Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right

As one of the remembrance of the late Steve Jobs’ 59^th birthday, Tim Cook cited ‘Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right.’ in his Twitter account. Of course, that statement also has a double meaning to get back to those who criticize Apple under his regime hasn’t release any new blockbuster products since iPad in 2010 which Steve Jobs was still running Apple. 

I think this statement actually is more meaningful than the other one ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’ when I read the story of the Galaxy S5 that Samsung released yesterday. That phone, along with the Gear 2, Gear Neo, and Gear Fit, seems to me as ‘half-baked’ products that if they were made by Apple under that statement of ‘Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right’, they just won’t be released! That’s it!

It’s not like that those products are bad, leveraging what works before, i.e. S3, is understood. However, the fact is that they can do better!  I think the new S5 as the flagship phone for Samsung is not even on par with iPhone 5S, let along Apple will have its iPhone 6 coming out in about 7 months. The only better thing about S5 is the dust and water resistant capability that I would like to see Apple to adopt in its future products. Other than that, most other features are more like grimmicks to me. I would not say Apple’s products never have grimmicks, but they are usually tagged with a killer feature and I don’t see S5 has any killer feature. I would suggest people who look down on Apple now should go to buy its stock. Since the biggest criticism of iPhone is its screen size and iPhone 6 will certainly address that, given the lackluster S5 in comparison to iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 will more likely to triumph over Samsung and taking back some market share from Samsung. On top of the higher margin of iPhone among most smartphones, and Apple’s recent purchase of its own stocks in the market, Apple shareholders should have a happy 2015 1Q. That’s my prediction for now.

I think Apple is right to take its time to see how the market receives the Samsung watches and the new generation of smart wearable from Pebbles, Fit bit, etc., before releasing iWatch. Since those companies and products don’t come with the aura of Apple brand, and Apple has done it before that it release market disruptive products that are not necessary new, but an improved version that the market wants. I think iWatch will be another one. Cuz, I think it is not just a new product per se for Apple, but it will be a carrier of another lines of new business, be that in health and fitness, security and identification, games and device control, payment, etc, that branched out of the iOS eco-system, the sky is the limit.

As a side track thought, personally I really like the touch ID feature of iPhone 5S, it makes my life easy. I use it and appreciate it much more than Siri which I rarely use.  Lately, I do think of a scenario that shows the downside of the touch ID. Friends or just people around an drunken iPhone 5S owner can actually access his/her phone easily by simply holding his/her thumbs to unlock his/her iPhone 5S. It is actually less secure than before when a password is needed. So, I guess  it would be better for an iPhone 5S owner to turn off the Touch ID feature before going to drink if he or she doesn’t want to give out whatever on his/her phone to people around him/her in few hours. Cheers!