth-shatteringly great, it's just good enough for people to upgrade.
> A calculated decision to "stay on iOS" or "switch to android" is about the 6219th most important thing in most people's lives
So true. I'm a tech person, and even I get overwhelmed. I look to see what the "correct" new Android phone to get is, start looking at my daily-use apps to see if they're there and usually give up after a couple of hours of research. I'm sure one of these times it'll be there, but frankly it's easier just to support the retirement plans of all my friends and former coworkers now at Apple (so far as I can tell, none of my friends or former coworkers at Google directly make money if I buy an Android phone).
Just remember that not anyone buying is in USA and people in EU don't usually buy phones subsidized on a 2 years plan (that amounts to ~30% of sales, probably). I think, also, that iPhone 4 sold less than 5 million pieces in the first week. (disclaimer: I don't really understand of "upgrade eligibility" works for US carriers so I could be mistaken here).
Actually, people in the UK usually buy on 12-18-24 month contracts too, though I don't. The total saving that you get is relatively minimal (£40 across 2 years?), but you get shackled to the one provider. So I just buy the phone separately.
However, you're right that, e.g., in Switzerland, people don't tend to buy phones with contracts.
Isn't more a case of Apple is simply benefiting from no-one doing anything very interesting. There is nothing really interesting about the iPhone 5. It continues the grand tradition of being a little better than its predecessor, but not much else. It certainly isn't going to cause waves in the Android community, just as nothing going on in the Android community is going to hurt it.
There is nothing really interesting about the iPhone 5.
Compared to the feature churn over in the Android space, I'm not sure the iPhone has ever done any one thing that's particularly interesting. Never done a 3D screen, years behind the rest of the world to get 4G, hasn't done that stylus thing, behind the game on voice recognition, etc. Compared to Android, it would be fair to say that, considered all by themselves, iPhones are downright boring.
And I think that's maybe a big part of their success. (disclaimer: wild speculation ahead) For most people, the consumer electronics space is this big confusing morass of acronyms that nobody understands and subtle distinctions of feature set and whiz-bang gimmickery and just general confusion. It's a horrorshow combination of making people feel confused and inferior ('cuz they don't really understand all those acronyms) and the paradox of choice. And then someone in a blue shirt (polo, not tee) walks up, and it manages to go downhill from there.
Compared to that, Apple's a relief. You want a phone? OK. The new one, last year's model, or maybe the one from two years ago? Now you want a computer? OK. Laptop or desktop, and big or small? After that it's just a couple minor customization options, and you're done with choices. The whole experience is downright pedestiran - the products are pedestrian, the store is pedestrian. And that's perfect, because y'know what? For most people, a phone doesn't need to be interesting. It's an appliance. People may want their appliances to be pretty, but they also want them to be boring.
Well, the Nokia 920 is a genuinely better alternative: better screen, better camera, better OS. And, the HTC 8x is close. But, the awareness is not there.
Not trying to be a troll, but untill I can install OmniFocus, Instapaper, ReaddleDocs, Numbers and a few other key apps (that I use and depend on), I can't switch to any other platform. Even if they're 5 times better than iPhone.
Other people's mileage varies of course. Just wanted to remind you that app ecosystem is maybe more important than camera, wireless charging or bigger screen (or even Android "intents").
I think iTunes was probably the bigger motivator for customers purchasing iPods. Before iTunes, there weren't a lot of places to legally purchase digital music, and ripping CDs was kind of cumbersome.
I don't think you remember that time period very well. The iTunes store wasn't launched until over a year AFTER the iPod!
The original iPod, chunky by today's standards was by far the smallest and easiest to use mp3 player that could carry more than a few hundred MB of data. At the time there wasn't any Windows support but I think 3rd party software became available if you had Firewire on your PC.
From Wikipedia: iPod
"The iPod line was announced by Apple on October 23, 2001, and released on November 10, 2001."
From Wikipedia: iTunes Store
"It opened on April 28, 2003, as the iTunes Music Store"
AFAICT, people weren't talking about the success of the iPod until 2004, and a bunch of people showing sales figures and historical analysis concur with that: the iPod was even described as "a flop" until the calendar year following the release of the iTunes Music Store. Of course, that also might not be causative: it was only in 2003 that they caved on supporting USB, and in 2004 they came out with the mini.
They didn't sell many iPods before iTunes came out. I think it's true that what drove the large numbers of iPod sales was probably iTunes, and the ability to legally download mp3s.
As someone else mentions Windows support was a big factor.
Pricing also was an issue, they were very expensive.
Another factor is that the market was smaller, Apple dominated the market very quickly (at least if you count the market as large capacity devices until they had the shuffle).
They also didn't sell many iPods before they added full support for Windows and for USB. I suspect that was a bigger driver of initial iPod sales than the iTunes music store.
The iTunes Music Store was probably a big reason why people upgraded to new iPods, though.
But getting greater CPU power than, and equivalent GPU power to the iPad 3, into a tiny, smaller, lighter phone, is a pretty impressive feature. Because the CPU power isn't spread over 4 cores, it's easier to utilise than Tegra 3 phones. And... 2x in a year even beats Moore's Law.
The very first paragraph of your linked article reads: "Pre-order response to the iPhone 5 has been massive, outstripping expectations of analysts, who were bullish on Apple's latest smartphone to begin with, and apparently of Apple itself."
Ok. I think what has happened is a) Analysts had lower numbers. b) Analysts blown away by initial numbers which leads to this opening paragraph, c) Analysts raise numbers substantially to 6 - 10 million range as a result and per your highlight d) You assume these last minute updated numbers are expectations that have been set for a while and thus only inline with expectations.
Professional Analysts haven't been able to reliably predict iphone or ipad sales for the past 5 years. Even Gartner looks like they are just throwing darts, so why should we give credence to their predictions?
Doesn't matter, you still can't tell the true demand until there is general availability whatever the cause is.
I don't think that they artificially limit supply initially but they almost certainly do launch before they have enough to fully meet demand. If you thought there was demand for 10,000,000 phones would you really wait until you could stockpile $5Billion worth of inventory before you pressed the launch button?
And it isn't worth having enough manufacturing capacity to fully support the initial rush when you know it will be underutilised for the rest of the year. I would target sufficient capacity to support expected demand to be satisfied through peak season (probably Christmas-Chinese New Year) based on production start date. It would be good to be able to expand between now and Christmas if demand is higher than anticipated. I would not produce enough for the initial launch for practical reasons but the free marketing would definitely be a bonus.
> I don't think that they artificially limit supply initially
I'm pretty sure they do. It would have been deeply embarrasing for Apple if they couldn't claim that "demand outstripped supply" - and it would hurt them on their next launch, because people would be less inclined to pre-order.
2) Resist taking too much from future supply by limiting use of air shipment. Also saves shipping costs. [I'm more used to TVs, phones may be mostly air shipped normally]
3) Have warehouses of stock backed up ready to release.
(2) can be similar to having floating warehouses while items are sea shipped.
I guess that Apple are doing (1) and possibly (2) but I would be surprised if they are doing (3) apart from some supplies so that if some locations don't sell out they can prioritise others rather than to have fully committed everything at the start. If they are doing (3) on a large scale there will probably be evidence of the excess inventory in their quarterly figures.
If you think they are doing (3) in a big way can you suggest why that would work or what the benefit of the approach would be?
I think there is definitely an element of (3) in their strategy.
From the link - "While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date"
I think they estimated how many they can sell, gave shops 80% (or some other fraction) of that, and made sure they had millions more ready to provide to these shops over time.
The ideal situation for a manufacturer is to "sell out" in the first few days, but not sell out for so long that people go to rival products.
Apple are exceptionally good at supply chains and hype management, so I have no doubt that they made are controlling supply to make this launch look as successful as possible.
The best way to manage this is having a bit of a stockpile.
The easiest way to manage it is to have a stockpile. The best way is to have a pipeline of shipments coming off boats each day and going through distribution centres as quickly as possible.
Unless you are sure that you are going to sell out everywhere keeping some back makes sense so that you can send them where you need them most. Doesn't make sense to have them sitting in the regions where they aren't needed when other places need them. I picture less than 20% but would see it as distribution strategy rather than a shortage strategy.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/07/24Apple-Reports-Thir... gives 26M iPhones sold in the last _quarter_. Even assuming all of those were top of the line, 5M sold would be 2.5 weeks of 'regular' sales. I guess 'top of the line' is less than 50% of normal sales. If that is true, at least a month's worth of customers wanted this product so much that they went to a store in the first weekend. Also, to get to 10M, they would have to sell almost a quarter's worth of top of the line iPhones in one weekend.
So, 5M looks like a good start to me. Of course, one cannot declare succes on basis of one weekend of sales. For all we know, 4.999M of those phones will be returned to the store and none will be sold afterwards.
20% more than the iPhone 4S managed. (iPhone 3GS: 1,000,000 orders, iPhone 4: 1.7 million, 4S: 4,000,000 sales (all first 3 days after release)) After filtering out the inevitable Apple PR hyperbole, I can't work out whether this is good (largest iPhone numbers ever in 3 days after release!) or bad (terrible fall off in growth rate of 3-day iPhone sales after release!). Take your pick :)
That's not a fair comparison. Its only fair if pre-orders are uniform across countries. Adding a bunch of smaller countries with low volume would drag the number way down.
A much more meaningful comparison would be pre-orders in a single major market, e.g. the US.
Talking to some friends who work in phone shops here in the UK it's pretty apparent the stock just isn't available. There haven't been enough phones to cover pre-orders let alone the constant stream of people coming in every day asking if they have any iPhone 5s available.
I don't think there's any objective way to define "most advanced" -- it just means "best." Their marketers claim the new OS they made is the best OS. If there is some aspect of the OS that is considered the best by someone, they're not wrong. If there is some aspect of some other OS that is considered the best by someone, they're not right. From your BBB link, see "puffery."
As other examples: they say the demand for the new phone is "incredible," they've been working "hard," the phone is "completely" redesigned and "blazing" fast, Macs are "the best" personal computers in the world, and that Apple "leads" the digital music "revolution".
If you feel the need to define quantifiable standards for some or all of those words, please do so -- it's the same motivation that drives people to get philosophy PhDs. But understand that you will be neither right nor wrong because those terms are subjective (and, word to the wise, if you get a philosophy PhD your options for professional employment will be limited).
It's advertising on their site. Of course it doesn't need to be "qualified" just because some evangelistic wished every site talked up their favorite products instead.
Perfect scrolling, your applications can't spy on you, iTunes integration, and you don't constantly need to play whack-an-app to preserve battery life.
1. Perfect scrolling? Not in my experience with the iPad 3 (woops, "The new iPad").
2. Have you seen the list of requested permissions when you install an Android app? Not that there haven't been privacy issues with iOS.
3. No iTunes integration sounds like an advantage to me.
4. I get the feeling most Apple fanbois have never actually used an Android device, because I have never had to close apps to save battery life. No one has encouraged the use of task managers on Android in years.
And I don't see how an OS where you can't choose your browser or get built-in reliable maps or public transit info can be called "advanced"
Oh come on, iOS and Android are both "advanced" operating systems. You may be able to argue which is "most advanced," but they are both certainly advanced.
I've used my friends cyanogen and non s3's, honestly Androids not bad. The problem for me is the phones themselves. I have "girl hands" (size 7.5), I can't do bigger phones and use them with one hand.
As for public transit info any developer can register their app to provide that data. And to be honest I think its not that bad of an idea to let transit providers update transit information rather than having Google try. (where I am they don't even try that)
As for picking the browser, you're moving goal posts if you don't consider iOS "advanced" for lacking it.
> I can't do bigger phones and use them with one hand.
I can't personally relate to this issue, but yes, there is a lack of (flagship) Android phones with smaller screen sizes. Like many other guys, I actually need the larger screen size or I can't accurately hit the keys on the virtual keyboard.
However, one interesting thing I've observed is that this trend is reversed in Asia - the women (who are much more petite, including their hands, than Western women) adore the Galaxy Note, which even I find to be way too big. I've seen girls who can barely hold their Note with both hands.
> And to be honest I think its not that bad of an idea to let transit providers update transit information rather than having Google try.
This sounds like a double standard to me. People always praise Apple for its tightly integrated software, but the one time it decides to leave something core to the OS to 3rd party developers, it's a good idea?
I think you should try extensively using Google Maps on Android before making this judgment. The value in being able to see the door-to-door journey directions, along with the total time, distance, and cost of travel, is nothing short of amazing. When living in a city that essentially runs on public transit, like, NYC or Tokyo, I can tell you from personal experience that access to Google Maps is truly transformational. Jumping between apps to get public transit info simply does not compare.
> As for picking the browser, you're moving goal posts if you don't consider iOS "advanced" for lacking it.
Please elaborate, because I don't get your point. If it's that this contrasts with my stance on maps, it's not that I want browser choice instead of a good browser - I want both (just as with maps).
On hand size, I only bring it up because I see far too many guys that seem to be blind to the fact that a significant portion of the population has physical characteristics that differ from their own. My hands are actually bigger than most womens as well and they're still small relatively. I can't speak to the asian market but the note is a mini tablet almost. If it weren't for me being used to one hand texting I probably wouldn't care as much about the sizes. But it is a rather big factor for myself personally.
I have used the google maps app on android actually, I'm hoping for google to release it onto the apple app store (assuming it isn't rejected that is, and until we have information on that i'm not going to discuss this aspect further as its somewhat pointless).
The android 4.0 google maps is quite nice actually and it would be nice to have both apple maps and google maps. I'm not arguing that apple's take is the best way with their transit directions. Just that both have different pros/cons and currently one con with googles transit methodology is they are the gatekeeper to the updates. I'm not reading any further into that con itself and noting that a local transit authority could release their own app that updates time information on iOS 6 and fix this for their users. That to me seems a bit of a better way to go about it. Yes I'm aware of googles efforts to standardize transit data as well, in this case the fault is the data providers not feeding their schedule information to google. But hopefully with the approach apple took both sides can be fixed.
Lets be honest, this is the first version of apple maps, as such it is somewhat inevitable it won't be complete. That said, developers have been pointing out the same failings since beta1 was released. I think the hullabaloo over its failings are somewhat premature. Yes it should be better, but at this point its spilled milk.
> Please elaborate, because I don't get your point. If it's that this contrasts with my stance on maps, it's not that I want browser choice instead of a good browser - I want both (just as with maps).
My point was more that making the designation for "advanced" to include features that your favorite OS includes but not another, you're being somewhat disingenuous. This is regardless of what you want, but its hard to argue that one missing feature that not everyone uses downgrades the entire OS to not advanced. Now arguing about "most advanced" is fine as I would agree it probably isn't, but this is after all marketing blurb as promotional material. I doubt even apple would be arguing that this is any sort of absolute statement that could be empirically proven. Maybe the marketing department would but I tend to ignore such statements as hyperbole.
Millions of people have a significant investment in iTunes media. They don't understand DRM-vs-not. They don't understand sideloading or frontloading or rearloading. They just want to plug-n-go.
Pick some well off high school nearby and ask kids how often they buy something on iTunes. You'll cry when a large portion of them say multiple times per week. You'll go catatonic when they mention regularly spending over $100 per month.
We are not the target demo for these devices--normal people are.
It's PR. If it isn't blatantly superlative then it isn't worth pushing. Ever notice how every episode of every tv show is "The best episode yet" or "The most exciting season finale ever" or "The most suspenseful reveal you've ever seen?"
The past is the past, you are now, and you are the best most amazing super duper thing ever conceived by person kind for the benefit of the universe and our personal profit. dattebayo.
Petty. There has been a lot of hyperbole from both sides, but to demand a citation for the success of the iTunes platform is wilfully ingnoring the obvious.
I wonder how long this will last though. I agree the average user here is not the target market and people just want something that works, but surely services like Spotify are making inroads here.
Android O&M is a disaster is not changing anytime soon. Quibble on features out of the box if you like, but in end-to-end support the iPhone is still the hands down winner.
I love my iPhone 5, and think it's the most solid piece of electronics I've ever owned. Almost hate to put the thing in a case. As good as it is, there's a point everyone is overlooking when talking about the 5... the earpods. I've tried over 20 sets of earbuds to fit my weird ears, and all of them cause pain after half an hour or more of wear. I've been able to listen 4 hours straight on these earpods with no ill effects, and they sound amazing. For me, this was a definite value-add, and if the phone wasn't already enough to justify it, the included earpods sell it for sure.
I think putting an iPhone in a case is like leaving a plastic cover on a $3,000 couch. They are made to feel nice when your skin meets their design. Life happens. Enjoy things that won't harm you without the rubberized prophylaxis.
Get AppleCare+ then, it's $99 for 2 years of replacement coverage (3x). If you can't afford life to happen to it, either don't get the phone, or get a coverage plan and hedge your bets.
I don't put my 4S in a case, but I did get AppleCare+ (haven't had to use it).
I have never put any iPhone in a case, even the iPhone 4 (my current phone). Seems to defeat the purpose. Although being a klutz, I am astonished that I have not even scratched it in 2 years.
Compromise: use some kind of pouch/sleeve. Then, while you're using it, the iPhone is as God/Jobs intended... and while it's in your pocket or on a table, it's safely wrapped in a layer of material that can take the damage.
Agreed, and it pains me. But, I have a toddler, and while he's good with devices, he sometimes does drop them. So, a case is a necessary thing for now.
I think my ear must just be a bit small but the earpods hurt my ears after awhile. I really like the microphone + ability to answer calls from the buttons on the cord though.
You mean analyst (singular). Only Gene Munster made that prediction. Gene also thought Facebook would be the hottest stock... that's how accurate analysts typically are.
IMO, far more interesting than the 5 million figure (because of supply constraint, potential that that number excludes in-transit devices, etc) is the 100 million iOS 6 upgrades that have been done. That's a huge portion of the devices that are capable of running it; and it's in the midst of Mapsgate, the biggest reason people are mentioning for not upgrading in major-iOS-upgrade history.
It's very difficult to take much from these numbers - you can't strip out factors such as an increase or decrease in the number of people going for pre-orders (potentially a big factor given how much Apple push the whole announcement/pre-order thing)
I think first month sales are going to be a much better indicator of initial demand, and it's going to take about 3 months before we get a clear picture.
In my opinion, it seems quite ridiculous to gloss over such a major failing, with so much optimistic hyperbole.
Why isn't there a press release apologising to the people who've updated 'more than 100 million devices' to iOS 6?
EDIT: It is a major failing.. To understand why, I suggest you search Google, and see just how vocal that '1%' (!) is. Remember, a lot of people don't live in the USA - and many of those who do are still experiencing problems.
If it were truly a major failing, you'd see a press release. I haven't seen a single problem with it over the southeastern US. I'd expect the only people who know it's broken are those who have an issue nearby their house, or geeks who read articles about people who do. The 99%? Oblivious and happy.
And color me and others equally amazed at the lengths some people will go to hate a company. Apple makes products. If you don't like them, don't buy them.
Ah, but they don't just make products. They also specialise in litigation ;)
I'm sorry for the negativity - but the way Apple is behaving at the moment makes me angry. It was different when Apple was the underdog; I could understand why they were worth supporting. The company, as it currently stands, has completely lost my sympathy.
Why does Apple make you mad? Most companies do this. Remember when Oracle bought Sun and said "don't worry, Sun's IP is safe with us" and then started suing people for using it? Ellison was on camera saying "I don't know if Java is free". Well you knew when you bought it!
MS has some incredibly slimy stuff. And there are companies that don't even make anything, they just sue. I can't imagine a reason to single out Apple for their behavior unless you just came out of stasis within the last few years.
And honestly, if I were them I'd be pretty pissed at Samsung as well. Obviously when the iPhone came out it was going to "inspire" other companies to make something similar but they even did their ad photos in a way to make it look like the iPhone. It was blatant. This is what these laws are for and you can bet anyone and everyone would sue Apple if the roles were reversed.
Hell, Google doesn't have clean hands in any of this either, their behavior has been arguably worse.
I believe Apple is becoming too prescriptive; both in terms of its iOS ecosystem (e.g. policing and moderation of the AppStore) and in terms of the way it interacts with its customers (e.g. the connectors available to users).
While many people will say "it's their product, they can do what they like", I find this argument disingenuous, especially when the company in question begins to aggressively attack market growth in the court room.
I believe Apple's aggressively litigious actions are at odds with competition and innovation. I don't agree that they have every right to go after Samsung - and I find the idea that simple interface features can be patented absurd.
This kind of litigious behaviour highlights much of what's wrong in current society IMO.
I believe that the philosophy behind Apple's recent actions, potentially prevents innovation and if left unhindered will lead to a world that's arguably less free.
I agree many companies may behave in a similar way, I don't think this excuses the behaviour - especially when Apple's marketing message is based upon the idea of 'thinking different'.
Why should they, or anyone else, sit back and watch a competitor get rich off of their work? That's the crux of the matter, isn't it? The validity of some of the patents is undoubtedly questionable, but then Samsung are suing based on FRAND patents that have already been paid for. That's far worse IMO, yet this is constantly glossed over. Samsung are no mor innocent than Apple are guilty. Hate on a corporation all you want, but vilifying consumers for their choice of phone? That's crossing a line. It's inverted snobbery. It like how Apple fans used to behave...
I don't believe I have done; however, the fact you feel I have is significant. Many Apple customers feel affronted by criticism of Apple, which is testament to the strength of their marketing.
--
I agree that the validity of some of the patents is questionable. However I do not feel the issue simply involves Apple fearing that competitors will get rich from their hard work. I believe the situation is more complex.
Apple lost the fight against Microsoft in the 1980s / 90s largely because MS produced a product (MS Windows) that was sold as a compliment to commodity hardware (the IBM compatible PC). Apple wasn't able to gain as much exponential growth in market-share as the IBM-compatible/MS combo.
Cut to today - Apple risks losing the fight against Google, largely because Google have produced a product (Android) that's sold (in kind) as a compliment to commodity hardware (made by a host of hardware manufacturers).
Often when one sees criticism of $COMPANY, it usually follows with derogatory comment and vilification of $COMPANY's users. I made an assumption and it made an ass of me and for that I apologies.
Apple already made a statement about maps. This is a press release about sales. There is no reason for them to bring up maps again in this press release since they are not discussing any other software features (other than the availability of iOS6 of course).
Who would have thought?
Seriously though, I remember naysayers about the iPod back when it was first released, bemoaning the interface, design, and pointing out dozens of other mp3 players with longer feature lists at better prices. Yet the iPod still won out because it offered a consistent and predictable user experience, from the purchase to the day-to-day use—looking at the quality of experience holistically and end-to-end, including fashion, features, and fun.
You could pick up any iPod and know how to use it, and that trend continued throughout new releases and new iPods for years on end, with the only major interface change being the shift to touch, which was (arguably) even easier to use.
The tech crowd tends to look at devices as bricks with feature lists attached to them, but consumers don't. And consumers are the ones who buy things and use them, not just us. The iPhone 5 is exactly what people want with just enough "new" to make them want it. It will be moderately successful for a refresh, and most importantly, people will continue to enjoy using their phones and will continue to want to upgrade in the future. Apple nailed it.