Yawn, Another iPhone Announcement

The iPhone 5s.

It’s fall, which means its time for Apple to announce the new iPhone. Following their established pattern, this year is the year for the iPhone 5s.

About midsummer or so, advertisements from Apple have focused on how they perfect their devices. First time I saw the ad below I leaned over to my husband I said “This is Apple justifying their lack of innovation lately. And them preparing us for a not-feature-heavy iPhone 5s.” And I was right.

http://youtu.be/VpZmIiIXuZ0

I’m not sure why there’s still such a spectacle over these phones. There’s nothing groundbreaking anymore. They’re improved, but nothing that will amaze you. Here’s what we got today.

• The regular 5 has been replaced with the 5C. A plastic version of the phone running the A6 chip. Oh, and it comes in colors. Yay?
  

  The plastic iPhone 5c.

• A fingerprint scanner on the home button. I really hope I can still use a pin so I can have my friends use my phone for me easily when I’m driving.
• Faster processor. Expected. It’s always “the fastest processor we’ve ever made.”
• Burst mode on the camera. Nice I suppose. Phone is too slow for sports photos though, so not sure what this is for.
• Improved flash. Nice, always appreciate better flash.
• Slow-Mo video. I have no idea why I want this.
• Better battery. Just like I’ll always appreciate an improved flash, I’ll also  always appreciate more battery life.
• Apple Designed Cases. Not included with the phone, but I do find it interesting that Apple has stopped insisting the “iPhone doesn’t need a case” argument, and finally getting into the case market.

That’s it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be upgrading to the 5s, but the only thing I’m really looking forward to is the lightning cable. My iPad has the lightning cable, and it’s a bit cumbersome to have two separate cables. The rest of the features are just incremental improvements. There’s nothing wrong with that, it just means the product has matured. It seems to me that it’s time to get away from the big iPhone announcement, and just move to an iPhone press release.

The iPhone 5c will be available for pre-order on September 13th, and the iPhone 5s on September 20th.