The troubles of iPhone: will iPhone 5 be a boost or a bust?

When recently Apple shares abruptly fell because they had another great quarter with unparalleled returns, but slightly under expectations, I didn’t believe Wall Street - I believe my guts and I believe in good products, which make customers happy. And I am pretty sure that Apple with its current wonderful products, with the rumored Apple TV (Apple can turn the TV industry upside down if it launches a revolutionary integrated product), with an iCloud, AppStore and iTunes platform, seamlessly merging all Apple products, the company has a stable growth forecast. But it doesn’t mean it should be complacent.

For 18 years I am an Apple user, and in most part it coincided with Steve Jobs period that can be characterized in two words as revolutionary innovation. I’ve been and I am still very happy with my Apple computers and MacOS - these two things always stood apart from Microsoft dominated market as a sign of exclusivity, excellent design, quality, reliability and ease of use.

It all changed when Apple launched itself into mobile business, first with iPhone five years ago and then with iPad. Apple has entered a mass market, where a few companies like SonyEricsson, Nokia, Motorola have been dominating and dictating the rules of the game - Apple risked a lot, but hit the bull’s eye and proved that dominant doesn’t mean impeccable and unbeatable.

Before Apple introduced iPhone, I’ve been a fan of SonyEricsson mobile phones, as its phones were trend setters - more intelligent, more reliable, more fashionable. And one great feature of SonyEricsson’s phones was their long battery life. At the beginning many SonyEricsson users were buying every new phone on the market, as with each new phone it got better and better (remember P800-P900 series?). But then it became more and more obvious that these producers got stuck, and innovation reduced itself to changing the forms and colors of the handset, while inside it was basically all the same.

The iPhone was a revolution, because it was a totally new philosophy of mobile communication, it offered users not only a beautiful piece of equipment (compared to mass plastic handy) but much more options for daily use, set at your own choice and will on the hardware with much greater memory and processing power than competitors could offer. And that is why iPhone was and still is a success.

Those who assessed well the happening and followed the trend (like Samsung), are now on the top, while complacent incumbents like SonyEricsson and Nokia plunged into long term troubles.

However, I see two big problems for iPhone.

First, is repeating the mistake of its competitors five years ago, who, as I said, were just changing covers. Up to iPhone 4 Apple fans were happy and everybody wanted a new phone. iPhone 4S turned into a slight upgrade for iPhone 4, and many new owners, who rushed into this upgrade later regretted it as senseless - Siri was a major disappointment, whilst one won’t buy such an expensive phone for a better camera. In the end, iPhone 4s became a trap, a warning “stop and think” sign, and, as a result, set litmus test for the new iPhone 5. If the new iPhone 5 will yet again provide just a better camera and a bigger screen - I am sure many Apple users will think twice whether it makes sense to buy the new product. Or 64GB, 128 GB - who needs that on a phone?!

The second issue is even more worrisome: iPhone 4s has a utterly disappointing and annoying low battery life. Try Google smth like “fast battery drain in iPhone 4s”, and you will be astonished about the scale of this problem: Apple and other Mac forums, independent articles and researches, peoples comments on various social networks and so on - all are full with complaints about this issue, and suggested solutions. So, in order to solve the issue and improve your iPhone’s battery life, most of the recommendations are brought down to switching off Siri, switching off WiFi, switching off Push notifications, turning off 3G (!), turning off location and automatic time update services, deleting applications that apparently have bugs and drain the battery. Putting aside the imminent irritation and loss of time, the ultimate huge irony of the issue is can you name this costly Apple handset a smartphone after all that overhaul?!

The new battery with some outstanding unparalleled life in iPhone 5 could become that famous “one more thing” of Steve Jobs that will make the new machine a really wanted revolutionary handset that would continue the legendary rise of the company.

If not, then the new iPhone 5 with bigger screen and with anticipated more features coming with iOS6, but lasting for 24 hours (or even less!) after full battery charge, may become that resentment that would make potential users turn their heads to much better products from competitors - and Samsung Galaxy III made some real storm.

iPhone is considered a Mercedes, a Lincoln among mobile phones. Apple should not forget the “Toyotas and Nissans” of the industry, to whom in the 70-ies and 80-ies of last century no one paid attention until they slowly became leaders in global sales.