Before I begin, this is not an Elton John tribute. I hate his toupé, and his stumpy arms…

This last week has seen my church give birth to the next iteration of the iPhone. Not being an ‘S’ model I had mine on pre-order within 20 minutes of going on sale, but, having chose to have it delivered to the UPS deemed “remote” town of Westhill, I had to wait until Monday before I got my hands on it. Raging…

I love it; as you would all expect. It’s tall, slim, dark, sexy (not to mention chipped at the top having already dropped it a mere 24 hours after getting it). It’s everything I’d want in a woman but have to suffice with in a phone instead, until such time as my career makes me attractive enough to them; some time in my early 30’s.

So, clearly I have some waiting to do.

As always, it’s sparked controversy among the many Apple haters out there. I was asked if it was genuinely worth it, or if I had only bought it out of being such an “acolyte.”

Firstly, and even I have to admit this: between this and the last iteration, not all that much has changed. I came from an iPhone 4, so the dual core chip is a more than welcome addition. The taller screen is good also, but I am somewhat irritated by the fact it has UK support for LTE…provided you’re on 3 or Everything Everywhere (read Orange or T-Mobile). As I said before however, in this LTE game, it’s pretty tough to make one phone work on all the radio bands being used globally. The antenna configurations alone would occupy more space than this size zero really allows for. Let’s also remember that this is technically a “world phone”; it’s capable of communicating on both GSM and CDMA networks, and it will also roam between them, so if you buy a Verizon iPhone 5 in The States, you can stick an AT&T SIM in it and change your provider. (According to an article I read on Engadget earlier this week.)

Samsung are yet to do this… In fact, buy an S III on Verizon in The States, and you’re stuck with them. No interchangeable SIM card either. Sucks to be you…

Apple came under fire this last week however, regarding their announcement that they were ousting Google as their iOS Maps provider in favour of their own creation. People upgrading their phones to iOS 6 have noticed that locations do not come up correctly when searching; for instance when searching for the Washington Monument, the pin drops some 200 yards away from where it’s actually created; Westminster Abbey shows up as Westminister; and football stadiums show up in the most random locations at opposing ends of the country from where they’re supposed to be.

I tried to get photographic evidence of this but it appears they are already hard at work rectifying things.

Naturally, due to the size of Apple, this is hilarious. Just as we did with Microsoft in the nineties, the hecklers have dived on this in an attempt to demonstrate to the public that Apple has grown to be too big for its boots; that this marks the end of their success; that one day Android will take over.

What people fail to realise is that, as with any significant undertaking, some of the cracks simply don’t show until it’s out there, operating under business as usual.

What people have also failed to recognise is that Apple are capable of admitting to their mistakes, apologising, and listening to their customers feedback. Just over two years ago, Steve Jobs called a second press conference shortly after the launch of the iPhone 4, following the discovery on launch day of the issue with the antenna when gripped in a certain manner. He presented a case, indicating the relevant testing which had been performed on the handset, in-house; he demonstrated the effect the same handling of several other, similar handsets on the market produced the same effect, and he also explained what the company was going to do about it.

Tim Cook got up on stage this week, and did exactly the same thing. He admitted that Apple had failed, in its bid to deliver a product which gave its customers what they wanted:

“We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”

No other company, particularly one as large or globally renowned as Apple, does this. I was told by a colleague once that the golden rule was never to apologise for mistakes; to gloss over them and carry on, because they’d eat you alive! It’s a sign of weakness, of acknowledgement of ones imperfections.

The full letter of apology can be found on Apple’s website, here  

I disagree with this. I think it takes a far bigger set of balls to apologise and admit failure, than it takes to side step it and act as though nothing happened. The same goes for the wronged party; it’s easy to bear a grudge and ignore the other persons efforts to rectify the issue.

Apple has apologised for many of the things which have inconvenienced their customers. For instance, last year when the iPhone 4S went on pre-order, the Apple Store crashed, and many were forced to abandon their attempts to grab one for launch day. The same happened when Apple launched the 27-inch iMac; supplier delays pushed waiting times for each unit up by several weeks.

Mistakes happen; we need to accept that. As clichéd as this sounds, it is what makes us human, after all. I apologise too often, and take responsibility for far too much, causing me far more stress than I should really endure in a day.

So, in answer to the question: Yes, it’s worth it. I needed a new phone, as my 16GB iPhone 4 was at full capacity. It does everything I want it to: impromptu night out photo’s; posting said impromptu photo’s to various social media locations; texting and email; music… I don’t need a phone where I can fanny about and screw up, I spend enough time during my day job fixing stuff; the last thing I need is for it to encroach on my personal life. Sure, the battery in this thing doesn’t last long enough to keep up with me (there were no other connotations meant by that statement), but at the end of the day, all I need it to do is keep me in contact with my best mate while she’s gallivanting abroad; doing her Masters, stumbling (lost) into Brussels on her way home from a night out. Granted, I use it for a lot more than that, but that is a basic requirement for any communications device I invest in. #fact

Lewis
x

Fire me a follow or a comment!