Analysts Says that Apple's iPhone 5 Needs to be Gamechanger

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 Figure 1. iPhone 4 illustration

'Apple's iPhone 5'. - From CBCNEWS, Sep 12, 2012 reported that the new iPhone 5 is expected to have a faster processor, a bigger screen, a slimmer design, a speedy 4G internet connection and, if the rumors are right, maybe even the ability to pay for things by touching the phone to a special receiver — all features that could help make it a gamechanger for Apple.

The company is expected to launch its new smartphone — and possibly a mini version of its iPad tablet — in San Francisco later today.

Carmi Levy said "This thing needs to be revolutionary,Apple's been losing momentum over the last year because its previous iPhone, the 4S, wasn't perceived as groundbreaking enough."

Apple may get all the hype, but it doesn't lead the smartphone market in sales. That distinction belongs to its rival, Samsung, whose success Apple attributes to a blatant copying of its iPhone technology.

"We all think the iphone is the numbner one phone in the world," Levy says, "[but] actually Samsung is top dog," and currently 1 out of every 2 smartphones in the world run on Google's Android platform.

If the new iPhone does impress customers and analysts, it could help narrow that gap for Apple and give all smartphone makers a boost.

"It encourages people to buy smartphones, not necessarily Apple smartphones," Levy said."As a result, everybody does have a bit of benefit as well."

Also from Analysts at JP Morgan predict sales of the iPhone 5 could even give the whole U.S. economy a bump, adding up to half a point to the GDP.

Some dismiss that as just more hyperbole typical of the kind of hype that usually accompanies Apple product launches.

"The laws of physics and design sort of dictate that a phone can really only be a phone," Molly Wood, executive editor of the technology news site CNET, told NBC News.

"We're not going to get a magical flying spaceship … It is going to be a roughly square device, with a touch screen running an operating system that is relatively familiar to people."

Even if Apple's new product does bring the increase in sales many predict it will, the company still faces other problems.

It is locked in a series of bruising lawsuits with its competitors who claim patent infringement. Although it won its own suit against Samsung in the U.S. last month, some of the other cases have not gone in its favour.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is waging a patent battle against Apple related to the 4G technologies that are widely expected to be a key feature of the new iPhone.

If Apple loses that case, it could result in the new iPads and the iPhone 5 being banned in the United States.

Source: CBCNEWS Sep 12, 2012