Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Cupertino, CA - Apple released the new iPhones here this week at an intimate media event in their Apple Campus auditorium.
Apple CEO Tim Cook set things up by announcing that there were now over 700 million iOS devices in the market today and then passed the stage to senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi, who ran through iOS 7.
iOS 7 is expected to be available for free to users on September 18 and will work for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation). Some features may not be available on all products.
Apple's senior VP of Engineering Craig Federighi introduces the latest updates on iOS7Now iWork for Free
Apple also announced that the iWork suite of apps will be free to all newly purchased iOS devices. This offers a substantial $40 savings for users of Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iPhoto, and iMovie mobile apps.
What is interesting about this is that Apple has secured iWork's stature as the key mobile productivity suite. During the keynote last Tuesday, Tim Cook said iWork apps are collectively the best-selling mobile productivity apps on any platform.
Microsoft Office Mobile killer: All new iOS devices get iWork apps for free plus iPhoto and iMovie
While Microsoft started offering 'free' Android and iOS versions of Microsoft Office for smartphones, users are required to be subscribers to their Office 365 service to use the applications. Office 365 subscriptions cost $100 per year.
Office on the Surface RT is the only version of that popular software suite on any tablet, and some would say that Office is really the biggest feature of Surface RT and while an iOS version of Microsoft Office has long been hinted (and could generate some serious profit for Microsoft), nothing has materialized.
With iWork given out for free, it will be a hard sell for users to consider any future version of Microsoft Office as a paid substitute if and when Microsoft decides to put out an iOS version. The big winners here are future iOS users who now get a completely serviceable toolset for content creation that's backwards compatible with Microsoft Office.
For the first time ever, Apple has seen it fit to release two new iPhone models
For 2013, Apple announced not one but two new iPhones. In the past, Apple's strategy was to introduce one new iPhone and then have last year's model enter the mid-tier pricing and the two-year old model became the free-phone attached to contracts.
iPhone 5c
The iPhone 5c has all the features of the iPhone 5 in a more colourful series of cases
The iPhone 5c, obviates the iPhone 5. Which, historically, would have been the mid-tier device. Apple has instead taken the best aspects of the iPhone 5 and created a whole new sub-category of iPhone which is encased in glossy polycarbonate but reinforced in a steel frame. The result is the iPhone 5 which looks like the love-child between an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 3GS but with a splash of colour.
Colours have always been employed by Apple in product revisions
Anyone who has covered Apple long enough will be familiar with the company's use of colours to expand the flavour of their popular products. Colours were a big feature for the original iMacs, they were a constant attraction for iPod shuffles, nanos and touches and now they're used in the iPhone line.
The return to colourful plastic must have felt nostalgic for Apple's senior VP of Design and icon Sir Jony Ive, who cut his teeth with the colourful translucent bulletproof plastics that shaped the gumdrop iMacs and iBooks a decade ago.
The iPhone 5s' photos do not do them justice. The bright colours are some of the more unusual shades of pink, blue, green, yellow and blue we've seen, and they're oddly attractive in a playful way.
The iPhone 5c looks like a blend of the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 5
They also feel a lot better than you think. Extremely solid and cohesive, with the type of balance and weight distribution that only an engineer with fanatical attention to detail can accomplish.
Despite the difference in paint finish and treatment, I was quickly reminded of Nokia's Lumia 920 and its reassuringly brick-like construction. The iPhone 5c feels very close to this level of solidity.
A steel frame and strong polycarbonate enclosure give the iPhone 5c solid overall feel
Rounded corners, a plush paint job that almost feels like it is lovingly lacquered and recognizable elements all work together to give the iPhone 5c a fun yet functional look and feel.
The glossy exterior is also surprising since it isn't as slick as you'd expect. Cases are still a good idea to protect an investment that costs as much as the iPhone 5c, and Apple's got those in abundance with varying colours. Third party case makers are sure to jump into the colour bandwagon as well.
For the iPhone 5c, Apple and its designers were going for "something familiar that feels new," and they've certainly hit that bang on. Aside from the fact that the demo units were rocking iOS 7, which will ship on all new iPhones, there's literally nothing in the experience that detracts from what you get on an iPhone 5 except the more premium feel and design of last year's flagship.
More choice is better for the familiar yet new iPhone 5c
Now, Apple has never made a cheap phone and the "c" in the iPhone 5c doesn't stand for cheaper. It is a mid-range phone and it is priced just as last year's iPhone 4S was priced when it was bumped down by the iPhone 5.
A lot of misguided analysts and guileless pundits equate a plastic iPhone with what they expected to be a cheaper price, and were disappointed at the iPhone 5c's $599 starting price (for the 16GB version).
News flash, almost all of the leading flagship BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phone devices are made of plastic and polycarbonate and cost the same or even more than the iPhone 5c.
Other manufacturers will often offer cheaper device options by offering inferior screens, removing LTE connectivity, cutting storage capacity and using cheaper materials and manufacturing processes to cut corners and lower price. The result is that consumers get what they pay for, a generally reduced and less than ideal user experience.
Apple will never make a cheaper device that cuts elements of performance and the user experience. That much is clear.
There will be many old and new users who will be attracted to the iPhone 5c and the new range of choice in colours, specially now that iOS 7 is what is preloaded. I'm interested to see which colours resonate most with buyers.
iPhone 5s
The iPhone 5s ushers in three new colours as well as a new 64 Bit A7 processor and Touch ID fingerprint sensor
The iPhone 5s is this year's new iPhone.
The iPhone 5s is the result of Apple's continuing journey towards smartphone perfection that started seven years ago with the original iPhone.
Physically, it is the iPhone 5 save for a few noticeable touches, like the True Tone flash and the Touch ID home button.
The iPhone 5s is offered three new colours. Gold, Silver and Space Grey. The gold version is the most eye-catching, and while it wont suit everyone's personal taste, I have a weird feeling that it will outsell the other two colours which closely resemble the white and black iPhone 5 models from last year.
Apple has bolstered the key features that have made the iPhone 5 extremely popular, without necessarily going overboard.
The 8 megapixel camera is now made with a larger image processor, featuring larger pixels. So while we're still at 8 megapixels, the sensor is 15 per cent larger, more information per pixel can be captured as well as lower light photgraphy which is now 33 per cent more sensitive. Some of the demo photos taken by the new camera were impressive.
While other manufacturers are adding more advanced controls and almost DSLR-like features in their cameraphones, Apple has gone completely automatic and has built what looks to be like the smartest cameraphone yet, at least in terms of auto-mode.
With the ability to capture 10 images per second in burst shot mode while analyzing each image in real time to find the best possible photo, is a revolutionary feature if it works as advertised.
I was impressed by the slow-motion video component which allows the recording of video at 120 frames per second at 720p and play back any section at quarter speed. Capturing and editing short videos on the iPhone 5s was instantaneous without any lag or loading time.
The new camera also uses sensors and the new M7 co-processor to help with auto-image stabilization. Apple also added a dual-LED True Tone flash that can take more natural-looking flash photography that colour corrects images on the fly. The iPhone 5s camera looks to be an outstanding update to what is already arguably the best all around camera on a smartphone in the market right now.
For me, the big story of the iPhone 5s is the new Apple designed A7 processor that introduces desktop-level 64Bit architecture to smartphones. This is certainly a bigger deal than most iterative processor upgrades since it literally leapfrogs the previous version's speed and performance. While not noticeable with current apps, the new architecture will open up a number of possibilities for more powerful and graphically intensive applications moving forwards.
Again, Apple's clear advantage over other manufacturers is the level of control it has over its hardware and software, and the harmony between these two ingredients has never been more cohesive than with the latest batch of iPhones.
While it can be argued that competing smartphones' quad-core processors and 2GB of RAM will blow away whatever power the A7 has, none of these competitors have software that's designed for the hardware at the kernel level.
When we get a chance to test the iPhone 5s, we will definitely see how much faster it is from the iPhone 5 and see how it compares to some of the leading phones today.
Touch ID was another of the key features launched with the iPhone 5c and integrates a fingerprint reader into the Home button. The iPhone isn't the first to have fingerprint security, Motorola's Atrix 4G had one and while something worth talking about when introduced, it was one of those easy to forget features.
Apple's gone a step further. The system is easy to set up and use and it also acts as a quck way to verify one's identity for making purchases in Apple's iTunes and App Stores. It will be interesting to see where this is going.
Conclusion
Instead of bowing to pressure and creating a low-cost iPhone. Apple's done what Apple's always done with key product lines. By bifurcating the iPhone into the flagship iPhone 5s and the more affordable (but definitely not cheap) iPhone 5c, it has mirrored the strategy that's worked for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks, iMac and Mac Pro desktops and even iPad and iPad mini tablets.
The end result is greater choice in terms of models, colours, capacities and either cheap phones acquired through two-year contracts or unlocked phones sold at full-price.
Stay tuned for our review of the iPhone 5s and 5c as well as a comprehensive overview of what's changed in iOS 7 which will come as soon as those products are available in the market.
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