The latest iPhone launch shows that Apple has lost its mojo

Today is the day that Apple launch two new phones, yet would you know it? In previous years, the launch of the new iPhone was a huge event, it garnered conversation for weeks. However, this time something is different. There's no public fanfare. There's no mystery. No, the once 'masters of the launch' have seemingly lost their mojo.

Why is this? Surely it can't have all been Steve Jobs? Well, his bullish attitude, and absolute refusal to accept lower than perfect certainly are being missed, but that's not necessarily what's changed.

     Before the iPhone 5 was launched, Apple still could vociferously argue that the iPhone was the best phone out there - or was at least going to be. True, it had taken a big knock from the Galaxy SIII, but the fanboys were still in good voice, and the hope of a revolutionary iPhone 5 kept this spirit alive. What happened? Well, it was a huge disappointment. Speed upgrades, and very minor cosmetic differences just didn't cut it - not for the 'innovative' Apple. Since then, we've had a year of stewing dissatisfaction with the iPhone, and Android have gripped hold of the market with flagship models like the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One and the Sony XPERIA - the worst thing for Apple is that most consumers aren't looking back.

So what about now? We have the next iPhone! Wow wow wow! Not quite. Many details have been leaked, and they disappointing once again. Guess what - the 5S will be a touch quicker, ever so slightly thinner and have some colour (maybe even gold..). I know, mindblowing, right...? 

(Leaked iPhone 5S box - shows new home button)

The biggest rumoured innovation is the fingerprint scanner. (Reminder - Apple used to poke fun at Samsung for novelty extras). Lets not forget the iPhone 5C, the 'iPhone Cheap', which is simply a desperate attempt to retain market share. This will no-doubt sell well, but will it fend off the critics? Highly unlikely. Not only that, Apple's 'premium' feel, almost exclusive aura, is about to be shattered, and that's perhaps Apple's biggest USP. It's a dangerous route to take.

It's quite staggering how little they've learnt. Consumers want Apple to succeed; they like the iPhone. Apple, however, are strangling themselves. They're not allowing consumers to fall back in love with the iPhone because they're too stubborn to change, or perhaps have just run out of ideas. A radical design change (as I said this time last year) would at least show some willingness to try and fight for the fanboys, but as it stands, they're just stuck in the past thinking that the iSheep will just carry on bleating and continue buying.

Times have changed, and it appears Apple haven't.

FINALLY a good Samsung Galaxy S4 viral! (though credit goes to Swisscom)

If you have the *privilege* (make up your own mind on that) to real my blog regularly, then you'll know that I'm not the biggest fan of how Samsung have marketed the S4. From terrible covers of Gangnam style - to appallingly bad teaser videos; Samsung could have done much better in launching the Galaxy S4.


However, they seemed to have learnt their lesson (or at least Swisscom have learnt for them) and taken some tips from Coca-Cola by creating a neat viral ad on YouTube. Titled "All eyes on the S4", the ad highlights the S4's eye-tracking capabilities, whilst adding in entertaining stunts along the way. It's worth a watch:

Firefox OS is finally a real thing - but faces a limited road ahead

I'll be honest, when I heard Mozilla were bringing out an OS and even flagship phones to partner Firefox, I didn't take it particularly seriously. To be honest, I still don't.

Firefox is a popular OS, it's not on the same level as Chrome.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

As you can see from recent stats, Chrome is dominating the market share and thus justifies a Chrome OS. Has Firefox reached this point? No. But still, after releasing their initial prototypes for public consumption, they've now taken the next step.

Mozilla publicly released phones running its new Firefox OS in Spain on Monday.

The ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire are very basic phones with 3.5", 320x480px screens (1/4 pixel density of the Galaxy S4). They both have 3.2mp cameras and 1GHz processors backed up with 256mb RAM. (Told you they were basic).
     At least the price reflects that: Telefonica will sell the ZTE Open in Spain starting July 2 for 69 euros. Mozilla, as a nonprofit company, is trying to shake up the typical closed app ecosystems by using open Web standards which it will appeal to Web developers who can start creating HTML 5 apps for the phones.

Mozilla holding a reasonable share in the European or American smartphone market is unthinkable. They would be focusing upon the lower price range, but by doing so they would be running head-first at Android and the specs simply do not match. Not only that, if the rumoured cheaper iPhone is on the cards they'll be running at that as well. Furthermore, with the contract market continuing to grow in Europe and the US, people are willing to pay a bit more per month for the flagships like the S4 or HTC One. So for those reasons, Mozilla are being realistic and are focusing on markets that are still dominated by feature phones, and in this respect are challenging the remaining Nokia and BlackBerry strongholds - whilst also going toe to toe with Windows Phone's targets. Initial locations are reported to be Spain, Poland, Colombia, Venezuela and eventually Brazil but with this you can see Mozilla's ambitions are limited. I just don't see any handset success in these markets translating into the major global smartphone markets.

As a geek, and a fan of Firefox, I love the idea of a Mozilla phone, but that is my heart talking. My head would steer me well clear and I worry that the majority of consumers will agree, even in the developing markets.

What do you think? Would you consider buying Mozilla? Disagree about the phones uptake? I'd love to hear from you.

REPORT: Samsung S4 sales to top 80m in 2013

Reports are suggesting that Samsung are heading towards an incredible sales total for 2013. On the Galaxy S4 alone reports are indicating that sales could top the 80m mark - an absolutely extraordinary figure. This has been proposed by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue.

“Galaxy S4 demand in the first month of availability has been incrementally better than our estimate of 10M units,” Sue wrote. “In comparison, the S-III took nearly 2 months (50 days) to achieve the 10M units mark. Our broad-based channel checks at U.S. stores indicate that demand for the 16G S-4 devices remains strong with 32G Black devices mostly sold-out and 32G White devices yet to make it to the stores. At this pace, the GS4 is likely to cross 20M shipments in 2Q13, potentially reaching 80M S4 unit shipments in CY13.”

Where exactly this market is appearing from is unclear but with sales of other Android devices remaining steady, and Windows Phone devices holding their own, this market could well be iOS, or perhaps a final shift from feature phones.

Samsung seem to be benefiting from pushing some limits on innovation with the S4, something Apple failed to do with the iPhone 5. I said at the time that, whilst some of the S4 features were gimmicky and perhaps a bit unnecessary, consumers would respond positively to Samsung's creativity with features. Whilst I didn't like the lack of aesthetic change, it appears that they've still hit the mark.

Remember that the 80m sales are S4 only, this doesn't include the continuing sales of the S3, the Note devices or indeed the likes of the Ace.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung can indeed shift 80m devices in 2013. If they can, there will be absolutely no doubt about the dominant manufacturer in the smartphone market.

The most cringe-worthy marketing gimmick ever? You have been warned...

Samsung have had a few fails when it comes to marketing the S4. When you thought 'Jeremy' delivering the Unpacked box was bad, Samsung have topped it - or perhaps it's dropped it...

*Spot the sarcasm*
Creatively renaming 'Gangnam Style' (which has absolutely not been overused...) 'Samsung Style' it appears that Samsung have gone and attempted to create their very own Bollywood top 40 hit.

Keep your ears open for "*****"

Some have suggested that this could be deliberately bad, just to generate a media storm but surely, surely, Samsung are better than that. They have a good product - just back it up with effective, intelligent marketing and not gimmicks.

Samsung Galaxy S4: Everything you need to know

After much anticipation, mystery and terrible teasers, Samsung finally launched the Galaxy S4 on Thursday at a press event in Times Sq. The next in the series of hugely successful Galaxy devices had a lot to live up to after the superb SII, and impressive SIII. So, how much on an improvement is it?

Well firstly, let’s be shallow – how does it look?

Nope, that’s not the S3, that’s the S4. I know, similar right? That’s a major gripe for me. One of my reasons for disliking the iPhone is a lack of adventure with design. Now, of course there is rightly an element of “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” but there is just no external difference which I find disappointing. Perhaps I am being too purist with that opinion but I wasn’t a big fan of the S3 design, and I am not a big fan of the S4 either. When I look at the HTC One, my jaw slowly drops. It is a stunning phone. I just don’t get that feeling with the S4 and that could well be because of the plastic exterior. Whilst I understand the idea behind cost cutting, I just don’t know if it’s necessary when the S4 is hardly going cheap.
     Samsung have clearly considered the success of the Galaxy Note devices and see a real market for the larger devices. For that reason they have given the S4 a 5” screen. We are sure to see a ‘mini’ version in the near future and hopefully this will be around the 4.3-4.5” territory which I believe to be ideal for a mobile phone. This screen delivers an extraordinary 440ppi, better than any phone on the market and the result looks spectacular.

Not a great aesthetic result but Samsung have pulled out all the stops with what appears under the bonnet. The 1.6GHz processor, supported by 2GB RAM is nothing spectacular but the Exynos 5 Octa chip has seen great results so far. The battery is better than the S3 at 2600mAh and the storage comes in 16/32/64 GB options. Also, THANK YOU SAMSUNG for keeping with the removable storage. A micro SD can be added with up to 64 GB of further space. In an era that this is becoming increasingly ‘uncool’, I’m delighted to see Samsung retain this feature as I miss having the option on my HTC One X.

The new

Where Samsung really have impressed me is there intention to go the extra mile with new features and software. It's fair to say that not all of these will be practical/useful but it shows that Samsung is trying something new, not simply rehashing and improving the old stuff. Kudos for that.

The S4 camera is testament to this. At 13MP, it's challenging the very top of the smartphone camera market. It also places plenty of pressure on the competition: HTC One's 4 Ultra Pixel camera and the iPhone 5's 8MP camera. That’s impressive, but Samsung have been innovative with new features on the camera:

Dual shot
The Galaxy S4 is the first phone to enable both front and rear facing cameras to be used at the same time. This allows the user to place themselves in the photo. We're yet to see how practical and popular this is but it's a nice option. The dual images can be edited and arranged in a split screen or 'picture in picture' style.

Drama shot
Drama shot snaps 100 images in 4 seconds and then stitches them into one. That's pretty much it, but its a cool end product:

Sound Shot
Samsung have included a neat little feature that allows you to add audio to your image. This sounds a bit strange but it will allow you to take a note about a photo, or maybe some noise to capture the atmosphere. At a football game for example.

Other features to the phone:

Smart pause
Samsung have developed their eye-tracking software on the S4 and this starts with smart pause, where videos will stop when the user looks away from the screen.

Smart scroll
With rumours flying about eye-tracking based scrolling, Samsung have kept it a bit more simple and included tilt screen guidance. Tilting left, right, up, down etc will result in the screen scrolling in that direction.

Airview
Samsung have taken a feature from the Galaxy Note and removed the S-Pen's involvement with it. If you hover a finger over the screen then you can preview the item. This might be the first line of a text or email. It could also be a larger shot of a gallery image, or more details about a contact.

Air gesture
This rather peculiar addition allows you to do the same actions, just without touching your phone. You can answer your phone with a swipe for example. Nice technology but utterly pointless.

Group play
One really nice feature - from both a technology, and marketing point of view is the strides Samsung have made in group uses of the S4. Samsung have made it possible for 8 people to game against eachother on their S4s. Not only this but 8 S4s can be connected to act as several speakers, playing the same music.

TV Remote
Suddenly the most popular mobile accessory after years of quite obvious use for it. Samsung have joined HTC by including a TV remote in the S4. Similar to the HTC One, this allows access to TV guides, channel changing, volume etc. The advantage Samsung have is that there should be a nice link-up with the Samsung TVs - HTC don't have that benefit.

Here's Samsung's official video - for once, this is pretty decent:

What do you think of the S4? Is it a worthy successor to the S3? How does it stack up against the HTC One?
All thoughts, debates welcome.

Watch the Samsung S4 launch live here

Samsung are streaming their launch event from Times Square. All kicks off at 7pm EST (11pm GMT). If it's all a bit late for you (or you're happy catching up after the waffle) then I'll be posting an overview soon. If you fancy staying up and seeing what Samsung have got to offer though - check it out below: