The features the new iPhones don’t have that they should

Apple’s fanfare and excitement creation machine was in overdrive this morning as CEO Tim Cook stood on stage to announce two new iPhones.  It’s important Apple stays relevant and has the best in class technology, because otherwise they like any other company could simply disappear with another taking dominance.  The iPhone 5c and 5s are great phones. But what did we not see, what should they have – that they don’t?

Don’t fall for the rumours (even I did) the iPhone 5c wasn’t ever meant to be the “cheap” iPhone.  It’s simply the replacement for the 5 which will no longer exist.  Any expectation on price was driven by the rumours, not the market.  With that said – what features did genuinely disappoint once you scratch below the surface?

WiFi

Apple knows about the latest WiFi technology – 802.11ac – It’s built into their most recent MacBook Air upgrades.  So why no “ac” in the iPhone 5s?  Again, it’s in the main competitor handsets  – so what gives?   Perhaps it would impact battery life? Perhaps they just couldn’t get it past their internal tests? We may never know.  It’s certainly something that’s missing.

4G Speed

“Up to 100mbps” speeds says Apple of the new iPhone 5s – great, but what about “up to 150mbps” speeds capable when you put a Cat-4 LTE chip into a phone.  Cat-3 devices (like the iPhone 5s) are fast, but they simply are not the fastest.  I’m assuming it’s a lack of large demand at a worldwide network level that means Cat-4 isn’t on the radar just yet.  Likely we’ll see it next year but isn’t that just a year too late?

NFC

Tap-and-go payments are happening by the millions around the world, with Visa and Mastercard embracing the system with NFC chips in cards, the idea of having that same payment technology in your phone seems simply logical.  Add to that the fingerprint security it just makes sense that NFC could be a winning feature – one which Apple, like no other could make truly mainstream.

Samsung and others have NFC but there is very little day-to-day usage of it, I think only Apple can bring the market share the payment companies need to revolutionise mobile payments with NFC.

Camera

Less of a disappointment, more of a retail marketing problem.  With an 8 Megapixel camera, at an apples for apples comparison level consumers will see a higher megapixel count on a large number of other smartphones.  Apple knows full well they have the lens and sensor technology to match the picture quality of almost every other phone, but at a black and white / on paper level, consumers might wonder why it’s so low.

So, will it matter?

It’s not the end of the world, but these are things which if you were to look closely at the specifications of these new phones you’ll find them lacking – contrast that with Apple’s constant desire to ensure things “just work”.  Perhaps the ease of use will be enough to offset these