From an investment perspective, here are the good, the bad and the ugly of Wednesday’s iPhone 5 launch.
The good
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the iPhone 5 is the most beautiful product that Apple (AAPL) has ever launched. The iPhone 5 is said to be finely crafted, like a piece of expensive jewelry. The phone is covered in glass and aluminum with tolerances in microns.
It appears that Apple is keeping its edge in look and feel. Its chief competitor — the Google (GOOG) Android-based Samsung Galaxy SIII — looks cheap by comparison.
Apple increases its lead over competing devices in terms of hardware and software integration. There is tighter integration with Facebook (FB). Siri can make reservations to OpenTable (OPEN) and get reviews from Yelp (YELP).
The iPhone 5 runs on high-speed LTE networks from Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), and Sprint (S).
The bad
In terms of hardware specifications, Apple is simply catching up. There isn’t much that tops competitors. The screen is 4 inches, 1136 x 640. The Samsung Galaxy screen is 4.8 inches, 1280 x 720. The new dual core A6 processor seems to be on par with processors in competing phones.
The iPhone 5 doesn’t have near field communications like phones from its competitors. The battery isn’t any better than competing phones.
The ugly
Stocks move up when the news is better than expectations. The iPhone 5 launch came up short in that regard. Nothing surpassed expectations.
When the iPhone 4S was launched, the virtual assistance Siri was a surprise. Even though Siri was marked beta and didn’t work well, it captured the fancy of masses….Read more at MarketWatch
