iPhone 5 and Galaxy S5 - There is something about 5

I have seen lots of reports about the design chief for the Galaxy S5 stepping down.  He isn't stepping down because the S5 was a bad phone.  He is stepping down because the S5 was only an incremental upgrade over the S4.  The S5 had some great upgrades, but none were earth-shattering.  My buddy upgraded from an S4 to the S5, mostly because of the fingerprint scanner.  He was greatly disappointed, though.  From the outside, they are so similar he accidentally brought his S4 home from work, thinking it was his S5.  My wife is going to upgrade from an S2 to the S5.  She considered the S4 which would have been free, but we decided that the IP67 rating of the S5 and the Qi charging (semi-false advertising, but that is a rant for another day) was worth paying a little bit for the S5.

This whole situation reminded me of the iPhone 5 rollout last year.  The S5 is an incremental upgrade similar to how the iPhone 5 was an incremental upgrade.  I wrote about the iPhone 5 upgrade last year.  I will dive deeper into the S5 next time, but for now, I want to compare the "upgrades".

Charging

The iPhone 5 released a new charging connector that was not compatible with older iPhones.  While this new connector was better, it also meant you had to buy all new connectors.  All the old wires were now useless.

The S5 continues to use the standard Micro-USB.  All your old cables still work.  There is talk about the S5 supporting Qi wireless charging (another standard), but it turns out you have to buy an after-market replacement cover from Samsung.  Unofficial qi receivers are available, but they remove the IP67 water resistance.  If you buy the cover (which we are going to do) then you have a more convenient way to charge your phone that supports a standard.

64bit (iPhone 5S)

The iPhone 5S is 64bit.  The S5 is still 32bit.  Right now it isn't that important, but it will become a big deal in the future.  We don't know when in the future it will become important.  While 64bit does increase your performance, so does doubling your cores (S5 has 4 cores).

Size

The iPhone 5 was about 20% lighter and thinner.  That is nice.  It isn't what most people want, though.  Many people like having the bigger screens.  Rumor has it Apple has finally got the memo and the iPhone 6 might have a larger screen.  The S5 on the other hand....didn't change.  It looks identical to the S4.  At least the iPhone 5 changed something.  My buddy wouldn't have made the same mistake with an iPhone 5.

Post-Launch Marketing

As a general rule of thumb, ignore all pre-launch marketing.  That is why we are jumping right to post-launch.  After the iPhone 5 launched, Apple continued to market it as if it was a huge improvement over the iPhone 4S.  They wouldn't acknowledge that it was an incremental upgrade.  Apple portrayed the iPhone 5 as the next big thing (hehe).  Samsung on the other hand realized that the S5 was an incremental upgrade after launch.  That is why the person in charge stepped down.

This is where I think both companies got it wrong.  There shouldn't be anything wrong with an incremental upgrade.  You shouldn't market it as something great, or fire someone for mediocrity.  Most people get upgrades every two years.  They tend to skip a model.  When asking people why they were upgrading to the iPhone 5, the most common response I got was it was time to upgrade...since they were on either the iPhone 3 or the iPhone4.  Apple does have a lot of fan boys that will pay for the yearly upgrade, however.  Samsung has to compete with Apple, so it sticks with the yearly rollout as well.  These companies should acknowledge this. Besides, what else can you really put into the phones?  Apple has some catching up to do (screen size, wireless charging, IP67), but not by much.

The next big thing should come out next year.