As was the case with the iPhone 4S last year, many industry critics and blogs (not this one) said the iPhone 5 announcement was a bore or a let down and yet, just last night, after only an hour of pre-orders (12:01 am PST or 3am EST), Apple sold out its first wave of iPhone 5′s. Any orders placed now will ship about 2 weeks after the launch of the device on the 21st of September, a date that could slip as more and more pre-orders come in throughout the week.
For those who considered the event boring or lackluster, they’re the same people that have been following this phone’s leak since April of this year. The device was not disappointing at all, it was merely the fact that the “shock and awe” effect of typical Apple events was taken from many industry experts and bloggers. The general public however, got their first taste of the new device yesterday, watching their local news, seeing it on the main page of Yahoo or Bing, setting the device’s interest on fire. If anything, this once again proves just how little the tech blogosphere matters, there are tons of people on the Verge’s forums and Engadgets “hands-on” post trashing it and saying they’ll never buy one…(typically Apple haters) but guess what? For the most part, those type of people are in the minority, they are people who clamber for constant tech news all day long and go from site to site for more information, reading the same story written 10 different ways, they equate to about 1% of the market.
While I’m certainly enjoying my Galaxy S III on Verizon’s ultra-fast 4G LTE, I’m also looking forward to the new iPhone 5 as well. I thoroughly enjoy using multiple devices, hence why I also started a Windows Phone site. There is one thing that I believe Android fans, not all of them, but the ones that simply loathe Apple needs to understand, not everyone wants a device that offers what Android does, it’s not just about features, for many, it’s about easy of use, app selection, beauty of the device and the amount accessories for their device. For some, my wife included, Android can be too difficult and confusing to use and this is why Apple doesn’t drastically change iOS. The over 400 million iOS owners are comfortable with it and it works.
Apple’s devices sell, not because people are “iSheep,” but because they enjoy the OS, to them it’s simple, fast, easy to use, easy on the eyes and offers an unprecedented app selection, both on the iPhone and iPad. The fact that the phone’s design is beyond anything their competitors are doing, does hurt either. Without naming names, I noticed on Twitter this morning that quite a few “Android” users purchased the new iPhone 5… this are people in the industry, not just readers…to me, that says something.