Critics often berate Apple for retailing its smartphones, tablets and computers, at higher price brackets than some would estimate their worth to be, and although it's a topic of fierce debate, there's little denying that your average Cupertino product costs a considerable amount more than a similar alternative created by a rivaling company.
The iPhone 5, which you couldn't possibly have missed coverage of since it's been discussed and nauseam by geeks and non-techies alike, is actually Apple's sixth-generation smartphone, despite being handed the "5" moniker. In 2007, Apple introduced the original iPhone, then the iPhone 3G arrived, and a while later, Apple introduced the 3GS - a much faster, slicker experience than both of its predecessors. The iPhone 4 brought a radical new design and Retina display to a table now crowded by ravenous iFans, and the iPhone 4S cuts a more vivid picture, having been introduced only eleven months ago.
The smartphone market is among the largest and fastest growing markets in the world of consumer electronics. It is currently dominated by the iPhone and Android smartphones, with BlackBerry and Windows Phone at a distant 3rd and 4th position. Now that Apple has released the iPhone 5, arguably the biggest smartphone of the year with 5 million units sold in the opening weekend, it’s time to take a look at the smartphone market and, more importantly, involved consumers.
The modern high-end smartphone is the ultimate example of the convergence of technology: besides being, you know, a phone, these devices are our music players, video players, alarm clocks, organizers, dictionaries, calculators, internet communications devices, full HD video recorders and go-to cameras.
It appears to be something of a trend these days, but the release of Apple's new iPhone 5 has done nothing but lead every two-bit tech fan with a video recorder to take to YouTube in an attempt to prove, or disprove, that the thing can be scratched. And by scratched, we mean pretty much obliterated.
Those of you who have installed iOS 6 or purchased a device like the iPhone 5 will notice that it no longer has the YouTube application bundled as part of the OS. Google have released a fairly decent app onto the App Store, but at the moment it doesn't come with a native iPad version meaning that users needs to run it as an iPhone app on the iPad. It is also yet to be updated for the new iPhone 5.
Despite the shockingly-bad Maps app upsetting a vast number of iOS 6 users, the Cupertino company's latest and greatest mobile firmware has been downloaded and installed in record numbers. Fuelled by the frenzied consumer rush for the new iPhone 5, the new operating system has been adopted at a rate 122 percent faster than iOS 5, which released last October.
You remember the ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple over what does and does not constitute patent infringement? You know, the one that ended with Apple being awarded $1 billion in damages and Samsung left to lick its wounds? Bet you thought that was the end of that, didn't you?
It has, by and large, been a pretty good past week or two for Apple, and with stocks rising thanks to high sales forecasts of the iPhone 5, Tim Cook and his team have plenty to feel positive about. Having said that, iOS 6 hasn't released to such critical acclaim, and although it offers quite a few minor improvements in many key areas, one of the most anticipated changes - the new Maps app - looks to have been a marked fail.
It appears that the iPhone 5 has a slight issue with its display, as one of our readers reports that his freshly unboxed new toy has a noticeable yellow tint to it. Could this be another “-gate” issue much like Antennagate on iPhone 4? Or is it an issue that will fix itself with the passage of time? Check out all the details after the jump.
