Consumer Reports, the magazine, which had harshly
criticized one of the earlier iPhones, has stated that the latest offering from
Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) is currently one of the best in recent times, in spite
of the errors in the mapping tool. The screen size, sleek and light body,
super-fast wireless speeds, upgraded Siri voice-recognition, and camera of
iPhone5 are the USP’s of the smartphone.
The same magazine had openly picked a fight with
Apple a couple of years back when the iPhone 4 was launched. Due to a glitch in
the design of its antenna, the magazine disagreed to recommend the smartphone
to customers. If held in a particular position, the flaw would cause calls to
be dropped automatically. Steve Jobs himself held a press conference to issue a
public apology and offered to take care of the problem.
History repeated itself, because Apple CEO Tim
Cook had to post a letter on the company website to apologize for their flawed
mapping tool that continuously gives inaccurate directions and fails to locate
landmarks properly. Cook has reassured users that they are working hard to
eliminate the flaws and improve accuracy. But Consumer Reports is on Apple’s
side this time. It has said that the mapping tool in iPhone 5 in spite of flaws
is more or less up to standard and does not affect the overall performance of
the phone.
Apple’s new mapping software has replaced Google
Maps, which was incorporated into the iPhones ever since its debut in 2007. The
transition highlights Apple’s competition with Google, whose Android operating
system powers the devices of Apple’s arch-rival Samsung, and other manufacturers
of smartphones. The smartphone market is valued at $219.1 billion according to
Bloomberg Industries, and Apple having sold 5 million iPhone 5 units in only 3
weeks, is fighting for supremacy.
For those of you who do not have a subscription to Consumer Reports, you should know that they still ranked the (nearly half-year older) Samsung Galaxy SIII higher than the iPhone5.
ReplyDeleteAlso, although they praised improvements in Siri, the camera and bigger size, they still added a whole bunch of complaints and issues that have plagued iPhones from the onset, as well as new ones.
This article fails to mention that. mapping is not the only (or even biggest) issue.
LOL so true!
DeleteWhat's worse, is it's only scored one point higher than the Galaxy SII
Well, I am not 100% certain why, but I tried twice to post a rebuttal to your negative take on the iPhone, and 4 hours later it is still not posted. Basically I mentioned another well-known, well respected website (which apparently is against the rules) that gave iPhone their highest rating for any smart phone ever before. They called it the best smart phone ever made.
DeleteIf any phone is "plagued" with problems it certainly wont be an iPhone. Anyone who has ever used an iPhone will tell you that. If anything Android phones-like the S3- are the ones with problems. Given your undue zeal, I can only assume you are a fan boy looking to justify his misplaced affection for Android by slaming the iPhone.
You say that maps is not their only problem, and “not even the biggest”. Let’s be clear. That was what YOU said, not Consumer Reports. The truth is that Maps IS their ONLY significant problem, but you know, and I know, and we all know that it’s just a matter of time before crowd sourced corrections from 300 million iPhone and iPad users make it as good and inevitably better than any map out there.
BTW, I currently have the Galaxy S 3. The screen is bigger, but certainly not as vivid, or accurate as even my old iPhone 4. Try this: Download a few sci-fi movie trailers and compare the playback of GS3 and iPhone 4, 4S,or 5 side by side. I have done this with my GS3 and my iPhone “4″ with both set to full brightness. The GS3 loses way too much of the video details in darkness. And it’s not even a matter of sharpness. The GS3 just does not let you see parts of the video because it’s too dark, or too washed out. I noticed this on my GS3 long before I did the side-by side, and then I pulled out the iPhone 4 to confirm. Whenever the video requires a larger color spectrum, you can see massively more on even older iPhones. I deserve to have the best screen possible. This is one reason I will be buying the iPhone 5 and trading in my GS3, but certainly not the only (or biggest) reason.