As the world’s most valuable company, Apple is getting ready to unveil its next version of the most popular smartphone, the iPhone 5, other companies too are trying to get their devices out in time to offer some stiff competition. This week, we have already seen announcements from Nokia and Motorola showing off their premium devices and there is also the next version of the Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon in line. It appears that Apple’s competition is trying everything possible to get ahead in the game and hope that an earlier release will mean larger sales later on.
Nokia and Microsoft have jointly launched the new Lumia 920 which runs the Windows Phone 8 platform by Microsoft and the software giant is hoping to increase interest and awareness in the OS. While Samsung also released some Windows Phone 8 devices, the Nokia ones were in the limelight as the Finnish manufacturer is Microsoft’s biggest partner in the industry. Meanwhile, Motorola released its first devices after being taken over by Google. The company extended the Razr line of phones. It has retained the Razr branding since the clamshell phone it released in 2004 became a huge hit.
With these phones in the market, there does appear to be some resistance to Apple which usually sees sales well beyond expectations when it releases a new device. The new iPhone is expected to feature significant modifications including a larger screen and 4G and NFC capabilities. However, there is a chance that the phone is going to be released into an unhealthy legal environment with patent battles lining up against it. Apple is going to host its event on the 12th of September in San Francisco and though it hasn’t revealed anything the invitation has a hint of a 5 on it, which could mean that the iPhone 5 is one its way.
In addition to the new iPhone, the California giant is also expected to release a smaller iPad soon. The iPad is the world’s most popular tablet and it takes up around 75% of the global market. A smaller iPad would be competing with the likes of the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 which have become very popular recently. Also, since Apple’s iPad will be facing the Microsoft Surface soon, it won’t hurt to have a smaller iPad in the pipeline.
