Stefan Mileschin

After the publicity settles from Apple's traditional Nuremberg style product launch even the pro-Apple press is finding little to get excited about by the iPhone 5.

According to Reuters, if Apple wanted to keep its grip on the smartphone market, it would have to come up with something pretty damn special, particularly after the iPhone 4S fiasco. And really, it hasn't.

Apple's last phone was essentially a fixed iPhone 4 with the edition of Siri voice search software and a better chip. While Apple fans still bought the 4S, sales of the gadget dried up a few months early. This cleared the way for Samsung's Galaxy S2 and S3 to clean up.

Apple needed something big to clean Samsung's clock and establish itself as the leader of all things Smartphonish. The problem is that the iPhone 5 is a big yawn.

Basically it is the same formula, only slightly thinner with a bigger screen. Nothing to see here, move on please. The camera is better and the chip is better.

To make matters worse, Apple has allowed the technology to break legacy apps and accessories that fanboys had invested in.

Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of wealth management company Destination Wealth Management, said that Apple had lost the plot and the new phone had no "wow factor". He said Apple had not done enough to satisfy anyone.

Apple shares ended the day up 1.4 percent at $669.79 which is unheard of after a product launch of this scale.

One of the problems is that Apple seems to be only pitching its products at the US. It is a policy that it started with the iPhone 4S where Siri only really worked in the States. In this case the iPhone 5's game changing feature is the use of a high-speed 4G LTE wireless network which is only starting to see the light of day in the UK with Everything Everywhere's expected launch. Samsung and Motorola already have larger and 4G-ready phones.

Much of the other innovations on the iPhone 5 are just playing catch up with Samsung.

Where does this leave Apple? It will take a while, but people will say that the iPhone 4S and perhaps the death of Steve Jobs will mark the decline of the company. At the moment it is not coming up with anything new or interesting that will stop the rot. A company which is built on hysteria starts to lose when the that hysteria dies down. Like it did with the tablet, Apple needs to find some technology which works but has not been successful, and repackage it and hype it to the nines. There does not appear to be anything that matches that yet.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/iphon...ples-swan-song