[citation][nom]DonnieK[/nom]This is great. If Apple is indeed trying to make a more widely usable iPhone, with even slightly updated hardware, it pushes everyone in the industry to design and market better devices. The point about being 2 hardware generations behind (acadia11) is an interesting one, but I think iPhone sales reveal that consumers really don't care about the hardware specs if the overall experience is better. Are Apple consumers justified in their preferences for buying a better phone with inferior hardware? Hard to say, but the competitive effect on the other players in the industry is good for everyone.[/citation]
It's not that ehe experience is better, it's simply, they have a great marketing machine. Think about it, it doesn't have Java , doesn't have flash, both which are ubiquitous to the internet experience. It can't even do that part right. What it is , is a sleek, looking, well marketed device.
That's about it. What it does, it does well, but it does so little in comparison to competitors. Like I said, I still bought one. But, the minute windows 8 comes out, I'm dropping my ipad in favor of windows 8 tablet, and then if someone is smart enough to make a sezy phone, the iphone is next. Personally, as I stated all alone once windows get it's OS right, it's going to dominate apple , just like they did with the PC, because Apple is not open, and eventually it can't convince people to buy it's outdated and overpriced hardware. It just hasn't faced a competitor with as much muscle, the app store, will give way to Windows much more extensive library, and people will have the computing power of their pc in their hands.
Especially, in that hardware in the mobile space is getting to the point, where it can run full fledged apps. Hardware will become much more important, and this is when we will see the shift away from apples toy OS and shiny product.