Was The iPhone 5 Rushed to market? Why?

Ever since the launch of the iPhone 4S, Apple has applied the pressure to themselves. Prior to that, Apple could do no wrong, they exceeded expectations, yard sticks, space exploration expeditions, so on and so forth with ease. But the iPhone 4S was a blow to many, they expected a brand new design and something completely mind blowing, it was as if they had never seen the 3GS, or perhaps they just never paid attention.

Hard feelings aside, it was time to right that wrong, it was to to lock back in the long time fans who had a bit of a bad taste in their mouth, all the while furthering the gap between them and the rest of the industry. Fail. Apple failed to do this. This is now the second time that nasty feeling finds itself lingering in the air. What the hell is going on with Apple? The iPhone 5 is nothing more than an iPhone 4S 2nd Edition, not cool! What makes it so dangerous this time around, is Nokia! Aside from the obvious Android competition, now Nokia and Microsoft are beating down the doors to Helms Deep. They could not have afforded the madness that just transpired.

Disappointment aside, the question still remains, was the iPhone 5 rushed? Well, lets take a look at the problems surrounding the 5.

Hardware blemishes: The iPhone 5 is still a very attractive phone, it holds it own by all means, but that beauty came at a cost. Its largely aluminum design has been subject to wear and tear right out of the box, only, there was no wear and tear, these were brand new phones. It started out as a question on Apple support forums, then ended up on every technology blog in the world, the iPhone 5 were less than perfect before consumers even got them out of the box!

Wifi/Data issues: This was a two part complaint. More than a few users reported having issues connecting to their home Wifi. The reports stated, even though the iPhone 5 obtained an IP, it was still unable to access the internet. The second part to this was the carrier data leak issue while connected to Wifi. The iPhone is supposed to be intelligent enough to allow the Wifi connection to take over. In some cases, this was not happening, causing high data charges for some. Ouch!

iOS Maps: Apple made a decision to part ways with the famed (and rightfully so) Google Maps app, they ushered in their own rendition of GMaps called, well… Maps. For those of us who had the Dev preview to iOS 6 for a few months, iOS Maps sucking was not a surprise, especially after trying to use it in a real world situation. I chocked it up to an early build and fully expected Apple to get it right on release. Well, they released it and it still wasn’t right. In all fairness, it isn’t exactly horrible, but the bar has been set sky high by Google; anything but perfect will be a problem. The media took this and ran like hell with it resulting in Apple’s Tim Cook sending out a public apology and recommending alternatives. Alternatives that even included Microsoft’s Bing, ouch!

Camera purple tint: Users started to complain over at Apple’s Support Forums for a purple tint in pictures. It really started as a one off situation, but as everyone started paying attention, there was indeed an issue. This was nothing a software patch couldn’t fix, it didn’t have to be that big of a deal, what made it a huge deal was Apple’s response to it all. It was the old “you’re holding it wrong” ploy they imposed on consumers back when the iPhone 4 had antenna problems.

Dear {redacted},

Our engineering team just gave me this information and we recommend that you angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures. The purple flare in the image provided is considered normal behavior for iPhone 5′s camera. If you wish to reach me regarding this case number *********, please contact me at 1-877-***-**** ext. *******. I currently work {redacted}. If you reach my voicemail, please leave your name, phone number, case number and the best time to reach you. Email is ***********@apple.com.

Sincerely,
{redacted}
AppleCare Support

Here goes Apple calling people idiots again, ouch!

We have never seen this in ANY mobile device release, let alone an Apple release. Certainly all devices are launched with their issues, you can almost always find one major flow that could potentially hurt the image of the product. But to have four of them? That is a record, a record no one should be proud off. The alarm part is the fact that its coming from Apple. A company who built their empire from the ground up on quality assurance. Its almost as if they didn’t care, its almost as if they forgot what Steve Jobs taught them, “when its ready, its ready.”

Clearly the iPhone 5 was rushed, had they taken their time most if not all of these issues would have been ironed out. But, that is not the real question. Why was it rushed? I have two theories on this. The first was simply pressure.

To you and I, the word Nokia means very little, but to someone like Apple, that is a not something you simply turn your back on. Microsoft knew exactly what they were dong when they initiated the partnership. Did Apple as well? Did Apple anticipate a leap frog device on the way and decided to beat it to market?

My second theory  has nothing to do with the iPhone 5 being rushed, more pieced together than anything. Even if Apple anticipated something like the Lumia 920 on the horizon, there is no reason to believe they couldn’t have matched it spec for spec, they didn’t even do that. Could it be, Apple was held up by some truly special? Something Magical? A piece of innovation so great, it was still not ready to be displayed? This might actually make sense. They had to release a device this season, but they couldn’t release a iPhone 4S, it had to be something different. Could it be they just conjured up what ever they had laying around and presented it? If so, this would explain the lack of innovation in design this time around. After all, I would hate to think the current iphone 5 is what Steve Jobs spent his last breath doing.

When it is all said and done, I think there is a combination of things going on here. Apple is struggling to operate as a tight ship without Steve Jobs, it really is shocking we knew what the iPhone 5 would look like months before its release. I also believe Apple is becoming the big company they never wanted to be. Its no secret, once you’re on the radar in a huge way, things change. Your quality assurance suffers, quantity becomes the focus and more and more details begin to slip through the cracks. The innovation may have leave the Apple building. I often thought most of Apple’s innovation came from that one special man, but pundits were quick to correct me. As of now, Steve’s absence seemed to have impacted the companies ability to innovate on a large scale.

So, was the iPhone 5 rushed to market? Yes! Why? We may never know!