The big question now is, will Apple become the next RIM? "Just good enough" doesn't cut it in this market.
Where do the lines start for the Nexus Prime?
A year from today Apple will be weeks away from reporting over $150 billion in revenue. RIM will be lucky to hold steady at $20 billion.
Any lines for the Prime will be short and short lived. It's expected to be announced Oct. 11th, right? Will it hit the shelves right away? The next iPhone is expected to hit the shelves sometime between Oct. 14-25. Do you seriously believe the lines for the Prime will come anywhere close to lines for the 5th gen iPhone?
Let's come back to this post in 3 weeks.
Or it could be less because not nearly as many people want a another iPhone 4 when the competition has left Apple in the dust. People need to also realize that whatever Apple puts out this month will have to compete until at least this time next year, and there are phones coming out that are going to be absolute beasts, and will make this "4S" look like a toy...
There are a number of Android "beasts" that have been available the past few months, yet average consumers continue to buy many millions of the old iPhone 4. You can argue that the SGS2 has left the iP4 in the dust, but it's clear that consumers don't agree with you. As far as actual build quality goes, hand someone who's never seen either phone a SGS2 and a iPhone 4 and ask them which feels like a toy.
Apple has other things to fall back on, my bringing up RIM had nothing to do with revenue, and everything to do with phones. Nobody wants a new Blackberry because they got complacent, stopped innovating, and let Apple take over. I hope Apple doesn't make that same mistake. And eventually, that will eat into profits.
I think we're mostly saying the same thing. RIM got complacent and severely underestimated the significance of the iPhone. (search "RIM CEO iPhone and read all the stupid things they said in 2007) But that didn't translate into them selling fewer phones. They continued to sell more and more BBs, but they just got cheaper. That's what slowed down their revenue ($ sales) growth.
That is not what is happening with Apple's iPhone. Every year Apple sells twice as many iPhones as the previous year. But the average price of the iPhone is holding steady at ~$600. That is nothing like what happened with RIM & Blackberries.
Nor will their be lines for the Next Ferrari supercar, yet I'll take that over a Toyota Corolla.
You're saying that the SGS2 and Nexus Prime are Ferraris while the next iPhone is a Corolla? I disagree. I think 99 of 100 people would disagree with your characterization.
Apple could sell 50 billion 4S's, what does that do for you or me? I don't own Apple stock, all I care about is a new and improved phone.
You're right. Consumers don't care what iPhone sales does for Apple or their shareholders. They care about the same thing you do: a great product. The point is that many millions of people will consider the new iPhone a huge improvement that is worth buying.
I keep repeating that Apple continues to sell old iPhone 4 & 3GS at the rate of 6-7 million each month. I'm not trying to point out how well Apple is doing as a business. I'm pointing out that consumers TODAY still consider the iPhone a great product that is worth buying in numbers that the top 10 Android phones can't even match cumulatively.
Clearly what you demand from the next iPhone is not what the average consumer demands. You've already labeled the A5, RAM & camera upgrades as "incremental". In your opinion iOS "
is still the same as it was in 2007". The only thing that might possibly make you happy is if the next iPhone comes with a larger screen, better antenna & new design.
I personally would be very happy to see all of those come true. But I and millions of others will also be happy to buy the next iPhone if it came packaged with the same screen, antenna and design. It will be the best iPhone yet. You and your friends will buy something else. There's nothing wrong with that.