Apple is considered the leader in the smartphone market. In five years, the company has generated more than $150 billion in revenue from the iPhone family of handsets and accessories, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. More than 100 million iPhones have been sold.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company clearly doesn't plan to relinquish its standing anytime soon. The iPhone 5 is touted by many as the most innovative iPhone since the original, offering the first re-design of the product since the "squaring" of the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 marks Apple's first time moving beyond its 3.5-inch touchscreen comfort zone, with the introduction of a lengthened 4-inch screen.
The first member of the iPhone family to divert from 3.5-inch screen, the iPhone 5 boasts a 4-inch Retina display with a resolution of 1,136 x 640 and 326 pixels per square inch. The iPhone 5 also re-introduces the front-to-back manufacturing model that was last seen with the iPhone 3GS. (One wonders if Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer of choice for Apple, had any influence in the change, as front-to-back manufacturing makes for easier assembly.)
Since the introduction of the iPhone by Apple in January of 2007, the handset has been the very definition of "iterative improvement."
The first iPhone, with its multi-touch screen and application-based environment, was considered revolutionary to the smartphone segment. Since that time, there has been five generations of iPhone models, each one improving on the model preceding it. The iPhone 5 is marketed as the most dramatic improvement of any new model, but does it really differ that much from its predecessors?
Click on the photo below to take a look inside the iPhone 5.
The iPhone 5 dissected. Click through the slideshow to see how we got here.
Kind of sad seeing a thing of great design beauty laid out in pieces like that ... but very interesting all the same. I haven't seen the iPhone 5.0 yet in person, but as a user of the iPhone 4 (pre Siri), I think the larger screen would be cool. I recently saw the Samsung Galaxy phone in person and that much larger screen is appealing, but I still contend the phone is not as well designed from an aesthetic standpoint as the iPhone.
On the downside of this new redesign, I've heard a lot of people saying the sleeker footprint is almost too minimalist (feels too slim, somewhat cheap). There are also a lot of complaints about the new adapter design since it means all those extra chargers, accessories, etc. won't work with the new model (unless of course you buy an adapter for your adapter--in true Apple fashion). Despite all of this, I still want one!!
I love tear-downs. It's like being a kid again...peeling it like a banana!
It would be great if something like this showed up in a commercial WHEN (hopefully not IF) consumer electronics become easy to recycle. Many consumers are interested in repairing or even upgrading components on their own.
The size of the battery is pretty crazy. But these phones actually have pretty long battery lives, which becomes increasingly important when you are constantly engaging the device for email/texts/web surfing/apps etc.
It is so funny to look at the iPhone 5 and compare it to cell phone of years ago. I remember my police friend's cell phone was in some kind of bag it was huge. I don't have an iPhone but hear they are nice. Maybe one day I will come into this century.
I went to my IS department to get a new company cell phone to replace a previously issued flip phone that had a malfunctioning screen. In replacement, he handed me circa 1980 brick phone and said that it was a recently turned in and worked fine. I learned at that point that it is important to be nice to the IS employess as they control how you communicate.
Thanks for your comment Nadine. I had the same reaction. I used to enjoy tearing apart just about anything when I was a kid just to understand how it worked. Nice to see that you can be a grown up and do the same thing for a living!
@Tim: I find it interesting that your IT department handed you a corporate issued cell phone at all. Increasingly, companies are finding that employees want a phone of their choice and in particular their own personal phone to use at work. Therefore, instead of an outdated corporate "brick," they're typically issued some sort of reimbursement plan that covers the phone and a portion of their data coverage monthly.
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