iPhone 5S surprises
Oct 20, 2013 By Jean-Louis Gassée Monday Note
"I will withhold judgment on the new iPhone until I have a chance to play customer, buy the product (my better half seems to like the 5C while I pine for a 5S), and use it for about two weeks - the time required to go beyond my first and often wrong impressions".
I wrote those words a little over a month ago. I've now played customer for the requisite two weeks - I got an iPhone 5S on October
3rd - and I'm prepared to report.But first, some context.
iPhone launches always generate controversy, there's always something to complain about: Antennagate for the iPhone 4, the Siri beta for the 4S, the deserved Maps embarrassment last year - with a clean, dignified Tim Cook apology.
(Whether these fracas translate into lost revenue is another matter).
As I sat in the audience during the introduction of the original iPhone, back in January, 2007, I thought the demo was too good, that Steve was (again) having his way with facts. I feared that when the product shipped a few months later, the undistorted reality would break the spell.
We know now that the iPhone that Steve presented on the stage was unfinished, that he trod a careful path through a demo minefield. But the JesusPhone that Apple shipped - unfinished in many ways (no native apps, no cut-and-paste) - was more than a success: It heralded the Smartphone 2.0 era.
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