When Apple introduces new iPhones on Tuesday,
as everyone expects them to do, the company that practically created
the smartphone will face an unusual task: keeping up with the
competition.
There's still plenty to
be said for the iPhone's sleek, simple design, easy-to-navigate
operating system and tidy "closed garden" app environment.
But as phones running
Google's Android operating system, particularly Samsung's, have gained
in popularity, iPhone owners have increasingly found themselves looking
around and wondering, "Why can't my phone do that?"
Many Android phones have bigger screens than the iPhone. Some are water-resistant and can even snap photos underwater.
Android apps can update automatically. Users can control Motorola's new
Moto X phone with their voice, without touching it. And that's just the
beginning.
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Add to that the fact that
many in the tech world saw the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 as incremental
advances, not the seismic leaps forward we'd come to expect from Apple,
and you've got the more pressure on the company to ramp up the "wow!"
factor.
"The smartphone market is
more competitive overall, and in the high-end it has become a duopoly
between Samsung and Apple," said Carolina Milanesi, a
consumer-technology researcher with Gartner Research. "Many feel that
Apple needs to regain the distance they once had over their
competitors."
The iPhone has remained
the world's top selling smartphone, save for a few quarters when it was
dethroned by phones in Samsung's Galaxy S line. But after making up
nearly 24% of all smartphones sold in late 2011, Apple's device is now
down to about 14%, while Android phones account for a whopping 79%.
The iPhone and iPad "were
revolutionary when they first came out, but (rival)products that are
out there now are about as close to Apple's devices as they've ever
been," Scott Kessler, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, told us. "The question is whether Apple is going to introduce products that are different enough from their competitors."
So, what could we see come Tuesday?
The most high-profile feature that's been rumored for the new iPhone is a fingerprint scanner. Such a security feature would let users register a finger or thumb print and use it to unlock their phone.
There are reports the
phone could be able to access LTE Advanced, a network that would make it
faster than phones with 4G connections. That network is not yet
available in many areas of the U.S., however.
Apple reportedly also is looking at adding bigger display screens for the iPhone, but they would likely be for future models, not the phones coming this week.
As usual, Apple is
expected to upgrade the phone with a faster processor, better battery
life and an improved camera. But those are the sort of pragmatic
upgrades that, while arguably most important to user experience, don't
turn heads the way a novelty like Siri, the iPhone 4S's voice-activated
digital assistant, did in 2011.
Milanesi says Apple
needs something more than standard upgrades to get its mojo back. But
that shot of adrenalin might arrive in an unconventional way.
"Apple needs a new 'hero
product,' but I do not think it necessarily has to be a phone," she
said. "With technology innovation slowing down, maybe they are better
off turning iPhone into a market-share grabber and showing innovation in
another product."
The most likely
candidate there could be the company's anticipated "iWatch." Apple is
all but certain to be joining the emerging smartwatch market that
Samsung entered last week with its Galaxy Gear device.
If Apple blows away the
competition with a watch that transcends the existing options (as well
as those expected from Google and Microsoft), it could bring back some
of the excitement that once met the unveiling of groundbreaking products
like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Opinions are split as to
whether Apple will introduce a watch Tuesday. Apple typically doesn't
launch other major products at iPhone events. But an iWatch rollout
later this year or in early 2014 would miss at least some of the coveted
holiday-shopping season while giving Samsung and other smartwatch
makers a big head start in the marketplace.
Then there's the long
anticipated, but yet unseen, Apple TV set (as opposed to the Apple TV
streaming device that already exists). Moving onto customer wrists, and
into living rooms, might deflate pressure to sex up the iPhone.
Still, it's hard to
imagine a tech world in which the iPhone isn't seen as an elite device.
That's why, when CEO Tim Cook takes the stage Tuesday in Cupertino, all
eyes will be on him.
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