I don’t mean that literally, but I had to come up with a brief title that sums up the post, and it is close enough. Let me explain.
The latest rumor says that the iPhone 5 will be out in stores in October, which sounds reasonable. Spec-wise, I’d guess that it will be very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S2, i.e. with a 1.2-ish Ghz dual-core CPU and 1 GB of RAM (the screen will likely be smaller – whether that is a pro or a con is entirely subjective of course). Now those specs, in themselves, are obviously very good and it would make the iPhone 5 compete directly with the SG2.
However, the SG2 will already have been out for over 4 months by the time the iPhone 5 is released, and though I am certain the SG2 will be able to hold its own against the iPhone 5, it really won’t be the new iPhone’s real competitor. The real competition will be the (Samsung?) Nexus Prime, which is rumored to be out before Christmas – maybe even by November – and which, presumably, will have a Super AMOLED HD display and a 1.5 Ghz dual-core CPU. That will be the iPhone 5′s competition almost from day 1, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the iPhone 5 is “outspecced” by the Nexus Prime. And if you add to that that quad-core CPUs are just around corner (in the shape of the rumored Samsung Galaxy S3), and that the next iPhone won’t be out by the summer of 2012 at the earliest, I think there is a real possibility that the iPhone 5 specs will fall short throughout its lifetime when compared to the competition, and might provoke a reaction that goes little beyond a mere “Meh.”.
