iPhone 5 makes older accessories obsolete

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21st of September is the day you’ll be able to get your hands on the new iPhone 5, and doubtless millions of people around the world will be rushing to upgrade their older iPhones or to purchase one for the first time.

The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, faster with a bigger screen, better processor, 4G network (good luck getting that in the UK for a while but if you want to be first buy from Orange or T-Mobile ready to switch to Everything Anywhere). What it’s not is revolutionary though, but rather builds on previous models with tweaks and improvements.

There’s a glass front with the back and sides pressed from a single piece of aluminium. The glass back of the device has gone leaving one less thing to break, although sods law says that nine times out of ten it’s the front you’ll shatter when you careless drop your iPhone.

Is there NFC to enable mobile wallets on the new iPhone 5? A resounding “No” is the answer, which has to be a blow for Google Wallet who are struggling to grow. Why stick NFC on today’s iPhone when the technology is not going to take off within the next 12 months by which time Apple (somewhat arrogantly but probably correctly) say there’ll be yet another iPhone out and you’ll be buying a replacement anyway.

If you want to buy the new iPhone 5 it’ll cost you £529 (16GB), £599 (32GB) and £699 (64GB) or of course if you’re like many users who are on contract you’ll be able to pick one up for free when your contract is due for renewal.

It’ll be interesting to see how sales of the new iPhone go – there’s more competition than ever this year with the Samsung Galaxy III already out and some 20 million sold. The chances are high however that the majority of iPhone users won’t consider anything other than the iPhone 5 next time they replace their handset.

There’s a price to pay for the cute new handset though, you’ll need a nano-SIM (smaller than a micro-SIM) and there’s a new smaller “Lightning” connector so none of your docks, car chargers, accessories or even your headsets will work. Get ready to replace the whole lot (and if you’re an accessories dealer hopefully you’re already geared up to dump your existing iPhone accessories, including all those speaker docks, at knockdown prices as everyone rushes to switch to the new versions).

2 Responses

  1. I have heard that Apple will sell a Lightning to micro USB adaptor in its European stores. At a cost of £15 / €19.

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